Guild Wars 2

In fairness, Yen, whilst that is an interesting analogy, it says only one thing to me – the game architecture is really screwed. As every programmer of any sort of modern language knows (and mine, alas, isn’t, but it still knows), you dump common code into it’s own little “cell” (let’s call it).

Say, for instance, your front-end will take a date in any conceivable format, but your back-end (no giggling at the back!) will only accept YYYYMMDD. Someone writes a subroutine that turns any date into a YYYYMMDD format.

Do you put that into each & every pgm that requires it? No! Because if someone comes up with a new date format that needs to be interpreted, you have to change dozens of pgms. What you do is you put it into its own file.

Rather than re-invent the wheel each time, every programmer that needs this code fragment can now type “Call cell” (or whatever), and if a change to “cell” is required, you don’t have to change dozens of pgms, you just re-compile the ones that use “cell”. {NB: Long-winded explanation is for the benefit of those who are not programmers for a hobby or a living! ).

So your’s is an interesting analogy, but unless Anet’s software is simply a tangled ball of string, I struggle to see how it explains this particular bog-up. Unless Anet’s core soft design is really, really screwed up…

panzer.6034:

To claim that this shifts the gold, is demonstrating a total failure to understand how the economy actually works. It really is keeping the already rich, rich and the poor, poor. As previous poster pointed out, this thinking is a false, proven false and yet repeated anyway.

It shifts gold in ONE very important way – BL fees. Everything sold takes 15% of the sale price into a black hole. Don’t think that Anet haven’t thought about that.

All of them. Well within a week. Because it was the obvious thing to do.

Berserker is rubbish, I’d rather have shouts.

Scrapper is anti-everything. The Eng has always been built for condi, even before condi was beefed up. Scrapper is a power build, so never used it. I’ll have to create a second Engi, cos I’m not mucking about rebuilding the main.

Daredevil – Not used it, cos I don’t really play the thief.

Tempest – ditto. I’m a bit sorry about this, cos I ought to like the Ele more than I do, but you can only play so many classes.

Chrono – Compulsory – If there’s one thing (there isn’t; there’s quite a few things) that annoys me, it’s that Anet built the classes unevenly. I really hate crawling around the world at snail’s pace. Why the hell they gave some classes a permanent speed buff (one way or another) & denied it to others is beyond me. Mes is getting played more now that Chrono is here, but I’m inexpert with it.

Dragonhunter – See above for complaints about lack of speed, but the Gdn makes a good goalkeeper in Stronghold, and that’s where he gets used. Treb & defend. We’ve a decent team in my second guild too.

Reaper – Frankly, it’s OP. Don’t play the Necrokitty much, but this is a doddle. Apart from, oh look, no bloody speed.

Druid – The Ranger is one I play a lot, but mindlessly so. It’s actually a class I don’t like much (I know, that sounds completely daft). Ranger is the WvW mindless zerg alt (maybe you begin to understand…). Druid works. I’m less than stellar though, because the Ranger is geared for Lbow / pwr. Not healing.

Herald – another compulsory elite. Thanks, Anet, for designing this class so well. Speed is only available on the elite spec. The elite spec isn’t available underwater, along with 2 more of the stances. Underwater I get… no choice at all. Assassin & Demon are the only ones I can pick. That was an act of genius. Not. Hey ho. My opinion of the whole Rev thing is that they are very limited in what they CAN do, but overpowered in what they can do. I’ve got two. One is built for Dwarf / power, the other for Centaur / healing. Herald is compulsory on both.

In short, I don’t think Anet did a very good job of designing the Elite spec’s. Too many of them are distinctly overpowered, one way or another, making them compulsory to slot (yes, I’m well aware they’re called “Elite” for a reason). Too many of them go against what might be called the standard class build, which creates trouble… Well, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a main alt (now I need two sets of gear), or whether (like me) you’re a multi-alter (now I need two sets of gear, and with all those alts, that just isn’t going to happen).

And one hour plus later, I still can’t create a new character. Nice one, Anet. It’s quite incredible, the number of ways you find to break things. And this without a patch, even!

I can login on any existing alt, but when I get to the end of the character creation process i.e. after Q10 naming the character, all I get is the Network Error box. Which is patently ridiculous since I can post here, log other alts in, etc. I have closed & restarted the game several times, etc. Problem still occurs. It isn’t the name either (and even if it was, the error would be ridiculous), as this is an alt I’ve deleted & recreated many times with the same name.

And I cry “BS!”

“I want to note that while I helped with early design of the legendary journeys, I was not involved in their detailed designs or implementations.”

“What’s in the game isn’t my fault, honest!” In fairness, no it probably isn’t. Concerns raised by peons are frequently over-ruled by management, but this is not a good way to start a post.

“The priority for current legendary crafting bugs is as follows…”

Yeah. Great. Not blaming you, Matt, but who the kittening hell thought it was a good idea to let these things loose on the community in the first place??!! Be honest, for once, Anet. YOU, not us, YOU released code that set your players against each other. Your decision, not ours. Fixing it is… It isn’t “good”. IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED ACCEPTABLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Just what is going on behind the scenes? Who is making the decisions? Why are they making those decisions?

Lastly (there is much more that I could say), I am, frankly, frightened by the fact that Matt Penebaker apparently does NOT understand the difference between QA & QC. Most of you don’t, and you don’t care either. But as someone who has just been labelled as a “games designer”, he ought to know. And he doesn’t, seemingly.

No wonder every update / patch that Anet releases needs to be patched at least twice within a week…

Ojike.3179:

And isn’t TP prices, 5% to but up the item and 10% loss of price from TP? not 10% and 20%?

