Guild Wars 2

What I’ve gotten out of this story:

-Player has a main warrior: hit things until they die
-Player also has a guardian, but plays it differently than the meta
-On molten duo, player is fine with dodges, can’t do stack-and-whack DPS meta
-This fractal pug, supposedly bad, wanted DPS meta, expected guard with reflect/etc. to handle it.
-OP doesn’t do it. Deaths until /kick
-Everyone jumps on OP and accuses of lying/being a bad/L2P. Meta = only way to play!

I find it interesting when puggers, jumping into random games of hugely different players that never have nor will play together again, demand everyone come in predetermined builds and do predetermined strats, and will kick and tell anyone if they don’t like these predetermined ways that it is they who should go to private groups that do things differently.

The “meta” isn’t the only way. This will come as a shock to some people, but these efficient builds and strats weren’t figured out in PUGs, they came from private groups that wanted to do things the best ways possible. All randoms have done is adopt those strats, and it’s hilarious when they read guides, grind their gear and then join random groups, force others with gear checks and threats of kicks if they don’t get these efficient runs they saw on Youtube.

Algreg.3629:

we are just hearing one side of the story, and the only thing relevant there is how you “can play since beta” and still be a rather bad player without much insight into the game.

How the Blue Meanie is that relevant, let alone “the only thing relevant”? PUGs do not teach someone how to be a good player, or even teach anything. The vast majority are dead quiet players on auto-pilot, with an occasional “stack” thrown into chat for people sleeping. Only way to get this insight is to learn it from others, and I sure as heck wouldn’t blame OP for avoiding the forums for that, just looking through this thread.

Male that plays mostly female characters; they just look nicer. I dislike how bad and ridiculous most male avatars look (especially with armor), and it’s difficult for me to create one that I’m happy with. For some reason this is only a problem with human-like races.

Years of gaming in female avatars, I almost never encounter creeps/clingy guys. Real female friends do, and sometimes it’s so random that it bothers me I don’t get it more. Ok, I like to troll them, but still, I feel like I should lead a class on how to repel creeps by doing absolutely nothing.

If you play an animal or any non-human creature, especially if you role-play, but are human in real life, then you are lying to people. I also look at human characters and hate when they’re obviously cats behind the keyboard. I can never have a relationship with a cat, and it’s really deceiving to others in a fantasy game.

I’ve bought Arah runs, don’t know how to do explorable and don’t think it’s a big deal. This is normal if you played GW1, and devs have always accepted selling.

I don’t create LFG because I’m accustomed to that person having to lead and coordinate the run, and I’ll feel anxiety if no one joins after ten seconds. I’ll doubt I know what I’m doing and wait for a group to start filling. I wish there was a matchmaking system.

Tsuki Hitotsu.2097:

So, this just happened!

http://i.imgur.com/KEDoGcj.jpg

I’m red, grey was the last one remaining and white were the ones who just left!

LFG’s for gear check on guard, gets a perfect full zerk one and then they instantly all leave. Either I’m too perfect for their LFG, or I have some enemies I never heard about XD

I remember a time in gaming when everyone was relieved to get that last needed class in the group.

But really, gear-checking tells me how I can expect to be treated in a pug; instant ignore for me

Celtic Lady.3729:

Aerlen.5326:

Oh and the whining about PvErs there for map completion not helping the server and could they please leave so real WvWers could get in.

lol Yeah, I have to admit that people whining about players coming there for map completion is really lame. Duh, of course people are going to go there for map completion when it’s a requirement. Makes about as much sense as people whining about uplevels.

If there’s no queue on the map, then it is lame, but anyone doing exploration with a queue up is being inconsiderate unless, in what has to be extremely rare, that window is the only time they can be online.

Uplevels: similar argument. If you’re an uplevel on tag during peak hours with a queue up, you’re really hurting your server. I’ll qualify this again as an almost pure PvE player that has spent time with serious WvW players: PvE players are really impatient and selfish, wanting their stuff accessible and on-demand. That is not how WvW works, and to ignore what’s going on there with a “get mine” attitude is really rude. Respect works both ways.

insanemaniac.2456:

OrianZeta.1537:

Doesn’t make sense that people wouldn’t want Aquatic because not enough AR, when (in my experience) most groups roll Swamp and pull Mossman. Swamp is just short and simple.

yes it does. jellyfish attacks back.

40 and 50 instabilities gives you agony regardless, no?

Andraus.3874:

It’s actually called swamp. And the time it takes to roll it is significantly less than doing harpy, ascalon, and possibly the same amount Of time as underwater tho a lot of people don’t like underwater or don’t have the AR for it.

[/snip]

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion but as a fractal vet dealing with people who don’t want to bother to make the run at least a little shorter really isn’t worth the effort.

Doesn’t make sense that people wouldn’t want Aquatic because not enough AR, when (in my experience) most groups roll Swamp and pull Mossman. Swamp is just short and simple.

