Guild Wars 2

Cyninja.2954:

Pharazon.3095:

Cyninja.2954:

Pharazon.3095:

Lets lean back a bit and look at the broader picture of the entire game design. A sniper on its own isn’t that much of a problem. I take it most people can agree on that. They telegraph their abilities, and can be avoided if you know what to look for. However, in the world of HoT, being a lone individual doesn’t happen too often. There are always some sort of other monsters lurking around as well.

So recap so far; lone monster not that bad.

So lets move on to how HoT is really designed. The monsters are most of the time not alone. They are accompanied by 2 or 3 others. Now some combinations aren’t that problematic, mender and sniper per example. Other combinations however can be a bit more tricky to handle. And that’s the core problem of most of the enemies in this game, they’re rather balanced alone but in a group they seem to pile up abilities without there being a group logic to what they’re doing, they’re just doing what they would if they were alone and that can be rather devastating. I’m having a very hard time believing anyone saying they’ve cruised through HoT without encountering some group of monsters that totally wrecked them, I believe more a show of that “me Tarzan you Jane” mentality rather than the actual truth.

Are we talking about the same enemys that get rolled over by the player zerg train and even though they might down a player here and there, the vast amount of players simply runs over them? Even event scaling does not prevent this.

Or are we talking about that nasty group of 5 enemys you encountered solo or as a duo and likely bit off more than you could chew?

If it is the first case, I see no problem. Zerg kills all. In fact the enemys might need to get buffed with some anti zerg mechanics.

If it is the second case, it might be due to 1 of 2 reasons:

- better timed evasion needed
- more stability

if enemys are stunlocking you and you didn’t bring something along to prevent this, the fault lies with you not being prepared. yes, it might require changing those utility skills once in a while. That’s what challenging content does.

We’re talking about on your own here, per example in solo scenarios. Thought it was quite obvious.

As for stability; I’m playing as a revenant with Inspiring Reinforcement used on CD. I’m not positive but I think that’s about as stable as you can get, that is until it’s on CD that is.

As I’ve said, the enemies are in most cases fine on their own, but as a group their AI is thrown out the window and doesn’t function properly. That’s when you can end up stun-locked, and there are a couple of places where that’s rather probable.

Take Shiro, use https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Riposting_Shadows when needed or switch into shiro from your main Legendary stance (which will likely be Glint in pve). Wait for cc to hit, press button, problem solved.

If you can’t get out of cc with a rev, you are doing it wrong.

Granted, but beside the point, as there are a whole lot more classes than just Revenant. The point here is that certain combination of monsters have a nasty ability to stun-lock you from actions, combined with dealing heavy damage. If you’re per example knocked down by a mushroom charger in the middle of a field of goo, you’re lucky to survive. Or if you’re stun-locked on top of a sniper line.

There are many variables to take into account and it’s impossible for a human player to keep track of every variable going on and counter act them. Simply because there are no group AI in this game, and thus all enemies act as if they’re on their own, and on their own their abilities are easy to counter, but collectively they can turn a situation into a rather nasty pile of carnage.

Cyninja.2954:

Pharazon.3095:

Lets lean back a bit and look at the broader picture of the entire game design. A sniper on its own isn’t that much of a problem. I take it most people can agree on that. They telegraph their abilities, and can be avoided if you know what to look for. However, in the world of HoT, being a lone individual doesn’t happen too often. There are always some sort of other monsters lurking around as well.

So recap so far; lone monster not that bad.

So lets move on to how HoT is really designed. The monsters are most of the time not alone. They are accompanied by 2 or 3 others. Now some combinations aren’t that problematic, mender and sniper per example. Other combinations however can be a bit more tricky to handle. And that’s the core problem of most of the enemies in this game, they’re rather balanced alone but in a group they seem to pile up abilities without there being a group logic to what they’re doing, they’re just doing what they would if they were alone and that can be rather devastating. I’m having a very hard time believing anyone saying they’ve cruised through HoT without encountering some group of monsters that totally wrecked them, I believe more a show of that “me Tarzan you Jane” mentality rather than the actual truth.