Yes, it is 5% & 10%. I presume you’re querying the other poster’s figures – I know mine are correct!

darkace.8925:

BinkyofFuraffinity.4629:

I am one of those in the pictures. And for those of you here calling us " LOL crybabies" for wanting our precursor, i’ll state this:

I don’t even want to hear your excuses. There’s no justification for reporting someone for completing an event. Period. You lot should be ashamed of yourselves for doing so.

Utterly incorrect.

A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways. A griefer derives pleasure primarily or exclusively from the act of annoying other users, and as such is a particular nuisance in online gaming communities, since griefers often cannot be deterred by penalties related to in-game goals

As Binky has repeatedly said, there were several players who said they were killing the mob to deliberately irritate, not simply to complete the event, and the evidence would be in the chat logs. Anet don’t like griefing any more than most MMOs, whether RPG or some other ilk.

In the same circumstances, I’d report, without the slightest shame in doing so (although the Anet reporting system is woefully inadequate, whatever the problem is, bar goldsellers). You’re another one who might want to pay a bit more attention to what the thread actually says, instead of appearing to jump to conclusions.

Yes, he makes smile too every time I run across him. In my case, it’s because the dev concerned obviously knows what a lute looks like, but doesn’t have the faintest idea what it sounds like or how it’s played. I do cos I’ve got 3 of ’em! What you have there may look like a lute, but sounds like a frog strumming an ordinary acoustic guitar…

The other question is how quickly you want to sell it? At the moment there are orders for 1,800 &1,850G, whilst the selling price is 2,400G. The trouble you need 120G just to put it on the TP at that price, and you’ll lose another 240G if & when it sells. So you’ll get 1860 if & when, or about 1570 if you decide to sell immediately, if the 1850 offer is still there…

As the other two have said, only you can decide, but I’d say the advice to consider how much you’re actually going to use it is the most important bit.

Funnily enough, I got sworn at the twice the other day by some player for not stopping an event that I was already halfway through when he turned up (no-one else was around). I didn’t like his attitude, told him to push off, finished the event & then reported him.

Unfortunately, there is always a certain amount of toxicity of this kind around and always has been in GW2. Anyone who has ever spent any time in Orr when there’s a champ train going knows this. “You must stop you n00b!! We getz moar phat lootz if this event failz!!!!” It’s an attitude that does, at times, get right up my nose.

Why must I play the game the way you want to, instead of the way I want to? Who gave you the right to demand that? And I don’t care whether it’s 1, 10, or 100 of you. I play the game to have fun, not to be abused by some mannerless bunch of internet pixels who doesn’t even say thank you if I do stop! NB: I can’t remember the last time before the other day that I didn’t stop when asked; I just don’t like the attitude & abuse that is so often involved.

Anyway, there’s always been a certain amount of toxicity involved in GW2, but it seems strange, counter-productive, and frankly downright stupid, to knowingly introduce a mechanism that actively promotes it. Then again, there’s an awful lot of bad design in HoT, and I’ve been critical of Anet both here and in any number of the many bug reports I’ve filled out since release.

The Legendary system is a great example. I hate Jumping Puzzles. I do them once for the achievement (if there is one), and that’s it. I never do them again. I don’t mind their presence in the game in the slightest. I’m well aware that others simply love them. Good for them – all sorts of things for all sorts of players. But personally, if I wanted to play a platform game I’d go back to Manic Miner (look it up, kiddies, yes I was playing it when it was released! ).

I’ve actually opened up about a dozen of the Leggie quests. I know it’s all horrendously expensive; I can live with that. I can live with the fact that I will never finish more than one or two, and may not even finish one.

What annoys me is that I am being forced into things. I’m forced into JP’s; I’m forced into Fractals (I’m not a regular runner of them, but I quite like them, so not much of a hardship); I’m forced into PvP (I don’t play competitive PvP; happily my second guild has its own arena where I can do the dailies); I’m forced into WvW (where I’m strictly casual at best). As for being forced to hope an event fails…

I’m sure, there’ll be some clever person comes along shortly who will authoritatively declare that I’m not being “forced” into anything, it’s all my choice. It was my choice to open up Predator (rifle) & Quip (pistol) because my main is an Engineer. And only then do I find that in Vol I there are things I can only get from fractals or JP’s (the worst in the game, naturally; a kind Mesmer friend portalled me up there). And just to put the tin lid on things, of course, Predator is (or was, I haven’t checked for a couple of weeks) bugged. At least one of the items is simply unobtainable. And that’s just in Vol I.

I don’t mind that the process for crafting a Leggie is long-winded, expensive, and feels somewhat of a grind. I never expected anything else, and I’ve never had a precursor drop (I’m a Day One player), so at least I now have a chance. But I can’t accept an argument that tries to persuade me that it’s other than another example of poorly thought through content. Whatever the potential rights & wrongs of the actual behaviour demonstrated in the OPs example (and Binky, you’re apologised enough – we’re convinced! ), putting in requirements for events to fail (and there is more than one example) is something that stinks to high heaven.

There is much that is good in HoT, but there is much that is indifferent or downright bad (never mind the usual plethora of bugs, many still not fixed; some of them really basic stuff). Unfortunately, after 3 years, GW2 seems to be drifting in the same direction (downhill) that LotRO did, especially after Turbine were bought up by Warner Borthers.

It was said then that Turbine still had the chance to save the game. They didn’t; it got worse & haemorrhaged players. Anet might well have lost a lot of players since HoT, I don’t know. Certainly there has been plenty of disappointment here, and quite a few “I’m leaving” threads (there always are after an ex-pac; big deal you can rightly argue). My personal feeling is that the quality, particularly of their Quality Control (the process of making sure your product works), has been declining for a while. Anet still have the chance to arrest that. I hope they do. If they don’t, players will steadily fall away.

Ameepa.6793:

All icons, titles and everything unneccessary clutter should be toggleable.

