Guild Wars 2

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t think it should matter if 4-stat does or does not provide a “raw stat increase”. The point is that the game, at launch, allowed people to get max gear of any stat without crafting. Even with ascended gear, drops were possible (and now, there are even more options).

Even more importantly, I think ANet has used the account-bound gating for far too many situations. Gating of any sort should be used sparingly, where critical for gameplay or economic reasons. If the component mats are gated, then the refined mats shouldn’t be and vice-versa.

I think I misread this at first, but coming back to it a few days later, I think I understand what you mean, and I agree. You’re saying that all stat combos (including e.g. Nomad) should be easily available to all players? If so, I definitely agree.

To me, GW2 distinguished itself as an MMO by making gear and stats easily available and putting the focus on the (fun!) gameplay. Over time, ANet has slowly undone what made GW2 special, and with HoT they dealt a swift blow. Or, as you put it, they’ve relied on “account-bound gating for far too many situations.”

(Thanks for your response!)

Head Kracker.4790:

crusader is the other, and like Donari said they are available at the tailor/ect vendors near any crafting station, and to further clarify you use the regular discovery process to create the armor. All your buying karma wise from the vendor is the insignia recipe.

Thank you again for your answer. All in all, it does sound like a screwed situation. Perhaps if I wait until the next quarterly update, they’ll have addressed it. Maybe.

Head Kracker.4790:

sadly you are quite screwed in that both the insignia and the gear are account bound for most all the 4 stat items. Luckily marauder is one of two armor sets you have to just buy the recipe from the regular karma vendors. You still need leatherworker/tailor/armorsmith at 400 though.

Thank you for your response. What is the other karma-for-recipe armor set? Also, where are these vendors? Are they in a major city like Lion’s Arch? (Though I own HoT, I haven’t bothered to progress past VB—it’s just not my cup of tea.)

As feedback for ANet: this situation feels like a violation of the spirit of GW2’s no-treadmill philosophy. Not the letter, but the spirit. Four-stat armor provides a raw stat increase over mixing and matching other gear sets. It should be available in all the same ways those sets are available (e.g. via the TP).

I mainly play WvW, and I have little interest in crafting and absolutely no interest in unlocking recipes via PvE. How do I acquire 4-stat exotic gear such as Marauder’s?

(In case it is relevant, I do own HoT.)

Sytherek.7689:

Straylight.7529:

But HoT didn’t modify GW2. The casual Guild Wars you’re looking for didn’t vanish. It’s still out there. Go play in any of the core zones and you’ll find them as casual as ever.

This is exactly how I’m playing. I like my characters, enjoy refining them, travelling. If I want stress, I’ll deal with real world stuff.

I just feel like I wasted money on HoT, and am making sure ANET knows I won’t be buying any future expansions like it.

(emphasis mine)

This, to me, is the most salient point in the whole thread. Does Anet really care if casual players buy the next expansion? If they do, they need to change HoT open world to be closer to core Tyria in terms of difficulty and stress.

If Anet decides the casual player base is not large enough to cater to, then that is their privilege. I would find it disappointing, but they are a business, after all.

It is good for everyone to voice their concerns either way, but it is most important that everyone vote with their money and their time.

(And to be clear: I am in favor of challenging raids and fractals. I think hardcore players should be catered too as well—just not in the open world.)

Same problem. In fact, all the new maps added in HoT, including WvW borderlands and sPvP Stronghold, run like kitten.

In vanilla maps I get 55 fps with graphics on low (which I’m fine with). In all the HoT maps it drops to 15-20 fps, and camera control is laggy as hell. This makes any type of challenging play, pvp, or even narrow passage traversal nigh impossible.

I haven’t been able to play any HoT map for more than an hour total due to frustration. Consequently, I haven’t unlocked any elite specs, which are the whole reason I purchased the expansion. I regret buying it at all, let alone the $100 ultimate edition.

Ohoni.6057:

I’m no longer going to engage with the “numbers trolls.” If you do not believe this is an issue cared about by an amount of players worth worrying about then I can’t convince you otherwise. Of course if you truly did believe that then you wouldn’t be making a mess of yourselves trying to shut people up about it, so I think we have our answer on that one. If you want to engage in actual discussion on the issue, then I’m open to it, but if all you have to say is “post spreadsheets” then I have nothing for you, and that does not bother me.

Thank you, Ohoni, for your patience in this thread, and for speaking up for those of us who do not have the patience to explain the same things over and over again in a calm manner. Your efforts are, in fact, very appreciated (and upvoted).