Are we talking about the same enemys that get rolled over by the player zerg train and even though they might down a player here and there, the vast amount of players simply runs over them? Even event scaling does not prevent this.

Or are we talking about that nasty group of 5 enemys you encountered solo or as a duo and likely bit off more than you could chew?

If it is the first case, I see no problem. Zerg kills all. In fact the enemys might need to get buffed with some anti zerg mechanics.

If it is the second case, it might be due to 1 of 2 reasons:

- better timed evasion needed
- more stability

if enemys are stunlocking you and you didn’t bring something along to prevent this, the fault lies with you not being prepared. yes, it might require changing those utility skills once in a while. That’s what challenging content does.

We’re talking about on your own here, per example in solo scenarios. Thought it was quite obvious.

As for stability; I’m playing as a revenant with Inspiring Reinforcement used on CD. I’m not positive but I think that’s about as stable as you can get, that is until it’s on CD that is.

As I’ve said, the enemies are in most cases fine on their own, but as a group their AI is thrown out the window and doesn’t function properly. That’s when you can end up stun-locked, and there are a couple of places where that’s rather probable.

Play the game in your time under your conditions and don’t care too much about the rest and how they play the game. Personally I don’t see masteries as a chore because I do them on my own leisure, when I have time for it.

Yes it does take a good chunk of XP to get them but why are you in such a hurry anyway? I’m certain that if they were too easy to get it would be trivialized and that way become boring as well.

MMOs are about grinding, which at times can feel like a chore. I’ve grinded my share of MMOs and I don’t mind it. However grinding isn’t for everyone, and I understand that too. The balance is giving people enough to do that isn’t grinding as well as giving things that are. I think I’d be rather bored with MMOs hadn’t they had that grinding part, as well as that goal to reach after doing that mindless grinding for hours on end.

I have a slight feeling that there’s a good deal of elitism in this thread. People who brusquely beat their chest armour while they chew on a pile of glass and flex their muscles. It’s rather unnecessary to be honest, just as the victimization on the other side is also rather unnecessary.

Lets lean back a bit and look at the broader picture of the entire game design. A sniper on its own isn’t that much of a problem. I take it most people can agree on that. They telegraph their abilities, and can be avoided if you know what to look for. However, in the world of HoT, being a lone individual doesn’t happen too often. There are always some sort of other monsters lurking around as well.

So recap so far; lone monster not that bad.

So lets move on to how HoT is really designed. The monsters are most of the time not alone. They are accompanied by 2 or 3 others. Now some combinations aren’t that problematic, mender and sniper per example. Other combinations however can be a bit more tricky to handle. And that’s the core problem of most of the enemies in this game, they’re rather balanced alone but in a group they seem to pile up abilities without there being a group logic to what they’re doing, they’re just doing what they would if they were alone and that can be rather devastating. I’m having a very hard time believing anyone saying they’ve cruised through HoT without encountering some group of monsters that totally wrecked them, I believe more a show of that “me Tarzan you Jane” mentality rather than the actual truth.

Anet isn’t exactly good at AI and the monsters – though in packs – have no group-AI to talk about. If a monster has a CC ability he’ll use it as if he was on its own. That can make certain encounters rather annoying to do and at times, and you only have that much endurance and stability to go around.

I don’t mind a challenge and I’ve been looking for a game that does challenge. Take “The secret world” per example, rather devastating monsters while in groups, but they also have a “group AI” system in place, so you won’t be stun locked. You have to roll around quite some and know what to do at what time, but the challenge can be overcome by knowing the monsters. The group AI makes it challenging but beatable. In HoT there are no group AI, you can be stun-locked quite effectively and prevented from taking any actions. I’ve had that happen to me, a friend has had that happening to him and I’ve seen quite a lot of evidence for that happening to others.

In conclusion, everyone can agree that some challenge is good and ads depth to the game. The challenge presented needs to be overcoming though. As it is right now, certain combinations of monsters aren’t something you can overcome by knowing the fight, if they decide to stun-lock you, they’ll do so, and if the mob they have with them or around them is a damage dealer, you’re guaranteed dead. It’s not about nerfing anything, but tweaking it around to keep the challenge but give the players a fighting chance.