As for those who “don’t bother” to make runs faster, first you have to learn faster/smarter ways. Until something comes along and shows it, one doesn’t have a reason to read up and change builds, if it’s working.

Just as a general rule, when you pug you give up a lot of argument about how other people play. You chose to roll the dice; it’s silly to get twisted up about not seeing speed-strats from randoms.

I pug because I have to, but I see three types: the good, the bad, the ugly. The good and bad are good people of different skill levels, and the ugly are people that suck no matter their skill, it’s their attitudes. Not directed at anyone here, of course.

Scormus.5417:

Bristingr.5034:

Why Anet? What’s the point of it being called WORLD completion, if they don’t even have to explore the entire world of the game anymore?

Because not everyone wants to play PvP content, and should not be forced to do so?

As an almost pure PvE player, people need to stop with this mentality that legendaries (or any rewards) should start and end with PvE, and that annoying little requirements like this WvW exploration need to go. Having done my own WC long ago, I understand the difficulties for some servers, but it doesn’t justify a self-centered attitude.

I believe PvE is “the game”, but the way some people talk about rewards it’s obvious they don’t care what happens to the other game modes or that those players are constantly forced into their world, so long as they don’t have to set foot into PvP.

What happened to WvW being the bridge? Well, if we agree on the different worlds idea, let’s cut the nonsense and officially draw the line: make it possible for WvW/PvP players to craft legendaries exclusively from playing their games. Us PvE players get our grind on, because heck knows that’s what we’re about, and competitive players can cap-and-stake their way to their rewards. Seems fair to me. We’d have our world and they theirs.

It’s funny: I never hear other PvE players ask if it’s fair that competitive players are forced to explore a 96% PvE world and grind dungeons so they can get the same reward we do. That probably never occurs to people who spend 100% of their time avoiding as much of the rest of the game as possible and don’t even realize they are in groups with people who don’t want to PvE but are doing so out of necessity, this forced game play many only rail against when they’re taken out of their element.

As far as this change goes, it’s another nail in the WvW coffin. When the developers talk about players stretching out to explore parts of the world they’ve not seen in the topic of deciding that WvW is not something people should have to see, what conclusions could otherwise be drawn? Along with EotM completely missing the point and rewarding players for not playing WvW, it really boggles my mind that they are expanding on it with a new map while everything they’re doing drives players away from it.

I’m back from a six-month break and for the most part dungeons/fractals are the same. However, I’ve been keeping track of differences in the (apparent) meta by the number of times I get stealth-kicked from groups.

Champ Icebrood in HotW: always a straight-forward melee. Some downs on weak pugs, but just a speed bump. Still is, but apparently the meta is terrified of him now. As warrior, didn’t have my ranged gear and was stuck in combat. Took me by surprise, and I tried to get out of combat to swap. I was down in the boss area, away from combat, waiting to swap. Stealth booted, because P1 is serious business now.

Couple fractals stories. Just today, 38, at swamp. Ranger. Popped in as a 5th, team is waiting at the water fork. Rushing to get there, changing skills. Finally ready. Mossman. Join group in water. “Um, are you taking that signet?” Considering, like most people, I never do water combat, I like speed. Not expecting water fight. A bit dazed,, apparently I took 10 seconds too long to answer. /kick before I could even reply.

Jumped into next group; Mossman again. Honestly, I’ve done a weird glitch where he gets stuck in water (party fights on ground), but never seen it work with party in water (why? just why?). Group decides to run him “legit”. Shockingly, we weren’t a terrible group and so we had no trouble.

On a lighter note, the other day, waiting on a 5th in swamp, needed a guard. Mesmer pops in: “I have reflects like a guard =)” Someone else: “and Aegis?” /kicked. Honestly, I had to give them credit for trying

As interesting as hardcore achievements would be, putting them in the living world (read: the dynamic content that’s supposed to drive the core of the game) is the last place to do this.

And I’m perfectly fine calling BS on 1 hour for story and 1 hour for full achievements. They’re not difficult but by no means can anyone just stumble blindly and get them all in one pass. If you’re an ele and skate through Fort Salma on a blind run, no minions lost and not hit at all by AoE, awesome. Now re-roll necro and see how it feels.

In 99% of cases of difficulty, at least with this game, YMMV. Your easy mode is another person’s “normal” difficulty. Still, we’re in a lot better shape than GW, which even with Hard Mode was total cheese from all the ridiculous team builds + buffs.

Stark.1350:

The only grind in this game is the one you force on yourselves. I can easily make 100+ gold a month simply by playing and cleaning out my bank of all the stuff I’ve collected just by running around. This content is permanent. I.E. it’s not going anywhere. So 5 years down the line, you can keep coming back to it. Burning yourself out by only doing these events over and over again is your own problem. The amber weapons have been out for three days. Three. However, I’ll actually agree with you on one point – I’d prefer they weren’t account bound.