Labjax.2465:

Why in Mordremoth’s name would I want to pay someone to let me work in a video game? I love games because they are games. I know, weird, right. When you take the game out of a game, it becomes “meaningless series of tasks that are likely to cause an existential crisis and add no substance to your life.”

Games are not made for work. If they were, they’d be what we call “jobs.” Except they’d be incredibly idiotic jobs because you pay to do them.

If there were a “Best Of” sub-forum, I’d nominate this post for it. Many a white knight fail to grasp this simple premise. Enjoyment is subjective, but if people aren’t enjoying themselves, they have a right to complain (and not be shouted down).

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

And what is wrong with vanilla gw2 being for casual players?

Because people paid for an expansion and so they want to enjoy more than the base game? Is this a real question?

Tigaseye.2047:

Even things like lag and people’s type and age of hardware and stuff will obviously play a major part in all this.

Not everyone is a totally fit and healthy 17 year old boy, at the peak of their reaction time, with a squandered youth playing games 8 hours a day, on a top PC, with unrivalled speed broadband access, on the same continent as the server they use, with plenty of 17 year old friends who can help them if need be, in a bedroom all by themselves, with a permanently locked door…

I want to add to this point. While I do think the new systems added in HoT are grindy, the main reason I regret purchasing HoT is this:

Previous to HoT I could run GW2 (on the lowest graphical settings) and get 55 fps. With all the new HoT maps—jungle maps, WvW borderlands, and even sPvP Stronghold—I max out at 15-20 fps. It makes challenging play impossible. I can’t read animations clearly enough to react, and my camera control lags like hell.

I bought this expansion just to play the elite specs. For all intents and purposes, I can’t unlock the elites via PvE, and I can only rank up in WvW when my team is in EBG. This expansion has taken away more than it has given.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

I really think you guys are so grateful for a change – any change – that you’re missing a few things that point to this not being much of a compromise.

1) Hero points are still account bound.
2) They are still gated behind some masteries.
3) You are still forced to spend Hero Points on ALL your skills and utilities before you can even unlock the elite spec.
4) The elite specs are all earned in a linear fashion – which means you MUST spend your hero points on traits AND SKILLS that you may never even use.

As it is, 250 HP is easier to swallow versus 400 HP, true…if you only have 1 or 2 alts to grind. But once you hit 4-5 alts and up… this is still a HUGE amount of grind.

I very much agree with this. I feel like the number 250 was chosen as a trap, such that Anet can say they “compromised” and anyone who is still unhappy must be “unreasonable.” However, I have yet to hear anyone satisfactorily explain why providing an instant elite unlock (e.g. via a Story quest) would be detrimental to players. Concerns about “progression” are disingenuous because the mastery system is still there.

Perhaps Anet is telling me (and those like me) that their game really isn’t for me. That would make me sad, because I felt GW2 really was for me compared to the other MMOs I’ve played.

Turethir.7281:

I was ganged up on in my guild for expressing negative opinions in GC yesterday, which is a shame, as I was always very positive about this game. Luckily there seem to be lots of kindred spirits here so I’ll freely express my opinions.

In my mind (and as many have said) fixing the three things below will make a massive difference.

1) Drastically reduce the number of hero points needed to unlock elites. While I am not especially bothered about my elite spec I know how much others were looking forward to them. It was only in a post literally a day or two before the expansion that it was explicitly stated that these would be ‘unlocked’ – not helped by the beta weekends making them instantly available. This gave a lot of people the wrong impression and I can understand their frustrations. I would reduce this to around 60 points or so.

2) Half the XP needed for each mastery. Although these are account-bound (which is good) I still feel they’re too grindy. I find myself looking at my XP bar a lot. I never did in the base game.

3) When people are not around hero points (often because they’re mastery gated or very hard to get to) stop with the unsoloable champions with time limits! Downscale them to veteran mobs so that soloers can have a chance. This will become even more obvious once fewer players are on the map and people are attempting to get hero points for their alts. Implementing point 1 would massively reduce this issue also!

ANet made a good move by getting rid of the story requirement to have Itzel 4 mastered.

Come on ANet – if you sort these three things out, the majority will be a lot happier.

This is excellent feedback. I wanted to quote it to increase its chance of being noticed.

I would add that I feel unlocking masteries with both points and XP seems redundant (possibly even confusing). A more radical suggestion: what about removing the XP requirement from masteries entirely? I think it would eliminate the grindy feel, while still requiring players to work for the mastery points.