There’s a slight difference between learning the mechanics and having a standing chance to avoid them. A lot of monsters have some way of stun-lock you for an extended period of time.

A good few monsters are build in such a way that you are able to dodge them, when on their own. However together in a group and they become a whole lot more troublesome to deal with. And that’s the major issue I have with HoT mobs, they mostly come in groups or are close to other monsters to aggro, and once they’re packed together, they become a whole lot more difficult to deal with, to a point where you’re stun-locked in 80% of the fight. The stuns last for 2-5 seconds, depending on the monster, and with the damage aspect of this game, those 2-5 seconds become more or less the entire fight.

I didn’t know I had a translator, that’s rather nice though as I’m having trouble understanding myself half the time. Though I don’t activate any Mario signal, there’s only one signal that is necessary. That of Batman. If Batman can’t fix it, we’re screwed.

I don’t have a problem with a sniper, but they usually come in groups, and for some strange reason, Anet has decided that they love to interrupt, stun-lock and in any other way, incapacitate you when you play. On my revenant I was stun-locked from doing anything through chained CC from 3 mobs. I couldn’t do any thing at all, and I couldn’t avoid the mobs either (this was a story mission).

Having one monster is fine by itself with those abilities, but when you have 3-4 of them together – or even more – the combination of damage, stun-locks and other abilities becomes more or less impossible to dodge around. You can dodge one thing, only to role into the next. That makes it more or less impossible to avoid certain things.

I don’t mind the difficulty, but certain monsters are nigh-on impossible when they’re together with others. Alone they’re fine, in groups they’re impossible. Look at those mushroom things per example, one on one they’re OK to be dealt with, but add a charger, a bomber and a couple of spikers and you’re in for a very bad day. You have to dodge the goo on the floor, dodge the charger who charges all the time, dodge the bomber that bombs you all the time and have the constant damage taken from fast little spikers on your tail. All the abilities put on-top of each other, chains together in a pile of mess that makes it more or less impossible to survive unless you just run strait through and hope for the love of it that the charger misses you.

Melee Vs caster …. I don’t think it’s too relevant to even compare the two of them. My revenant doesn’t do as much damage but he doesn’t die as much. My elementalist doesn’t survive as much but she dishes out damage like a pro.

And as a side note; my revenant has yet to pocket raptor food.

That’s actually not a bad idea, a relative scaling so that the time spent for a 50 person guild and 250 person guild is the same. That way it doesn’t discourage growth since the relative time is the same, but it gives the smaller guilds a fighting chance to get what people want from a guild, and as such also helps smaller guilds to both be established as well as growing.

I’m finding the 4 and 5 skill pretty useful in PvE encounters, combined with assorted other boons as well as the damage reduction and all, you can easily get pretty filled up on health, and the CD isn’t that great either, so in prolonged fights you can get a good few of them off.

I went sword / axe, assassin stance and full berserker gear while levelling. Had no issues at all. The good thing I found with axe was the interrupt, it helped a lot against those pesky casting monsters. Open with that, pop impossible odds and let the auto attack do the rest of the work. In throngs of multiple enemies, run in, gather them up as good as possible, pop impossible odds and Unrelenting Assault and watch them turn into a pulp of dead monsters.

When put into perspective, I wouldn’t say that Guild wars 2 is in a bad position, and they’re certainly doing a lot of good things. There are some balancing issues going on in terms of monster damage output, but on the overall I wouldn’t say that Guild wars 2 is in a bad position taken its competitors into account.

What I’ve missed in other MMOs is something to do beside the tedious dungeon crawling for gear when at max level. In WoW per example the levelling and exploring more or less stops when you hit max level. Then it’s a few days of dungeon work, then onwards to raids. You have no reason to move about in the world. In Guild wars 2 and The secret world, the creators have solved this by having “max level” content zones (The secret world doesn’t have levels in that regard so a bit off there).

Now what would you prefer, to be honest. Standing in a major city (or in WoW’s case, an empty garrison), doing nothing, or move about in the world, exploring, slaying things and earn treasure and loot? And look at The elder scrolls: Online, oh BOY did they mess up (and clearly show Zenimax studious as the nubs of MMO creation), a max level outdoor zones that forced players into grouping up. The result was people grouping up, to grind one specific area of the new content to get their max level. I never got to see the entire zone of Craglorn because you couldn’t do it alone, and no one wanted to group up to do the content because it was inefficient in terms of levelling.