RNG has been in every MMO since the dawn of time. I killed Onyxia in WoW 50+ times and never once saw my Warlock T2 helmet. In a game that does not have a monthly subscription, RNG is a necessary evil – unfortunately it’s how it keeps the gem store going and the game funded for more releases.

Shelve this game all you want, the grass isn’t greener on the other side.

Except this has nothing to do with gems or gold, since this skin is 100% locked behind a RNG and bound to your account. This on top of the additional costs of a unique recipe and material and then the standard cost of an exotic weapon.

There is no entitlement here. There is a legitimate complaint of a really, really annoying mechanism that actually is unnecessary.

PS – typing this as I look for an upgraded instance so I can actually acquire the recipe I need to craft my bow, something that requires not RNG, but an entire map of people working together to achieve (and in case you haven’t looked, T4-5 is rare). There’s no way to tell if they will even exist in 6 months.

Once again, this proves that the greatest challenge Anet can throw at the community has nothing to do with numbers or content.

The greatest challenge is getting players to work together.

The vast majority do not, cannot or will not organize because we have been trained to play this game thinking of ourselves. Log in, load up, enjoy. A lot of content may “require” teams, but most of it you can fly solo. That’s a problem when you push open-world, instance-wide content that demands cooperation.

Coordinate? I’m not a Commander. We need someone or a large guild, because I can’t. No one will listen, anyway, everyone’s in the organized instance. -Everyone else

Regretting my decision to sell off silk I had stowed up from when it was worthless. Working on Light of Dwayna, this problem is obvious. Whose bright idea was it to require 1500 bolts, not scraps, bolts of a common crafting item for a fancy back item with all the ascended materials that were introduced?

How could we find ourselves overloaded with top tier materials (frags, dust, dragonite) yet scrapping everywhere for… scraps. Literally.

This is a problem with all cloth, it seems. I was naive enough to look up cloth types on the TP to see what I could salvage, yeah the train came through a while ago on that one. Sort all armor by value and start on the cheap end, any level and rarity. It’s a loooong way before you see cloth because it’s been ground up for scrap.

Please either slash recipe costs or adjust drop rates. Unlike another poster, I’ve closed out of fractals with 3 scraps, yet always truck loads of ore (can be mined) and near-worthless thick leather.

No offense intended.

1 – The ranger is a beastmaster. It should be improved to play more like one, IMO.
2 – This isn’t Final Fantasy. Ok, there was a paragon in GW1, but there’s a reason it was poor and didn’t carry over.
3 – This isn’t World of Warcraft. Or Final Fantasy (Dark Knight). A profession won’t survive in GW2 by shooting its own foot. Especially in PvP.
4 – More Final Fantasy.
5 – No, that’s similar to norn, and it would weaken their lore. As it is norn should be able to take form for much longer periods.
6 – Can’t build a profession or balance the game around it.
7 – A guardian.
8 – A worse warrior.
9 – Seems pointless. Equally important is there are no professions focused on defense. There’s damage, control and support. Still, you’d be better off with a more powerful ele or more supportive guardian.

Thought you were onto something with #6, for some reason I thought of an unarmed martial artist (“monk”) class. That would actually be interesting, but in as much as it would be brill coming out of Cantha, there’s just as much possibility of getting that profession as there is getting Cantha in this game.

Guardian works well. GS and 1h sword + focus. Work the blinds/aegis/shield; interrupts if you have them. 6 6 0 0 2. Not optimized, I only had a small pile of tickets.

Like said above don’t take squeamish or crowd favorite gambits. Just pay attention and don’t waste your skills. And don’t get fancy with CC, just trait for damage and vulnerability. Quick fight. If there’s no queue you may have to wait on VoC or Retreat.

To be honest thief sounds the simplest.

A lot of this relative enjoyment has to do with ranger bow skills being quite lame. Thief, warrior and even the conjured frost bow are more exciting and useful than a mostly vanilla turret. It’s best not to think of the insult it actually is to make other classes more interesting at range than a ranger.

Awesome, this has been bothering me lately (really, since game release) and I was hoping to find a topic.

I understand it’s useful for (skillful) evades and the AA makes you “stick” to the target, but it’s still frustrating and unwieldy to me since I don’t PvP. I don’t want to stick to mobs! I need to be able to move out of their way.

Either break the skill 1 animations rooting the player or make other actions (movement/skills) interrupt them. Skill 2 and 3 are weak in PvE, but rather than rewrite the whole thing I’d prefer:

*Dual-wield 1h swords (main-hand skills change, like with dual daggers on thief)
and/or
*Dagger main-hand

It’s been my main going back to GW1. The issues are different this time but are present and unique nonetheless. While every profession can stake a claim for a tune-up, rangers are just one of those with the strongest. Of course months of whining and complaining will give a profession a black eye.

Still, the meta will do what metas do and follow trends, and since Spotter/Frost Spirit/melee ranger has made the rounds, I think that black eye has been fading and people are starting to notice that power rangers are actually stout.