Absolutely. I agree with the OP. I’m not the slightest bit interested in competitive PvP, and I don’t care what rank someone has achieved in it. It’s just another piece of pointless visual clutter, and I cannot imagine that there will be more than a tiny minority of players going “Oooo…Must… Play!!!” as a result.

Toggleable, please.

Halan, you could have written the same about yourself. Jokey thread and you’re getting personal? Or did I misunderstand something?

tinymurder.5791:

I never claimed to be the great communicator. I also didn’t claim that two words mean something different from the accepted definitions of those words. So, when it comes to words, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I can also say that you’re posts have been inflammatory, insulting, and come from a position of ignorance. You talk about the non-video game side of the computer industry as being the only valid computer industry, which is nothing more than your opinion. You complain that proper QC should have caught all the bugs in the expansion, as if Microsoft or Apple have never released a flawed product that has to be patched. You admit that you have no experience with producing video games and are merely competent as a programmer. You do acknowledge that analysis is your core competency, which I will take at face value. Somehow this qualifies you to make broad generalizations about a field in which you have zero experience.

If this is an example of your communication skills, how am I or anyone else supposed to take your analysis seriously?

You did. The moment you decided you could lay down the law about what I said and about what words mean, you claimed to be a great communicator. And then you sneer at me throughout your post. Great communication?

Do you know what the word “chuffed” means? Cheerful, pleased, over-the-moon, right? Wrong! No, right. No, wrong. No… Confused, yet? See, words change their meanings. Words change according to how people use them. My dear old (dead) dad could remember when “chuffed” meant “cheesed off / unhappy”. The word has changed its meaning over the years.

People also don’t understand intensifiers in English (NB: I’ve no idea whether English is your first language). There are a lot of back-formations in modern English. Things like “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” or “Ship High In Transit” (never trust an acronym! ). But they aren’t only confined to acronyms. Try “threshold”, for example. No-one actually knows where it comes from, but it’s not from “holding back the thresh (i.e. straw)”. There would have to be some version of “threshhold” for that to be the case, and there isn’t.

Then there’s words like disgruntled & irregardless. Because disgruntled means “unhappy” (essentially) & dis- is familiar from words such as disappear, people assume it’s a negative. Therefore “gruntled” means “happy”, right? No, wrong.

1. (obsolete) To utter small, low grunts.
2. (obsolete) To complain; to grumble

Dis-, in this case, is an intensifier, not a negative. “To grumble, only more so”, in just the same way that “irregardless” is not the opposite of “regardless”, but regardless only more so.

I never claimed, as I hope you can now appreciate, what awful or awesome meant. I simply pointed out how the words are composed, as a juxtaposition to how people commonly understand them. And if you go back to my original post that you wanted to take issue with, you will see that immediately after I did so, I promptly used “awful” in its generally understood sense. Which of us is ignorant, I wonder? I know there’s an awful lot I don’t know. In many, many spheres, I’m blessedly ignorant. But clever enough not to offer an opinion, because I’m not stupid. You?

Well, you make a lot of generalisations about what I never said. It seems to me (I may be wrong) that I understand words (English ones!) better than you do, and also that I understand IT better than you do. We can talk about that, if you like. But I usually try not to sneer at people. It gets in the way of talking with them.

Incidentally, on the subject of awful /awesome and whether they are negative / positive / neutral words, I am certainly not the first to point this out. It was the late Sir Terry Pratchett who commented about miracles. “It’s a miracle I didn’t hit that tree / lamp-post when I skidded…” Or words to that effect. But miracles aren’t always good.

I experienced this myself on a rainy Sunday morning this summer. Driving back through the village, there was a farm vehicle (a teleporter, if that means anything to you) stopped on the opposite side of the road with a queue of cars behind it. The car in front of me had a front-on collision with another that was braking for the queue of traffic.

The teleporter had a broken pipe somewhere, so oil was all over the road. It was wet, so the oil was floating on the surface. The braking car skidded because of that and came onto my side of the road.

It was a miracle. It was a miracle (bad) that that happened because the car in front of me could easily have been 20 yds further on or further back. It was a miracle (good) because it could easily have been my car with me driving it at that point on the road. If it were me, I could maybe have braked. If I’d not been in a head-on collision, I’d have skidded, gone left, and slid down a 10’ kitten . {oh, for crying out loud, Anet! This is pathetic. A ditch! A ten foot bloody ditch! That slide might have killed me, and you fuss about a word! kitten has more meanings than just “lesbian (derogatory)”. Your filter is beyond belief.} Would I have been any better off? It was still a miracle. I just happened to be on the road at that time, and I happened to be the car behind.

Where words are concerned, how else would you like to lecture us all on where they come from & what they mean?

Everything is viable. Well, mostly… Anet have stuck a stupid time gate here, there, and everywhere, which means some builds aren’t for each class. There is also the community’s hunger for the “perfect” meta to contend with. That GW2 is allegedly not a Holy Trinity game (Tank / Healer / DPS) hasn’t actually altered anything.

The community still screams. “Need X!!!” Whether that’s condi Eng, or Zerk / Viper / whatever / whichever class… I think asking on the forum is not your best course of action. I don’t say it’s a bad choice; I’m sure you’ll get some suggestions that will get you thinking (have you tried out Druid on your Ranger, frex).

What you need to do is experiment with your class builds in PvE. Find out something new about them, maybe you’ll find something that makes you go “Wow!” Personally, Eng is my main, and I love kits. But then I’ve long since had all the original classes at the cap (notorious multi-alter, me!). It sound to me as though you want one “perfect” build, rather than wanting to find different ways to make things work as I do (no criticism implied; it’s just a different way to enjoy a game!).