Then we have subscription based games that became F2P games and messed up that way. Rift per example, where you’re 2-3 levels short for every dam zone unless you purchase XP boosters from their store, or Star Wars: The old republic where you have to pay even to take of your helmet (unless you’re a subscriber).

My whole point is that perspectives are good to have, and playing some other MMOs beside Guild wars 2 paints a bit broader picture. Anet isn’t perfect but they’ve done a surprisingly good job with HoT. They’ve made entire zones that aren’t a cakewalk for any players out there and can be challenging in certain areas. They’ve made group events streamlined and you can pop in and out of any events going on without being part of a group. They encourage exploring with certain incentives going on for those who explore a lot. I’m not trying to be a fanboy here, but I’ve played a great deal of MMOs over the course of 12-15 years and that puts things a lot in perspectives. And I think that when compared to what other MMOs are doing, you’re a bit better off playing Guild wars 2 than those.

It appears when you’ve retrieved the egg and goes away when you deliver the egg in the next personal story mission

I rarely use any other skills than the hammers on the dwarf stance. The road does more or less nothing and the chains are about as useful as jumping of a cliff without the glider. So I spend the resources on the hammers and let it be at that.

So far the 64 bit client has actually made a difference in terms of making the game work a lot smoother. I haven’t played long enough though to see if it really has made a difference but since the crash was related to running out of memory, I think it should hold up.

Too easy? Well there’s a champion frog archer HP in VB that needs soloing from a mighty hero.

I went with the odd choice of Knight’s gear and were surprised by the combination of damage output and survivability. I’m not the fastest killing machine out there in the jungle but then again my aim wasn’t to go on a killing spree in the first place.

What surprised me is just how much damage I’m doing. I’m not used to tank builds being able to produce this much damage output.

I think I’ll try to combine the knight’s armour set with a few berserker items, especially in the accessory slots, as well as probably switching out the weapon with a berserker one. Since knight’s armour provide precision and the build I’m using stack vulnerability on my target, I think that I can turn my potwork tank from a defensive to an offensive build.

That’s not the problem, though. Poison and tracks are avoided, it’s the direct damage from projectiles that I can’t figure out. And the archers seem to have a high attack speed as well, getting of on average 2 projectiles per 1.5 seconds.

From what I’ve gathered on theory crafting, my stats come out as “tanky”, and most enemies confirm that. But I’ve yet to figure out the archers. It just baffels me how much damage they dish out. And it seems to be that way for others too, judging by the dead ones when we’re fighting archers in a group.

How is this actually calculated? Especially the frog archers seems to have an insane output, though the mordrim snipers aren’t far behind.

My Zerk build elementalist got completely wrecked by these archers, so I decided – for the sake of my blood pump – to change to a class with a bit more toughness. Enter the Revenant, decked in gear with toughness on it, a shield in hand and a sword to bash enemies at. It helps immensely against most enemies, but for some reasons, the frog archers and mordrem snipers still seem to bypass major chunks of defence. I even had 70% damage mitigation running as well as the 3k toughness and 19k life on me and the frog archers completely obliterated my HP before I even managed to get my shield block up.

I’m not an expert in this I admit that much, but I’m having a major problem figuring out how these archer’s damage output is actually calculated. As it stands now from casual observation, it seems like the projectiles completely ignores any damage mitigation to deliver their max unmitigated damage in every stroke. I’m not sure but I have a feeling some place in the design process, the archers have been buffed by The Hulk.

SkyShroud.2865:

So, basically, you think that new guilds will have difficulty recruiting because players will prefer a fully upgraded guild. I can understand that worries but you also forgoten this is gw2, not wow. New guild very first problem is not the lack of upgrades but rather, the lack of activeness. Now, o create a guild at this point of time (3 years into the game) will require the help of several very active players to ensure the guild to be active at the specific prime time, simply because there are more people who join and stay in a guild because of the activeness than people who join for upgrades. Honestly, why do you want people who join for upgrades to be part of a important stage of the guild?