Even though I love it as my main, it’s will always be one of those classes where you really don’t want more than one per party due to traits+spirits.

Yargesh.4965:

Create your own groups.

In my PUG experience there’s a low chance ranger-led parties will even fill up.

Not saying OP has a case, but the meta is undeniably stupid, lazy and impatient. I wouldn’t be surprised if that group waited 5-10 minutes longer to get the party they wanted and the 5th they picked up ran conditions.

When cooking was first revealed I was dead against prolific consumables because I though they’d be costly and required. Today I’m actually irritated when people are extremely lazy/cheap and don’t use them. The other day in FotM, the final boss, we had an AFK and everyone was dreading the fight (we had an average PUG). I couldn’t even sell them on using food/potions, and I even put out a BL trader.

Some F&N is OP, that much I agree with, but when it comes to imbalance it’s not even close to sigils+runes.

So, no. Either make them all more accessible or put in some restrictions.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Nope, it just made the combat more shallow. Instead of 11111 dodge 11111 reflect 11111 we now just have 1111 dodge 11111 dodge.

Basically what 90% of people do already.

AC 1/3 are pretty much guaranteed; spider shouldn’t make a difference once people get used to it. P2 — no. Not then, not now. Don’t PUG. The end requires coordination, tactics and cooperation. In other words, it’s a PUG’s worst nightmare. There are way too many different stacking points (no one can agree on them or they don’t know how to LoS), and a lot of people need ego checks thinking our average group can take the boss in one trap (or we do two and wipe within seconds on the first pull).

Overall I haven’t noticed a difference but I don’t run every dungeon. Since I don’t have a group there are some places I won’t go unless I really want something. Then there are places like TA and Arah which I’ve never run for the very reason I have to PUG.

I’d say more than anything the success ratio of a PUG depends on the path, but personally learned don’t count out yourself. I switched to zerk heavies recently after over a year doing the opposite; it’s a world of difference. I’m not great, but I’ve definitely carried a share of groups.

Bread.7516:

It’s funny how GW1 had more than 1000 skills and balancing it was a headache, then chose to dumb-down the amount of skills for GW2 and they still can’t balance them competently.

The issue then was secondary professions and a completely open skill bar; you could do anything if the numbers crunched. Even then, the lack of combat mobility, reflection and using the old school trinity made content challenging and interesting for most of us.

The issue here is most skills/mechanics are either made needless by or more troublesome than playing stack-n-whack with bizarrely sustainable DPS freaks.

I get the sarcasm, but is there really such a difference between 11111 and 11111 after dropping CC/reflect while you reply to IMs?

Jerus.4350:

I just really wish I didn’t block all other fields when running hammer, pretty much my only frustration with guardian =).

IMO, fields are not in a good state. We need to see the active field at any given time during a fight, including its range, and skill bar+skills should dynamically update to show that you’re in a field, and what effect each combo skill will play on the field when you hover over it.

Fields+Finishers should also be included in the tutorial section for new characters.

The nature of PUG: Nobody knows each other (build, experience, skill, etc.), won’t be together for long and could have new groups all day. Random cycling helps create the following:

-Lack of social interaction
-Failure to coordinate play (leadership, decision-making, etc.)
-Aversion to coordinating builds (also, the game lacks a build manager/save template, making people more rigid with their builds).

On players who don’t admit when they’re clueless: psychologically no one wants to be “that person”, so just following/keeping your mouths shut is the “safe” pattern, especially when many pugs advertise EXP.

It also takes up time to explain things, which is embarrassing when the meta wants speed. That much is obvious when people here are complaining about ptv/clerics guardians. Seriously, when you’re bugged by other peoples’ gear because you feel they’re sabotaging the group by not hitting hard enough, is it any surprise they don’t want to admit when they don’t know what to do?

And just a word on warrior banners/signet warriors: groups that rush ahead or don’t help carry banners make it more frustrating to take them. I’m perfectly fine with my own passive buffs or stability, especially if the group is burning down the house, than putting up with that.

Edit: @Silberfisch.3046 – I was exaggerating over the people bugged about several guardian weapons and ptv/clerics gear, it just sounds like people want a damage build with buffs+reflect, nothing more.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

“It is not selfish to live how you want to. It is only selfish when you want other people to live the way you want them to.” -Oscar Wilde.

^Most of this thread.

Judging from these complaints, my guardian (I admit I’m not too experienced) violates just about every rule in the “player” handbook. Terribly sorry I took it to mean “support allies”; what are people like me thinking!?

I don’t mind skipping trash or speedy-damage runs, but the zerk meta is just a lame solution for the lame setups dungeons provide. Can’t blame anyone for taking the path of least resistance.

Fun fact: dungeons+end-game in GW1 were primarily done by speed clears, and not the 15-20 minute runs here, more like <10 minutes. Did I mention they were usually done solo, or if in a group, people split up to do sections alone because they could?