Thanks everyone so far for responding. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer. The best I could find was this reddit thread, which was also inconclusive:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/27jyk4/question_about_eotmwvw/

It would be nice if a CM or GM could step in and give a definitive answer, but until then, I will be pessimistic.

Right now my WvW rank is fairly low, and I have many rank up chests left to earn. If I rank up while playing a low-level toon, do I miss out on anything from rank up chests? For example, is the gear reward level-specific and thus prevents receiving a rare or exotic?

I am especially concerned about losing out on any ascended drops, so if anyone can confirm whether they’ve received one via rank up chest on a low-level toon, it is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Minos.5168:

The issue, in my opinion, is that finishers are basically an extremely colorful version of taunting.

In FPSes, it’s fairly common for people to “do things” to your corpse, mocking you.

I agree. I don’t, however, think that’s a good thing. Inciting negative reactions isn’t good for player behavior or community. Being able to hide finishers mitigates this.

Throwing in my $0.02:

I’ve pre-purchased HoT, but I haven’t tried the new zones yet. I do see people making various comparisons to Orr though. If the new zones are as hard or harder than current Orr, I am not interested in playing them. Polling the people I’ve recruited into GW2 via sales and F2P, they wouldn’t be interested in playing them either (or purchasing HoT, in some cases).

It’s not that Orr is unbeatable; it’s that it’s tedious and annoying. In my opinion, it’s better to err of the side of being too easy, because the focus can fall back to exploration. If you err on the side of being too hard, your average player will just quit.

I am obviously in the tiny minority on these forums, but I don’t think I’m in the minority in general. I think online forums in general lend themselves to machismo and attract players that are invested in doing difficult things to get their thrills. The rest of us just want easy fun. (L2p scrub, etc, etc.)

Agreed. I find that PvP is more enjoyable (and encounter less toxic behavior) when it is OK to lose. This particular daily makes it unacceptable to lose. It’s not fun, and it brings out the worst in people.

tanztante.6532:

it’s flawed design and not favourable towards new players, it’s not even favourable towards veterans. it’s only stupid.

Very much agree with this. I think the devs even agree with this to some degree because brand new Rangers have the Marksmanship XIII trait active, even though it’s not technically unlocked.

I understand there is a trait revamp coming, but if Anet is trying to on-board new players (like myself) before the expansion hits, this should be fixed in sPvP sooner rather than later.

I discovered this thread because, as a new GW player, I found it odd that Bandit Crests weren’t already currencies and part of the existing wallet. They certainly sound like a currency from the tooltip.

Incidentally, I acquired them from a PvP reward track, and, at present, I don’t know where to spend them or what they’re good for. So now they are just cluttering my inventory. It feels like a negative “reward.”

[EDIT] Addendum: The chests from the dungeon PvP reward tracks (e.g. Caudecus’s Manor Dungeon Track) pose a similar problem. I don’t have any max level toons yet, and I haven’t even decided which will be my main, so the chests are just cluttering my inventory. It would be better if the reward was a token (stored in your wallet!) that could be traded to a vendor for the same gear you would get from the chest.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Brother Grimm.5176:

^^ THIS ^^
The old adage, “give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile”, comes to mind with this request. Again, the economic model of this game REQUIRES Anet to sell gems to keep the servers running…. If you need more perma-tools, buy them.

But it isn’t a question of “giving” anything. It’s a situation of “Offer to sell them an inch, and some will pay. Offer to sell them a mile, and lots will pay.”

I like supporting the game, but right now I would get little to no benefit from an infinite gathering tool because I would wind up transferring it between characters via the bank more often than I currently go to a vendor. And vendors are more common.

A convenience item needs to be convenient in order to be worth the investment. If the tools are meant to be there for the skins, then making them account wide gives them the same usage as every other gem store skin. Many people who currently wouldn’t buy any infinite tools because they aren’t account wide would wind up buying lots because they can put different skins on all their characters.

No one is asking for charity here. They’re telling ANet that this is the kind of product they will spend money on.

This guy hits the nail on the head. Account-wide click-to-claim infinite tools are an instant purchase for me. There is something about the extreme convenience that makes me feel warm and fuzzy, while at the same time supporting a game I like.

On the flip side, if the current method really is there to annoy people into buying multiple copies (as opposed to it just being easier to develop), that’s a huge turn off. That kind of thinking is the reason I don’t even play many F2P games, let alone give them my money.

Also, would be nice if the Copper-fed Salvage-o-Matic were similarly click-to-claim.