One trend can easily transfer to other games if the conditions are similar, which in this case I would say they are.

On a general base I would say that joining a guild is all about incentives. Socializing, rewards, group events and now, Guild halls. If the Guild hall provides something good that players want, and that good is withheld from smaller, newly established guilds, then of course those smaller guilds will have troubles getting players over the more well established guilds.

SkyShroud.2865:

Pharazon.3095:

SkyShroud.2865:

Pharazon.3095:

Faster yes, but smaller guilds are the backbones of any MMO because that’s how most guilds starts out. If it weren’t for the small guilds, the large guilds wouldn’t be there. That’s why it’s important to encourage guilds to be established, and having a balance on things the guild can acquire.

Look at World of Warcraft per example. They made Guild levels and gave Guild perks in form of rewards, spells and other assorted things. It was in short a disaster, levelling a guild to 25 (which was max level) took a lot of members a lot of effort, and the perks given were very good (such as reputation gain, gold gain and dungeon badge gain). This led to smaller guilds more or less being demolished and left in ruins, no one joined a guild that weren’t level 25 and had all the perks and the smaller guilds just went out because they couldn’t recruit new members. On the other hand, the larger guilds became filled up, and maxed out the number of people it could hold (900 ish) and making them unmanageable. Blizzard realized their folly in this and have since removed guild levels and guild perks.

So having a balance in perks given to guilds is and will always be a tricky balance. If the guild hall is in such a nature that it becomes impossible for smaller guilds to get it and maintain it, then there’s an issue at hand. Especially if what the guild hall provides is something that the guild members want. What we get is the same situation as with Blizzard’s Guild levels.

I don’t think the small guilds (which are still seeking for growth) are what we are discussing here, I think the small guilds in discussions are guilds that intentionally restrict themselves to a specific social circles like families, real life friends and etc.

Don’t agree on that one, a small guild is a small guild, and there are a whole lot more of the small guilds that try to grow and keep afloat than small guilds restricted to a specific social circle.

And as such, any restrictions that hinders a guild to live up to expectations is inadvertently damaging the creation of new guilds. The big builds will one day crash so it’s important that there are new guilds to pick things up.

However, how many posters here are talking about upcoming small guilds and not guilds that restricted to specific social circle?

In many other threads, a lot of discussions about small guilds are about guilds that restrict to specific social circle and not growing small guilds. I think this must be made clearly because both have different rate of progression. A growing small guild will never remain small forever, they will eventually pick up speed. However, a small guild that restrict to specific social circle will remain in that circle size for a very long time. So, is the guild hall’s cost going to adapt to a growing speed of a guild or a guild that will remain small for very long term? Yea, I am talking about the details now, not the general overview of things.

I’m referring to the OP though which specifically mentions the predicament in which I’m also addressing.

A small guild won’t eventually grow big if the restrictions are as they are in futures the Guild members are looking for. I’ve been on both sides of the fence in WoW, in 2006 I was part of the officer ranks that worked to expand a fairly small guild on a rather dead server (WoW doesn’t have a mega server structure). We managed to grown quite some throughout the time. Then some years later (2011-2012 I think it was), the Guild levels were introduced. At that time I was on another server, helping on establishing another guild. This server was fairly active and had a lot of potential members. However the guild didn’t manage to grow at all, all the members asked for was the Guild level, and when told the guild was newly started, refused to join. This because the guild levels came with some significant perks. We kept at it for around a year or so, with no visible progression in guild recruitment.

So a small guild won’t eventually grow bigger, if what the members are looking for is unobtainable by a smaller guild.

If the case is that people are looking for a guild with a guild hall and won’t join a smaller guild, then the guild hall and its progression is in fact having a detrimental effect on guild recruitment for smaller guilds.

SkyShroud.2865:

Pharazon.3095:

Faster yes, but smaller guilds are the backbones of any MMO because that’s how most guilds starts out. If it weren’t for the small guilds, the large guilds wouldn’t be there. That’s why it’s important to encourage guilds to be established, and having a balance on things the guild can acquire.