Imagine explorable paths in GW2 completed in a few minutes by an extremely exclusive guardian (or necro) build, and selling it to full parties who would otherwise wipe to the first mob group, and you pretty much have the GW1 meta for dungeons.

It’s nice to actually do content in this game.

Dee Jay.2460:

People play Zerkers because DPS is the only thing that really matters in PvE and, when combined with stacking, the benefits far outweigh the downsides.

It’s a PvE design issue, not a stat-balancing issue.

I agree but stat-balancing is part of PvE design. Of course nerfing around this isn’t the answer, but everyone knows speed runs are driven parties that do enormous amounts of raw damage (even without stacking buffs). The only thing that keeps bosses on their feet are astronomical health bars and invulnerable periods.

Still it’s worth mentioning that there’s no chance of re-designing the entire game to fix the broken foundation that (in PvE) damage is king and it would be far easier to cap power/crit damage and rework conditions so condi builds freaking matter.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Welcome to the cash shop model. If this becomes the standard in MMOs, then I will no longer be playing MMOs. Because I really don’t see how people prefer to be nickel and dimed than just pay a traditional, trivial, sub free and get access to everything in game.

You’re right, it would be so much better if people had no choice but to pay almost $200/year just to access to the game they bought for $60. Putting 100% of content behind an expensive pay wall is far superior to making it 98% free.

It’s like people think sub games mail you everything for free just for paying the sub and don’t realize you can trade gold for gems. By all means, boycott MMOs if you’re kinky for sub games that don’t ask a game company to earn their fee, it just expects people to get addicted and justifying to themselves why they need to keep paying to keep playing.

The “trades” are a trinity of Damage, Control and Support. If you’re not familiar with these concepts: Bringing health bars down, preventing enemies from doing what enemies do and aiding allies.

Each profession should be rated on what they provide in each trade (solo and team play) and how they stack up against others. The jack-of-all-trades will excel in each area.

That said, these professions excel in each area, capable of big damage, shutting down enemies and keeping allies alive:
Warrior
Guardian
Elementalist
Engineer

The remaining professions are by no means “bad”, but generally aren’t as supreme in each trade (mostly support, in my experience). In some aspects, they’re just poor. If you want to play well-rounded professions, stick to the 4 above.

For obvious reasons the vast majority of us are interested in buying gems with gold, but let’s not forget that you can sell gems for gold. It’s worth noting that this was designed as a better proposition than players going to illegal gold sellers.

What people are shocked to find is how much it costs to buy 100 gems with gold (8-8.5g). What many don’t seem to realize is how shockingly little you get for selling 100 gems (at the time of this writing, less than 6g).

Spending real money to earn such a pathetic amount of game currency, with how much gold this game throws at the most casual of players, baffles me. As someone that buys gems with real money, why would I ever do this when I could earn that gold while eating a breakfast burrito?

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

Why do WvW players complain when something from PvE changes their game play? Think those yaks and gates are PvP? Much of the time spent there is playing the “environment”.

Anyway, the problem is always balance, and there is no perfectly fair way to do that with PvP and PvE. What’s more, it’s unlikely a game company can even consistently push content that satisfies both camps; one will always feel neglected or that their game is compromised.

The cycle never gets old, and while I’d agree PvE is overwhelming favored, I take a different approach: the WvW seasons and this EotM do not belong in the LS slot. I realize this is a huge amount of content, but far be it for me to suggest that this stuff is more like the team playing catch-up with a very stale WvW experience. It’s more like putting down PvE to go back and improve something that already needed the attention.

That’s when a lot of people feel bitter, when there’s only so much attention devs can give and they have to pick and choose where to put their time and resources. That sounds fair, but wait a minute, it was them that decided to run a 2-week drill. Did that really pay off?

I’d rather they go back to monthly updates. Flesh out each LS update, improve rewards and invest more, consistent updates into sorely neglected parts of the game. This two-week chapter stuff just doesn’t allow a balanced approach.

Or we could do away with it entirely because, similar to stealth (however to a much greater extent), it’s been a source of cheapness afflicting the game.

-It’s used to cheat JPs.
-It is not fun to cheese giant golems from point to point just to make it across a map safely.
-It is not fun to “sweep” for mesmers after you successfully siege or defend.
-It is not fun to be trolled by a mesmer and end up playing “guard the corpse” at the water gate on Bay because the gate rez remains unfixed.

Portal: Nice idea, too powerful and allows obvious absurdities.

Actual problems/difficulties to come with removing it from the game? That’s where good design would have to righteously replace a cheap mechanic.

I’ll pick an oddly specific point since it’s rare that I find someone hone in on something I have felt for a long time: the BLTP speculative industry (wonderful way to characterize it, I feel).

Basically massive volume trading and a lack of market regulation contribute to an economy run by investment, opportunity and oppressive speculation. I don’t think anyone envisioned the game to have so many currencies yet be bound and cheapened so greatly by the chase for one that rules them all, to the detriment of players who either have no capacity to or simply don’t play the market (and with a giant world to play in, who can blame them for using the market as a resource rather than a stratagem (or more cynically, as unofficial content)?). In sum I feel this mini-industry illustrates one of the biggest problems of the game, something that’s already been discussed to death, but I just wanted to harp on that because that’s such an underrated point.