Experiment in PvE. And talk to your guild. After all, we in the wider community can’t know what classes & builds your guild runs. I’m sure you’ll get some food for thought from this thread, but your best resource is those closest to you – they know what they’re running, and will have better suggestions as to how you can tweak things, I suspect.

On the plus side (since there is a spoiler tag on the thread now), Trahearne is dead. Logan next, please? What an irritating goody two-shoes he is (I never did like paladins, which is quite obviously what he is meant to be taken for)!

As for the PS, gods, I hate Forgal! Condescending old fart. And a bad John Wayne impersonator. I’ve levelled & re-levelled lots of alts. I rarely choose the Vigil because he is such a monumental pain in the rear (even that over-enthusiastic, over-cheerful sylvari is heaven by comparison). But I do always, after the tedium that is doing Claw Island again, enjoy watching him stomp stupidly in to his death…

Sorry, sindyr, but if you think “I’m L55 & I’ve settled on this as the only way I can play” is a solid foundation for a suggestion, you are going to get disagreed with, and flamed too.

I’m a Day One player. I long ago had all 8 original classes at the cap. Ele is low in the pecking order, but something I did, with a free slot & lots of play-time available over the summer, was to replay & re-level, from 1 to 80 (not 55) every class (something different to do before HoT). And the really important component of that was to play them differently!

No going zweihander or axes on the warrior, no fire on the ele, no wells on the necro, etc. Experiment. It was interesting. There are still builds that I can’t make work. I still can’t get on with Gadgets or the Elixir Gun on the Eng, Physicals on the War, etc. But I came out of it with a greater appreciation of just how many ways you can build each class. Every class. Spectrals on the Necro… Hmmm, not my favourite build (Wells, Corruptions, or Reaper, for me), but I can make it work, as just one example.

This is all preamble, to establish some credentials. I really do have some foundations to say that your suggestion would be a disaster. It would make the ele stupidly over-powered. I can understand why you make it, but it isn’t a good idea. Far from it. And it won’t get any serious support from experienced players.

Try sceptre / dagger. Try the other attunements. Fire is a glass cannon, mostly, whatever the weapons & utilities you pick. Burn it down (literally! ) before it does you. The other attunements work differently. Try them out; get used to them. I’m still a bit iffy about Air, partly because I’m mostly a solo player, and a lot of it is support. Water & Earth are great, but slower to kill in PvE (which is where I mostly am). I used to load up on Cantrips; now I think Arcane is great.

Experiment. Make yourself give a good run to every weapon, to every attunement, to every set of utilities, trait yourself appropriately for each (at L80 you have enough points to open everything except the Elite, even if you’ve never completed a single HP). Once you’ve done that, you’ll see there’s no need for a shorter cd on attunement recharge.

tinymurder.5791

I really hope your programming skills are amazing, because your interpersonal communication skills leave a lot to be desired.

Whilst your’s are just dandy, are they? Several misguided lectures & two insults in two posts. When it comes to words, I know what I’m talking about. You’re welcome to your different opinion. When it comes to programming & QC, I also know what I’m talking about. You’re welcome to your different opinion.

As for programming, actually I’m no better than competent in my (obscure) 3G / 4G database language. Analysis is my forte. And communication, because that’s what an analyst has to do…

rhapsody.3615:

Guys, there are lots of other threads for complaints about precursor crafting. Why don’t you post the negativity there?

Possibly because the best place to post the opposite point of view might be where the opposite view reigns supreme? Or do you preach only to the converted (which is a dead waste of time, in my book)? Just a thought…

PopeUrban.2578:

From a purely factual standpoint, it is though. I’ve pretty meticulously laid out why. Influence costs scaled up as you unlocked things, but earning did not. Your ability to use your upgrades depended heavily on having larger guild populations and more highly active players on a daily basis.

{snip}

These are all statements of fact, not opinion.

Ummm… No, they’re not really. Banner A cost X. Much better Banner B cost Y. Think, oh, XP banner vs Heroes banner or something. The item costs were fixed, not scaled. Those are facts. They had nothing to do with the guild size. If you’d unlocked the pre-requisites & you had the influence, you could buy them.

Whether you think that’s better or worse than the system now? That’s opinion.

If you were a small guild, and you had & you did… You can’t now. Anet took that away. You’ve got to go through a huge grind to unlock the ability to purchase those consumables now; consumables that you had access to before. Now, once you’ve done that, it might well be that the cost for the consumable is the same whether you’re small or huge; X number of Y materials. But for Banner B, which you had access to prior to HoT, you have a kittening great wall to climb over to get the access that you had already unlocked once… Hard for a small guild.

Now that I understand your point a bit better, I think nothing has really changed. Instead of the wall of “I have access to this but need X amount to make it”, we have a wall of “I need X amount to access this, and then I can make it”. That isn’t easier for a small guild, it just puts the same effort in a different, earlier place. If you see what I mean?

Well, we’ve got somewhere, Pope. However, it seems to be you stating as fact that the new system is better for small guilds, whereas many other posters state as a fact that it isn’t. So maybe your facts are, like theirs, just an opinion?

And as I’ve already said, I’ve no real interest in the guild mechanics. I have a guild hall, courtesy of assistance from my bigger guild (they get to see what the other guild hall looks like first hand! ). It’ll take me forever to get anywhere with it, since there’s only me to progress it. Such is life. I never did anything much with my own guild under the old mechanics. Beef? Not me, guv!

Rofl. You guarantee it, do you? And what do you know? Princess. You didn’t answer my point. Princess. Probably because you can’t. Princess. These are simple stupid errors that in pretty much any other industry, except gaming, would have been picked up in QC (that’s Quality Control – the process of making sure your product works; not QA, which is the process of making sure your QC works. Just so’s you know. Princess.). And corrected at source. Before release. Princess.