Look at World of Warcraft per example. They made Guild levels and gave Guild perks in form of rewards, spells and other assorted things. It was in short a disaster, levelling a guild to 25 (which was max level) took a lot of members a lot of effort, and the perks given were very good (such as reputation gain, gold gain and dungeon badge gain). This led to smaller guilds more or less being demolished and left in ruins, no one joined a guild that weren’t level 25 and had all the perks and the smaller guilds just went out because they couldn’t recruit new members. On the other hand, the larger guilds became filled up, and maxed out the number of people it could hold (900 ish) and making them unmanageable. Blizzard realized their folly in this and have since removed guild levels and guild perks.

So having a balance in perks given to guilds is and will always be a tricky balance. If the guild hall is in such a nature that it becomes impossible for smaller guilds to get it and maintain it, then there’s an issue at hand. Especially if what the guild hall provides is something that the guild members want. What we get is the same situation as with Blizzard’s Guild levels.

I don’t think the small guilds (which are still seeking for growth) are what we are discussing here, I think the small guilds in discussions are guilds that intentionally restrict themselves to a specific social circles like families, real life friends and etc.

Don’t agree on that one, a small guild is a small guild, and there are a whole lot more of the small guilds that try to grow and keep afloat than small guilds restricted to a specific social circle.

And as such, any restrictions that hinders a guild to live up to expectations is inadvertently damaging the creation of new guilds. The big builds will one day crash so it’s important that there are new guilds to pick things up.

With the amount of report this problem has had, I assume that Anet is working on a solution one way or the other. I’m even getting some annoying FPS drops now here and there, which I didn’t get before, so something’s changed with the HoT release that makes the game go into the borderline between what it can and can’t do.

Faster yes, but smaller guilds are the backbones of any MMO because that’s how most guilds starts out. If it weren’t for the small guilds, the large guilds wouldn’t be there. That’s why it’s important to encourage guilds to be established, and having a balance on things the guild can acquire.

Look at World of Warcraft per example. They made Guild levels and gave Guild perks in form of rewards, spells and other assorted things. It was in short a disaster, levelling a guild to 25 (which was max level) took a lot of members a lot of effort, and the perks given were very good (such as reputation gain, gold gain and dungeon badge gain). This led to smaller guilds more or less being demolished and left in ruins, no one joined a guild that weren’t level 25 and had all the perks and the smaller guilds just went out because they couldn’t recruit new members. On the other hand, the larger guilds became filled up, and maxed out the number of people it could hold (900 ish) and making them unmanageable. Blizzard realized their folly in this and have since removed guild levels and guild perks.

So having a balance in perks given to guilds is and will always be a tricky balance. If the guild hall is in such a nature that it becomes impossible for smaller guilds to get it and maintain it, then there’s an issue at hand. Especially if what the guild hall provides is something that the guild members want. What we get is the same situation as with Blizzard’s Guild levels.

As always it’s getting that balance that’s difficult. Either it becomes too easy for larger guilds to rush through everything, or it becomes difficult for smaller guilds to accomplish. That’s the nature when you’re having a feature like this. Striking that perfect balance between member contribution and guild size, now that’s the holy grail.

Certain enemies seemingly have one-shot abilities that pretty much kills you if you’re hit. So far on my hate list are frog archers, mordrem archers, mushroom bombers and smokedogs. Some mushrooms even spawn adds that spawn pools that if you stand in, you’re 1 shot, and that’s pretty difficult to avoid when you’ve spend your defensive CDs on avoiding the 3-4 spawns that come out of the darn thing.

I don’t mind a challenge, and finding that strategy that works is part of the fun with any game. But right now I’m on the verge of just scrapping my elementalist in favour of the revenant and some good toughness just to be able to do the jungle without smashing everything in my sight. Right now I’m avoiding certain maps because it’s no use trying to get through an area filled to the brim with things that have a CD on their one-shot abilities far lower than the CD on your defensive abilities. And yes I’m stance dancing as much as possible, for all the good that does.

Ah, 32 bit client … That explains everything. It also means that grouping up in large groups is counter-productive. My first crash came yesterday in a large group. in the jungle canopy.