That out of the way, just an old GW veteran; bit my lip and grabbed GW2 right away. I could write far more than three full-page posts in emptying my mind of the game, what so many of us on that hype train were on the edges of our seats for, then what we hoped for, then what we hoped would change, and now, well, there’s only hope that something will change.

Because it’s until there are significant changes — I’m talking big, banner features we were told like guild halls, player housing and proper build management — that I just don’t see the point anymore. A worn out tire, even if it continues to drive forward, needs traction.

No, it can’t.

But you’d be lying if you said WvW, for example, is an even playing field. The difference between exotics+cheap upgrades+food and full ascended+ideal (expensive) upgrades+top choice of food is actually significant (and that doesn’t consider new or poor players who haven’t even kitted out in full exotics).

Most will probably scoff at that but if you don’t think exotics are a big deal, go ahead and salvage yours and pick up brand new sets. I won’t hold my breath waiting.

Scrub the “relaunch” part, would just make it a big bannered update.
-Two words: Guild. Halls.

-Upgrades to home instance (crafting stations, NPC services, decorations) and your own resources, such as a garden of harvesting nodes, and direct access from anywhere you’re playing the game.

-Allow free, unlimited trait resets from the hero panel in towns and open-world PvE (out of combat). Instances/WvW/sPvP will work by an NPC (with a cooldown) or using the gem item.

-“Half-legendaries”. Basically, none of the visuals but equal both in stat value and the ability to hot-swap attributes. The all-in-one item you’ll never need to replace.

-Highly increased personal story rewards (lots of rares, some exotics and an ascended weapon at the end, among other rewards)

-Overhaul guild content to accommodate smaller guilds so that they don’t need to depend upon large guilds running the same content.

-Strong regulations on trade, severely limiting bulk traders and punishing manipulation, including timed regulations coinciding with upcoming content to limit sudden market volatility.

Looks like there will be a lot of winners who made their money in advance, stuffed their coffers with charged quartz while they could and/or are now going to keep making money if they made an investment.

Meanwhile the average player in need of quartz, especially those who have no personal node, are back out in the cold.

Can someone explain, with substance, why the celestial configuration needs to be such a clustercluck? This resource is absolute nonsense. Just put some nodes in places around the world and inject some lore. There’s already a time gate on refining; Let people actually create their own celestial gear with regularity. It’s not like quartz, alone, is all it takes to make the items, they’re costly just like everything else is.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

People don’t seem to remember how hard it was to get max stats in GW1.

+50 hp rune was unnecessary; they didn’t stack like runes do in GW2. GW1 upgrades were a bit costly but only for new players. Even players with >100g in GW2 will go broke buying top upgrades.

By the end of Prophecies you’ll have max, upgraded armor and a perfect weapon. Gear was statistically peaked at that point. It’s even better in other campaigns with a quick level 20 that has you playing the game rather than chasing levels and new gear for weeks.

Don’t even get me started on the GW2 personal story rewards; the end game reward is a yellow to GW1’s (perfect) green.

Max level/stats in GW1 was normal life. In GW2 it’s a very long, very costly journey to the top, and a giant inventory to hold suitcases of extra gear.

Not even sure why people seem to be talking about the GW1 infusion process. All that’s used for is to not die to Spectral Agony.

spoj.9672:

On a single target and assuming necro is fully buffed just as much as the warrior then it is higher dps than warrior.

While it’s proper to consider party support when comparing them, don’t forget to tie a heavy’s buffs to being more self-sustaining and make mention of their extra armor. Heavies will naturally be a better choice for the support, but their fluid survivability is noteworthy. Necros will inevitably need to fall back into Death Shroud where they lose DPS, healing, access to their skills and minions and spectral effects are removed.

No other class makes such significant, debilitating sacrifices just by using their unique mechanic (which, unless properly traited, is anything but powerful).

Would like to see no-elite tests, and take off racial skills to show more comparable results. It’s interesting to see unlimited potential, though, ranger was pretty respectable.

Toroxus.9256:

I think a lot of people need to play other MMOs to really appreciate how Anet did the Ascended and Exotic gear systems.

Not only have most of us played other MMOs, which make it very difficult for players to get “top tier” stats, a lot of us played the first Guild Wars, in which Anet wasn’t obsessed with number-chasing and made customization simple, open and accessible.

In GW1 you settled for a +29HP upgrade component if you couldn’t afford the perfect +30, and that’s if you couldn’t manage to grab a cheap unique item that came with perfect stats. You also didn’t need to carry duplicates because you didn’t need to choose between a dozen different choices of item nomenclature.