Shots missed. As did yours, Skyline. The examples I gave are simple, stupid bugs that should have been picked up in QC and never released in the first place. And should take no time whatsoever to fix. They’ve released how many patches in the last 3 weeks? And did you miss the bit where I said “I’m an IT professional”? I’m an analyst/programmer. I’d be ashamed of myself if stuff like this got out into a live environment. Anet, apparently, aren’t.

And no, I’m not personally blaming John Smith. But he was quick to respond to a sucking-up-to-Anet thread. Responses to more critical comments are… rare, shall I say? Anet’s communication with its players has never been very good when there’s negative stuff around.

Well, you’re still reading, at least. Not a particularly good answer, but you’re still reading…

As it says, “daunting”, “inspiring awe”. It doesn’t say whether that’s good or bad. The informal is a secondary definition.

Awesome – some awe.

Awful – full of awe.

Neither word actually says whether the awe is good or bad.

I think the number of bugs introduced with every release is awful. I think that releasing content with simple basic oversights (bugs) in them is awful. I’m an IT professional in the Real World (i.e. not gaming). I’d be fired if I did that as regularly as Anet (and every other gaming company) do it.

I’d like to know why new crafting materials were introduced without appropriate slots in the collection bank. Some have since been patched, not all (why did it take a year for a slot to be introduced for Foxfire Clusters, for example? Are you hoping that people will spend Real Money on extra bank space?). I’d like to know why Legendary collections were released that have items that are simply unobtainable in the game (Scarlet’s Prototype Mechanism for The Predator, and for one other leggie, I believe, as an example). And very, very simple fixes have still not been applied. That’s just dandy.

Are you still reading, John Smith? Or do you only reply to people who tell you you have some awe?

It’s not the point if it’s not the point, of course! How can I best explain this? With a question, perhaps? What do you play GW2 for? Ultimately, we all give just one answer – to have fun, yes? But how do you have fun?

It’s different things for different people. Let me offer you a couple of things I definitely don’t like – Jumping Puzzles & Vistas. Oh, and “festivals” like Halloween or Super Adventure Box. I played Manic Miner when it was released (google it, if you have to), but I’m long past thinking that platform gaming is fun. Other players love that content; I do it because there are rewards attached. In the case of vistas, map completion; now that JPs are never part of dailies, I never do them (except some are now required to complete leggie collections. Meh).

Or Halloween / SAB. I’ll do as much as I need to to get what I want out of it. Other players play those things simply because they love the content. There was a thread a few days ago demanding that the dev’s “don’t waste time” on SAB. Now, I sympathise with the sentiment, obviously. If I want to retro-game, I can download an emulator & play the original (an original I might well have played when it was the newest coolest thing…).

On the other hand, again, I know that a lot of players enjoy that content and want to see more of it. Who am I to insist that they are wrong? So it is with the leggie collections. As it stands, it’s an inefficient way of getting a legendary. From the numbers p-o-v it makes more sense to gather, sell, and buy. But leggies aren’t the point & purpose of the game for most players.

The crafting route is another route. It’s an option for those players who dislike relying on luck (Toilet / drops) or grinding for gold (buying). It’s expensive, too much so in my opinion. It’s long-winded, and the fact that Anet have released it bugged is both disgusting & pathetic (there are required items that you simply cannot get, such as Scarlet’s Prototype Mechanism (needed for two leggies, I believe) – the graphic exists but you can’t interact with it. I mean that’s really kitten, right?).

But whilst I’m less than in tune with the OP’s post, there is now another route to getting a leggie. You don’t have to play the RNG game. You don’t have to play the TP game. And many players are NOT interested in either. That’s the point – that selling “stuff” to buy a precursor (whether the stuff is materials or anything else) to buy a precursor is, now, NOT the only route to getting a legendary.

Drawing Guy.3701:

Cost comes in more than just gold.

There is a difference between cost & value. Running around the world to harvest materials is something I would regard as a grind. In just the same way that I regard endlessly re-running dungeons (and only the fastest, easiest paths, naturally) for phat lootz & gold as a grind.

On the other hand, I’m running around the world anyway, doing whatever it is that I (whichever “I” we’re talking about) want to do. I accumulate materials. However much it takes, however much (or little) I concentrate on the gathering, I gather.

As Draknar rightly said, before HoT you had two options – grind for gold or… well, one option really, because gambling on the Mystic Toilet for many players meant buying cheap exotics on the TP. But let’s call it two options, for the sake of argument – grind for gold or gamble on chucking stuff down the Toilet.

Now you have a third option. It may well ultimately be less efficient / more expensive to accumulate materials & craft than it is to accumulate, sell, and buy. But that’s not the point, is it? For very many players having a leggie is not terribly important (over 6,000 hours, no precursor, leggie is a very small improvement over an 80 exotic, couldn’t care less; I’d play with a player who knows what they’re doing than some clueless idiot with maxed gear & a dozen leggies).

If you enjoy chasing down a leggie as fast as possible, however you get it, good for you. If you enjoy just generally running around the world, and one leggie will eventually come your way, good for you.

Whatever I think of the OP’s post (which is more negative than positive, lest it be forgotten), players now have another option to achieve the “best” gear. It may be, in-game, more expensive, but so long as they are enjoying themselves, what does that matter?

Jordy.1570:

plz explain

Sorry. Shan’t. If you can’t work it out for yourself, you won’t acknowledge anything I tell you as having any validity. Besides which, I couldn’t manage to wade through your badly spelt & incomprehensible reply.

Jordy.1570:

troll post? r u kidding me? this reddit post shows how stupid precurser crafting is:

[PSA] Check here before starting to craft your precursor!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3rohuz/psa_check_here_before_starting_to_craft_your/

in many cases its cheaper to buy it directly from the TP instead if crafting it. this shows how stupid the hole precurser crafting is….. u spend time on your collections and than its even more expensive….

it clearly shows that your post is pretty silly….