It seems like Anet has reached the limits of what a 32 Bit client can do. Shame though that the entire game is build on a modified GW1 client, so they might have to change engine to get a working 64 bit client.

Guild wars 2 has in general a music score that lands it in the top shelf of game music, and should take its place along side such epic music tracks as Final Fantasy 6, Secret of Mana, Zelda series and Warcraft. I wasn’t that surprised that Heart of Thorns managed to come with an epic music track.

Hands of and standing ovation to the composer, conductor and performers of the music. It’s as close to perfection as you can get.

On one hand, I agree the monsters are a bit too difficult at times, frog archers and Mordrem snipers have a tendency to one hit you and kill you instantly if you’re unlucky.

However on the other hand, look at core Tyria maps. I’m one of those that play a lot of alts and level them up, and in comparison, core Tyria isn’t problematic at all. You can easily run past most monsters without any problem at all, and the only reason you’re in the map to begin with is to complete it. No sense of danger, no dread and no feeling of any reward once you’ve completed the map.

Having HoT maps like core Tyria maps would be even more destructive for the game. When you’ve gone through easy mode from 1 to 80, then come over to easy mode jungle, you kind of loop and do the same over and over, just to complete the map. Now why is that destructive?

Well lets look at a competitor that’s managed to mess up for years now; Blizzard. World of Warcraft had promises of savage land and dangerous areas with good treasures to be had for those brave enough. Draenor however turned into a bloody boring mess where you could only die if you run of a cliff. Now add that the game is easy-mode from 1 to 90 to begin with, adding an easy mode 90-100 just completely demolished the game.

In conclusion I think that some adjustments to frog archers and mordrem snipers wouldn’t hurt, but making the map as easy as core Tyria is, isn’t going to cut it. Also, Guild wars 2 is a grind regardless of how you look at it, it’s just good at hiding the obvious here and there. But in its core, you still grind a lot in this game, grind for materials, grind for map completion, grind for items and better gear. Grinding is the soul of an MMO and what gives content. Guild wars 2 isn’t any different on that aspect. However the content does feel more meaningful and the reward at the end a bit worth while. Professions per example is a worthy grind for gear, maybe not the fastest but still worth it. So I don’t think they should change too much on the jungle area, only adjust the damage a bit on certain enemies but that’s about as far as tweaking I would go.

The only grudge I have about HoT is the inconsistency of some enemies. especially archers and smoke dogs, as they seem to be able to render you dead in a matter of seconds. Also they’ve went a bit overboard with the “this can stun you” abilities as all monsters seem to have some way of lock you for seconds, combined with the high damage, meaning you’re dead if you’re stunned.

However, I have seen what “casual friendly” can do to an MMO, the perfect example being World of Warcraft. Draenor was suppose to be this dangerous, savage, land filled with dangers and what-not. All it ended up being was a theme park with safety rails all over the place to guide the players. The only real danger came from falling of a cliff, and I did that on many occasions due to falling asleep.

HoT isn’t perfect, but I like their attempt in making new content that’s challenging and dangerous without being locked behind an instance for the dedicated few. Everyone can pit themselves against the dangers of the jungle. A slight fine tuning might be in order at certain bosses but on the overall, I think they’ve made a surprising good job.

Should the game be designed around those who have 100% map completion or around those who don’t? I think it’s wise of them to make changes to the system so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming for those new players. Most new players are going through the zones just to get the XP, they don’t bother with map completion, they want to get to the “end-game” zone.

It’s always a balance and a tricky one as well. If you as a seasoned player needs to do some HP challenges but not all, while those new to the game has to do a few more but not all, then the balance is in my opinion upheld.

Imagine if the balance of the jungle’s difficulty should be based upon 2-3 years of playing and accumulating gear in old Tyria content, then they’d have to make everything more or less a raid difficulty, demolishing it for new players. Guild wars 2 need new players to keep the game fresh. Seasoned players have the advantage of their seasoned play through gear, skills and other assortments.

What really annoys the hell out of me is how unbalanced the damage output is. Smoke pooches and frog archers can pretty much 2 shot you without you having time to retaliate. Now I don’t mind a challenge, but it has to be fair, learn the abilities and how to dodge and avoid them. In most cases I’ve been able to adapt and learn to avoid certain one hitters, but the frog archers and smoke pooches seems to be impossible to predict and avoid.