I could go on for hours, but it’s very simple: we had and loved Build Wars. Any other MMO/RPG can offer a costly game of Build Numbers.

froacus.6892:

the stat increases are small. and as always, skill>>>gear

Correct, at least with respect to armor. Weapons and trinkets actually do make a significant difference; hundreds per attribute or a ton of extra crit damage, for example. Trinkets are relatively easy to get, but for casual players ascended is overall prohibitive.

In WvW, exotics will continue to be a disadvantage as more players deck out with ascended pieces + infusions, and that’s without considering the massive costs hardcore players afford into slotting top upgrades and supplying the best nourishment. It adds up to a big advantage over those who can’t match numbers and bonuses.

cranked.3812:

I don’t get it.

First everyone comes on here QQing about time gating celestial gear. Then anet gives everyone as much free charged quartz as you may ever need and we still have QQing about charged quartz.

I think we have just proven that anet can not win no matter what they do.

Or maybe, just maybe a clear heads up that they were going to address the issue in conjunction with ascended armor so people neither needed to farm for months or drop serious gold to get quartz off the market (because they saw no solution coming).

Quite literally those of us outspoken were told by people here to wait for the Bazaar to return or, more colorfully, that it was our fault we didn’t prepare for this obvious pinch we’ve all seen coming since the beginning. Pfft.

No, it’s not that Anet can’t win, it’s the righteous anti-critics always bashing any criticism as poor qq. The reality is there was no reason for quartz to be supply-choked once the Bazaar lifted. If anyone saw this problem coming, it was Anet and they did not communicate their intentions to alleviate the problem.

I’d no immediate need for Celestial (and have since been talked out of it by a very good ele), and I’m cheap so I didn’t hit the market up for ~85s per charged quartz, as some claimed was a perfectly viable way for us complainers to get what we needed. They should have offered their own gold if it was so affordable.

Anyway I feel for those that spent a lot of time/money trying to get their mats and now find it was totally unnecessary/wasteful. What was missing was messaging to the community, something many of us are all too used to by now.

hackks.3687:

Even in a rabid setup, Life Blast will deal 1k damage within 600 units. At most, you’d have to hit the Ele twice to get through Diamond Skin. If you use a Flesh Golem then all you need is one Charge > DS2 > DS1, Diamond Skin should be gone by that point, they should be sitting with at least a bleed or a chill on them as well and you’re set up for a Terror nuke up close with Doom.

There’s so many ways around this by just making minor changes to the same old easy mode face-roll condi build. Just L2P and stop relying on broken builds already. kitten .

I admire your ability to imply with certainty that ele players, with their speed, mobility, healing, regen, CC, condis and condi cleansing (if they do drop below the threshold), don’t actually possess the skill to stop a necro’s expected attacks in the first 5 seconds of a fight.

Personally, my issue isn’t charging DS as invincible, it’s totally sleazy and unskilled. Conditions largely define combat, especially in the first moments which can decide victory or death. This trait and anything like it simply should not exist.

1v1/2v1 situation is manageable, not much to say if you get hit. Though a warrior sniping 1500 range when you’re preoccupied (looked like OP was hitting a camp/tapping a gate?) and jumped, pretty easy to miss a KS.

Still way too many ignorant posts and trolls (“lol try 2 doge”). A “half bunker ele” getting tagged for 15k does seem a bit excessive. “Press X to not die”, especially in WvW, is simply cheap design and a terrible excuse for balance, I don’t care how bad a skill is.

IMO it’s a cheap skill for being able to hit so hard from so far away on a short cooldown that’s built into the class (no skill sacrifices), but if that’s mostly what rifle does well then I’m with letting lame warriors get their rocks off with it; good warriors don’t need this cheap burst and wouldn’t waste their adren on it, they would know how to fight.

I’m fine with “trains” but IMO Queensdale (or any starting area) should not play host to them. If Anet is content to let these zerg trains grind away, the least they could do is keep their starting zones “clean” for brand new and entry-level players.

Also it would be more fun if the trains had to travel to new zones for new elite/champion chaining. Just officially incorporate this mindless farm into lore, such as energy fluctuation or pockets of dark energy disturbing the land and increasing hostile presence.

After a time, long champ respawn timers would kick in on Frostgorge, for example, as the “disturbance” moves to a new zone with new events and champs. Keeps things fresh, moves players throughout the world and clears the trains out of exhausted zones.

It’s difficult to compare because most everything in GW1 relied on managing energy. In that regard, Necromancer was one of the most useful (primary) classes, so long as enemies and corpses were dropping.

If I had to choose a “winner” I strongly favor the GW2 necro, as it is a much more effective MM, AoE and survivable class. There’s also no energy to manage (the cost and cast time of necro skills generally countered its replenishing energy). Hexes were powerful but situational, and mesmer was arguably stronger there. In PvE, heroes ended up replacing them, really.

But if you ask me, at least from around 2007 onward, necros have continued to need improvements.

As I started getting into WvW, ranger wasn’t working for me. Long heard neighboring shouts that necro was in a bad way, but I saw potential and invested time/gear, learned it and followed discussion/updates.