Errr… No, it doesn’t, and it’s obvious you haven’t bothered to read the thread properly (which is pretty silly if you feel the need to comment). It’s already been pointed out (by me, for a start) that it’s still cheaper to buy from the TP than to craft.

But if you enjoy just running round the world & you accumulate materials, you now have a different route to getting a legendary than grinding gold or world bosses or praying to the RNG gods. I’ve clocked up over 6000 hours since release. I’ve never had a precursor drop. I’ve said I think the OP is over-effusive in their praise, I’m unsurprised that the process is bugged for some of the leggies because I have no faith in Anet’s QC procedures.

But the silly post is not the OP’s…

My biggest 2 issues are Vengeful Hammers (already listed) and Dwarf Stance (Jalis) underwater. VH is the most useful Dwarf utility. That any sort of “solid” terrain switches it off is ridiculous as well as irritating. Surely these hammers, summoned from the Mists, are ethereal as much as they are “real”?

As for underwater… Alright, we spend 90% of our time on land, and I can understand why Dwarf shouldn’t be allowed to function underwater. However, why can’t the game remember that underwater I want a choice of two stances that aren’t dwarf, whereas on land I want dwarf + 1 other?

That’s just rank bad design. And on the subject of QA, which should have flagged this up & stopped it, as an IT professional, may I just point out that this is actually QC, not QA? Quality Control is the process of making sure your product works. Quality Assurance is the process of making sure your QC works!

Whether Anet understand the difference is moot. Whatever they call their teams (if they have them), they are either rubbish or ignored. These are minor bugs affecting one class. How you can release Legendary Collections with unobtainable items, or create new crafting materials without allocating Collection slots for them in the bank is beyond me. Those are such basic & obvious QC checks that it’s utterly ridiculous that they have not been sorted out before go-live.

slamfunction.7462:

Well, its that or quit and go play something else. Quite frankly, the market is rather bleak in terms of MMOs

As I said, Anet are no worse than anyone else. Buggy product / releases are endemic in the gaming industry. Car crashes kill real people; game crashes don’t! We still keep playing.

It doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be criticised for consistently releasing flawed product (I can’t remember the last release that didn’t result in 3 major patches within a week or so & at least 6 before it worked properly). Nor does it mean that overdone praise (which I feel your’s is) shouldn’t be challenged. Incidentally, according to another thread here somewhere, it’s actually still cheaper to grind gold & buy a pre-cursor than to grind your way through making a Leggie the new way.

PopeUrban.2578

The only permanent unlocks in the old system…

You still don’t get it, do you? What people had (not consumables that they’d made, stuff they’d earned & unlocked that allowed them to do other things. such as making those consumables.) has been taken away. They thought it was permanent. Now they have to go through a far bigger grind to unlock AGAIN what they had access to before. And what you claim is “permanent” now could just as easily be taken away in the future, if Anet decide another complete re-vamp of the guild system is necessary (or just funny).

And if you understand nothing else, understand this. I don’t really care about the guild stuff. My own guild consists of me (my Raid Alliance from another game tried GW2, didn’t take to it, and I can’t be bothered to recruit). My GW2 guild has around 20-25 active players. I have no say in what happens with the in-game guild mechanics, mostly because I don’t want any authority (been there, done that). I do care about bad arguments & people not listening.

You can keep can repeating yourself until you froth at the mouth and fall over backwards. And then, a la Monty Python, you can become a candidate for Tory MP. I’m sure you’ll do swimmingly. Those that bother to read the thread know your opinion by know; those that don’t you won’t reach by repeating the same thing over & over. If you see what I mean.

Other players’ opinions differ from yours, and they’re not happy. You won’t make them happier by repeatedly insisting that they’re wrong.

Aside from the fact that it was supplied broken, I love my new car.

Aside from the fact that my new washing machine / dish washer / whatever, doesn’t complete its cycle & leaves me unfinished / uncleaned / whatever, but wow! It looks really fabulous in my kitchen.

Only in the gaming industry could you release product as dysfunctional as Anet do on every release (NB: Anet are no worse than the vast majority of gaming companies). Only in the gaming world would you get someone telling you how wonderful broken product is…

PopeUrban.2578:

I don’t know how many times I have to say this.

The new system is massively more friendly to small guilds due to the permanent nature of unlocks.

Oh, keep repeating what you’ve been repeating for the last 4 days. The last system had permanent unlocks (of a different variety). Until Anet threw it all away with HoT because it suited them. When will they decide to throw it all away again?

End of your argument, really. An argument that lots of people disagree with, anyway. With good reason. So will you stop repeating it? I doubt it…

That’s a much better way of expressing your views, thank you, Doctor. Your first try wasn’t very good. As a small guild person, I know it’ll take a long time to achieve anything much.

I haven’t complained about it. I “game the system” on PvP dailies with my second guild. We have our own arena, but we don’t really PvP (most of the time); it’s just a point-scoring exercise. I realise that if there were different rules for different sized guilds… Heck, guilds are doing it now. It’s widely known that if you take 10 instead of 9 into the hall claiming mission it gets a lot harder.

But the OP is way out of line. I don’t entirely agree with you either, Doctor. But at least I now have a much better idea of the point you were trying to make!

Undercutting by a copper is normal practice. Unless there’s a good reason not to, it’s a perfectly sensible practice, whether we’re talking undercutting (selling) or overcutting (buying). It’s when someone randomly changes the price by a silver, a gold, several… by several percentage points, that you start thinking some players ought to be barred from using the TP.