I’m annoyed at going 3 steps forward and getting shot 6 steps back because I was killed by a frog or a dog and the spawn point is far away. Even more annoying when the nearest is contested and you have to travel even further.

I’m having a serious beef with the frog archers to be honest. I’m not bothering to try and kill them, I just run past and hope that I’ll make it. The same goes for those Mordrim archers. It seems like these archers are doing way more damage than their ranged buddies in the pre-expansion world.

I’m trying to learn to adapt but it’s really demotivating almost making it to a check-point only to die once more because you’ve been stun-locked by something.

The feedback to any game is a necessary part of the design. Most complains have some constructiveness to them and as such contribute to that pool of feedback that the designers need to make changes and improve.

Threads like this however serve no purpose, it’s a complain about complainers and there’s nothing constructive and necessary for the developers within this thread. It’s rather useless and only serve to instigate a flame war. I see these threads all the time in the different MMOs I’m playing, complainers complaining about the complainers. I’m still rather amused by those who make such threads, what do they think they’ll achieve? Forum peace? That the complainers will stop complaining? Of course not, it serves no real purpose other that – as said – to instigate a flame war. As we already see here.

If people have some feedback to the expansion they’re entitled to have one and as such also entitled to make a thread. I don’t see how any forum users can revoke that right.

What’s going on here? I have several events that are announced but doesn’t take place. Yesterday per example at Iron Marches at Harvester’s Glade, the hounds that are suppose to sniff out the separatists just stood there and did nothing.

Or at the Sunken halls of Clarent there was an event to escort some around there and protect them, yet they just stood there and nothing happened.

Now today, I have found 2 events at Timberline Falls that doesn’t work, one at the Rankor Ruins where you’re suppose to defend some Prior researchers from the undead yet no wave of undead is seen, and one that is named “Defend the leaders of Caer Evermore from the Risen”, yet no Risen have ever attacked.

I also have this problem with the Personal Story line at “The sound of Psi-Lance”, where I’m suppose to use a sonic gun thing to wipe out the dredge invasion, yet it seems to fire on random when it wants to do damage or not, and some times it seems only to tickle them. Have left the personal story instance several times but I can’t progress on that one because I don’t do any damage, and only end up losing the crew.

What happened? All of a sudden there are tons of these small bugs that just ruins the gameplay. As well as that annoying voice over bug that makes half the spoken dialogue out and the character making strange gestures in the air to emphasize a line that’s never been spoken. It’s starting to take the nerve out of my enjoyment of the game.

Fatal Hilarity – A history

In 2005, on the World of Warcraft, a team of lunatics created what is today one of the oldest guilds on Bronzebeard; Fatal Hilarity. A casual friendly guild that has a simple aim of providing a friendly environment for our members. This guild has now created a home as well on Guild Wars 2, server Desolation (EU). The aim is the same as always and we’ve succeeded to plant that seed in the number of members we have today (currently at 70 members).

What can Fatal Hilarity offer

A stable environment a friendly and fun gang that takes the game just for that; a game. We have a TeamSpeak server already up and running and have had such epic discussions as the Deity of Teh Spoon, The evil Carrot and naturally, waffles (we love waffles). We also have a homepage () where you can apply or ask questions about the guild.

We also aim on putting up scheduled dungeon runs for our members, and have already had several groups going through the first couple of dungeons.

All we require is that you are helpful, have a sense of humour and the ability to “Die Laughing”, which we tend to do a lot, especially when running dungeons and insanity ensues

Who can join us?

Well, simply put; everyone. We put no restrictions on you, if you can only play a couple of hours a day, we’re still there. We simply aim on ganging up with like minded people and share some laughs when we’re online. We’re – despite some insanity at times – a very friendly guild and have no problems helping out newcomers., and have no level restrictions, so if you have a level 1 character with no MMO experience, you’re as welcomed as that level 80 Charr Ranger with too many MMOs under his belt.

So visit our page, throw a question if you like. Or simply if you’re playing in Desolation, send a PM to my tag or /w if I’m online.