Boy, did I bet on the wrong horse.

My understanding held that necros were the premiere condi pressure/damage class, among other viable builds/mechanics. Yet as I’ve grown with the class it continues that devs feel we do conditions too well.

By itself that’s perplexing (especially given the meta), yet with no practical or substantial changes to improve other areas, reinvigorate skills or lay trait roadmaps that would open doors to new potential, there are only so many conclusions that can be drawn; none of them are encouraging to begin or continue playing this class (unless you’re happy with it and don’t look forward to improvements, then by all means this seems the place to be).

Making WXP account-bound may be shaping up to be some better news of this period: Anet will be giving us WvWers the open door to pick a different profession. I’m not so cynical that I believe it’s being encouraged, but if you actually believe necro is in a better place today than it was last week then maybe you need to be more cynical.

Righteous.4307:

The rewards are… not only underwhelming, but for the health of WvW moving forward I feel that the current reward is inexcusable.

I’ll preface this by stating that I’m closer to the 1% WvW player, spending the vast majority of my time in PvE. I intend to become more active, but I’m by no means an elitist PvPer. However, playing alongside and learning from serious WvW players, I come with a good understanding of what real WvW is about and what is/is not helpful.

PvE-esque rewards at the end of a WvW season was the last thing WvW needed. Increasing these rewards to continue attracting PvE players will be the next last thing it needs.

WvW communities never depended on people enticed by a box after checking off their achievement list.

Righteous.4307:

Rewards in for events in GW2 (and any game) serve a few key functions:

1. Motivate players to partake in an event.
2. Provide adequate time/reward compensation to players who participate.
3. Grant players a feeling of accomplishment.

1. Competitive play is generally self-motivating. You’re not there to farm gold and hear a story.
2. WvW success reaps many rewards: WXP, character XP, karma and loot bags to name some. The core of competitive play is the reward of community, team play and thrill of victory.
3. If you’re more focused on what the trophy looks like over your fireplace rather than what it took to achieve it, then I’m afraid you’re in the wrong game. In fact you should probably avoid competing because that’s someone who doesn’t get it. But I will be more than fair by stating that many season achievements were excessive and need to be toned down.

Righteous.4307:

If no action is taken, when WvW Season 2 rolls around fewer players will be motivated to participate because the reward is not worth the investment of their time.

With any due respect to you, you’re advocating for an ill WvW by giving out better rewards as an incentive for people to stay and play. Realize that you defeat the competitive community when you attract people who were otherwise never interested in the competition until you dangled a carrot big enough for them to chase.

If it were up to me I’d strip out some of these rewards and replace them with items useful to and valuable in WvW play. If you want easy bags, go find Jofast and learn to auto-attack. If you want to be rewarded for competing, it’s simple: play to enjoy yourself and find ways to win.

Honestly find it remarkable that this is coming from a commander. Surely not of the caliber of commanders I’ve had the privilege of following through some intense WvW play, nor the salt of the earth WvW players that make up the backbone of any server. This blow-back is expected but nevertheless resentful attitude. Shame.

As I stated, I’m one of the last people to jump into PvP yet I learned a lot about the philosophy of players. Some people won’t understand it until they play with the right people, and some people will just never understand.

Ambient noise and darker music would help, as well as NPCs that don’t seem so chipper and laced with comedic relief everywhere you go. It’s not a very dark game to begin with.

To be fair I thought this topic was going to be about the environments having too much light (particularly at “night”). This is something I’ve continued to want in all gaming: much darker, ambient night time lighting (as well as weather)! Night should reduce visibility and blacken the skies. Instead I look at my hammer from AC and that’s the biggest indicator that this cloudy time is supposed to be twilight.

As a long-time player of GW 1, I can definitely see a lot of defensive arguments. If anyone is saying there was no grind in GW 1 then I would hold them very close to their arguments and dismiss a lot of “grind” in GW2, for no other reason than you don’t “need” this or that to play and enjoy the game.

The most notable point of contention is the PvE skills (the strength of which is tied to titles). Nowadays you can earn the maximum benefit by mid-rank; this was not always the case. What made it frustrating was that, upon embarking on the new content, your titles (and thus, new skills) were non-existent or very ineffective. That’s not so bad with dwarve skills, but norn and ebon vanguard begged to differ, and you absolutely did need to push into high ranks to get superior benefit, which would be necessary depending on your build.

I’ll note that I’m neither reinforcing chants of death to grind nor shrugging it off. There was some grind in GW, though it is relatively one of the least grindy games I’ve ever played, to the point that any serious discussion about it in video games should refer to GW 1 perhaps as the ideal way to go about it (in that it’s nearly transparent and doesn’t affect most of the game).

But don’t flat-out state that GW 1 contained “zero” grind. If you need to perform tasks to reach the same goal (pushing titles), even if there are different paths to do so, you’re still grinding away to raise a number on a bar.