In short, if it was selling (buying) for X, it’ll sell for X +/- 1 cp. But when you randomly knock a chunk off the price… It was going for the price you just screwed over. If it wasn’t, the price wouldn’t be there!

It can be very frustrating. Not that I have any time for the OP’s post. I do believe, even though I have no stat’s to back up my opinion, that the vast majority of people who play the game don’t visit the forum. So the vast majority of people that use the TP will never see this…

Take your charge of hypocrisy & shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, Doctor. Anyone & everyone on the forums is a vocal minority. I don’t have an opinion on the subject (despite being a small guild in either of my guilds). I do strenuously object to people like YOU and the OP setting up strawman arguments, though.

YOU (as well as the OP) need to accept that everyone has a right to voice their opinions on these forums. Including those who have a different opinion from you. “Vocal minority” is a BS statement that YOU have absolutely no statistics to validate.

Who says Guild Halls are meant to be only for large guilds? Anet? I haven’t seen it. Tell you what, how about you stop complaining about people complaining; how about you stop posting pointless threads that will achieve absolutely nothing useful.

Yawn Do you think that the people who do this will actually be on the forum? I undercut all the time. But then I only sell high value items. One at a time. And I wait.

Apologies if there are already threads on this. I’d guess there are, but I can’t see any on the first few pages… And actually, it’s more a complaint than a suggestion.

Foxfire Clusters. It’s taken you a year or so to finally allocate a slot in the Crafting Vault for these things. Mystic Clovers have been in the game since the start. But you’ve only just added a slot to the Vault.

You released HoT with a bunch of new crafting ingredients. A week later you realised there were a whole load of those that you hadn’t added a slot for before & patched. There are STILL a whole load of ingredients for which there is no Vault slot. Milling Basins won’t go in. Bauxite Ore. Pristine Feathers.

If you add a new crafting ingredient (i.e. one generally required in bulk), PLEASE, by default, add a vault slot!! It should be obvious, and it should be on someone’s checklist. If it is a gem, or it isn’t otherwise an item (i.e. it doesn’t have stats attached to it) and it is required for crafting… There SHOULD be a slot in the Crafting Vault for it.

Even better (though more difficult to implement) would be an option to display individual items by the map you’re on (an option, you’ll note). What I’m thinking specifically of is the new crafted Legendaries. Go to this map, do this; go to that map, talk to that person. If you’ve got a dozen of the things open, you have to look at each collection (with 20+ plus items in each) to see whether there is something for that map.

I’d like to be able to go to e.g. Queensdale & see what individual items I need to do, rather than to have to dig into each achievement to try to find out what…

I don’t have a problem with mentors. I treat them exactly the same way that I treat commanders – self-appointed numpties who have never demonstrated any reason why I should pay the slightest attention to a single word they say.

There are, of course, exceptions. But they’re names that I recognise & have a reason to respect. As long as there is a system whereby people can spend time or money just to “win” an icon, I will treat that icon with the contempt that it deserves.

It’s a game. I’ll play the game the way that I want to. If someone wants to try to order me around, they’ll get a very short answer. Whether they’re tagged as a commander, mentor, or no tag at all.

I do realise that this is only a game (yes, really, it is only a game). Nevertheless! A. Staff. Is. Not. A. Halberd. And a halberd. Is. Not. A. Staff!!

I am a (lapsed) Medieval Martial Artist & a re-enactor. I do know how to use a staff. I’ve won tourneys with it (a competent staffman will beat a good swordsman 9/10). The most dangerous attack is actually the thrust (which you cannot, in training or competition, use safely). I haven’t tried a halberd; they are vanishingly rare outside of “up / down, one line facing another” battle displays. Why? Because they’re very difficult to use safely. I may not have wielded one, but I know how they work, and I know what the risks are.

Sorry, Yukito, however much you love ’em, a halberd is not the same thing as a staff, I very much doubt you have the faintest idea how a staff should be used, and I would certainly object to your suggestion.

Three-quarters nit-picking, I’m afraid, Paavotar. Technology changes & improves. So the maps are redesigned to be slightly smaller, under current technology, with the same number of players per map, but less players per server. Or, more likely, this happens in several years with GW3 (and I’m pretty sure that’s already on the drawing board; I’d be astonished if it wasn’t! ) when tech has improved & we have the same numbers of player per server. Or more. The world doesn’t stand still, whether it’s Tyria or the real one.

Server numbers – what’s that got to do with the concept? It’s a concept! So add another server, big deal. It’s only a bunch of rack space. Or more likely, merge servers – that’s what usually happens as games age & player numbers drop. Anet would need to make new maps. Well, duh! State the obvious, or what? Since you seem to have missed it, I’ll repeat it in bold – I’m not suggesting this has any sort of priority at all. There are many more important things that need working on in all aspects of the game. Probably, it’s something to think about for GW3 rather than for the current one, but I thought I’d throw it out there…

As for your second para… You’ve completely missed the implications of the idea and of my penultimate para. I did say " I’m sure you can all work out how." Obviously you haven’t; I’m sure others will. If no-one does, I’ll explain. For now I’ll say, no, you’re wrong. The scenario will stay the same some of the time. But it will also change a lot of the time. I know what people are like, and I know what gamers are like…

Mo Mo.1947:

Why are people argueing about lore or text-book definitions of the word “guild”? O.o

Because, inevitably, Someone With An Opinion stomped in & tried to lay down a law, that isn’t anything more than their opinion, by telling you that “you’re not a real guild”. In Anet’s terms, oh yes you ARE!

MiniE – you’ve really only repeated what I said. I’d thank you for the support, except I think you thought you were trying to tell me something I didn’t already know! Yes, Anet’s definition is the only one that matters. The definition I gave was the one that an analyst / programmer (which is what I am) would give. To suggest a guild is anything else is silly & pointless. It’s simply a logical in-game concept & means whatever the company wants it to mean. I seem to remember in LotRO, at least in the beginning, if you didn’t maintain X number of members (6, I think) in a Kinship (different term, same thing), you got disbanded a month after you fell below the threshold.

And I’m not in the least complaining about the way content for guilds is designed. I was merely commenting that I doubt Anet have considered tiny guilds (I wonder how easy guilds with only 2 or 3 active players will find the unlock process?). It’d be nice if they did but, frankly, I’d rather they spent their time on other things. I’ll see what a guild hall looks like, because I don’t doubt I’ll be helping my second guild (which probably has 20-30 active players) build their’s. That’s one definite plus point with GW2 – guild membership is not exclusive!

Preamble: Whenever I take the Bartle test (look it up if you don’t know!), I come out ESAK or SEAK. Simply, I’m not a Killer; I’m not much interested in fighting other players. Each to their own & all that. So I don’t take PvP at all seriously, and WvW not much more so. Don’t get me wrong, I’m competitive alright! Just not on the internet, where all too many people lack any sort of manners because they’re never going to get the smack in the mouth that their behaviour demands… Ahem!

I’ve had a lot of time on my hands recently & I’ve gone through another phase of running around in WvW a reasonable amount; for the dailies & for the fun of it. I’m nothing special, I don’t duel, I’ve no special build, I’m strictly casual, as often as not (but not always, I’ll follow the zerg. However, one thing recently struck me (and apologies if this has been suggested before)…

Obviously, a 3 server map is a lot more interesting than a 2 server map. However, what I’ve noticed in the last couple of months is that what often happens is the middle server just gets squeezed. This is natural. If 3rd is distant from 1st, then neither benefit from fighting each other – 3rd wants to overtake 2nd, 1st wants to make sure 2nd stays there. And, of course, if 2nd is getting pummelled from both sides, then 1st’s lead grows ever more secure…

With megaservers, and multi-server guilds, I am sure there are hundreds upon hundreds of players who know players from competing servers. A four-way map, surely, adds a strategic layer to the tactical gameplay. I’m sure you can all work out how. I’m not suggesting this has any sort of priority at all. There are many more important things that need working on in all aspects of the game. Probably, it’s something to think about for GW3 rather than for the current one, but I thought I’d throw it out there…

NB: Full disclosure – I’m on a Tier 2 server (Eur, Piken). If we get put up against T1, we get mashed because we don’t maintain the 24hr numbers that they do. If we get put up against T3 / T4 we mash them ditto. Not a complaint; it’s just the nature of things!

I don’t have any sort of RSI or other disability problem with this & wouldn’t use it. Nevertheless, I fully support the idea. When I ran a Raid Alliance (in LotRO), I know for a fact that we had people with colour blindness, near-total deafness, and cerebral palsy with us. Probably there were others who didn’t want to tell us, or who just didn’t feel any need to. You make allowances for the fact that they’re going to struggle with certain aspects of the game, but you still make them welcome -THEY’RE GAMERS TOO!!

It says a lot about Anet’s “priorities” that something as simple as this to introduce has been left rotting on the board for nearly a year…

Eirdyne.9843:

You really can’t build up those friendships you have had in any other game here. It’s just not going to let you.

I enjoyed the OP’s post, and also the fact for once, a perfectly polite discussion is taking place without any name-calling or sneering. Short answer to Lankhmar is the obvious one – wrong game for you, and possibly the wrong genre. Though, having said that, there are plenty of more or less lone wolves playing MMOs. I’m sort-of one them myself; I spend most of my time running around on my own.

Having said that, every time I’ve taken the Bartle test (if you don’t know it, look it up! ), I come out ESAK or SEAK. I like the social side. Which is why I felt moved to pick up Eirdyne’s point. There’s quite a few things about GW2 I either don’t like, or leave me unimpressed, although I’m not going to critique anything.

However, what I’ve said from Day One (literally) is that the way GW2 is designed means that it’s a co-operative game, not a social one. Because there’s no mob-tagging, you’re rewarded for randomly thumping a mob to help someone out. But you never have to talk to anyone, and there’s nothing to encourage you to group up, bar dungeons (and even there many paths are supposed to be soloable). Add to which the social tools, although improved since the start, are still substandard.

Just my two penn’orth!

Whatever the literal meaning of guild, in the game it is a logical entity with various attributes that has at least one player in it and does not require more than one. So can we drop the silly “one person is not a guild” nit-picking.

I, too, am in a one-person guild. Well, actually, there’s still a dozen or so names on it, after I trimmed some. Basically my then Raid Alliance took to GW2 like a duck to oil (hopped in, hopped out again). There’s only 3 or 4 of us still play and we’ve all found other guilds, so there’s only me ever rep’s. I never bothered about the GMs, and whilst it’d be nice if I could get my own guildhall, I don’t suppose it’s been designed with solo guilds in mind.

Don’t think I’ve have an open world drop since the announcement, but since they nerfed key-farming (I used to do it once a day, to use up some of those ToK’s as much as anything), I decided to promote one of the spare slots to a new permanent L80 alt (I had all classes at the cap before the first birthday).

Since, he has been doing a lot of map completions. I seem to remember hearing that the drop rate is supposed to be about 3 in 10 for map completion; I reckon I’ve had something like 5 in 6 or so in recent completions. Either that’s where they’ve increased the rate, or the RNG has decided to be slightly nicer to me temporarily…

Not that it’s doing any good. They’re all sat in the bank, waiting for some indication that Anet are going to respond the wall of justifiable criticism about the rubbish that drops from BLC’s. Those of you that recall the original storm will also remember it boiled down to “people don’t buy keys cos the rewards are mostly garbage!” Quite right too, in my opinion!