Guild Wars 2

Currently Scribing appears to have been put into the game half-written and incomplete. The only valid thought process behind this that I can come up with is that the devs simply thought that they could fix the system before anyone got far enough into the Guild Halls to realize just exactly how half-built and incomplete it was. It’s so broken that it should be taken out to prevent people from wasting time and materials trying to level up a game mechanic that is functionally worthless at this point in time.

Things that are broken:

There are multiple materials and schematics not actually in the game yet:

Resonating Fragments: no one has yet figured out how to make these or if the schematic is available anywhere. Apparently they’re craftable but there is no way to craft them

Tub of Wood Glue
Bolts of Embroidered Silk

If they’re supposed to be available at the master scribe, they are not. If they’re supposed to be craftable, they are not.

There are three writs that are discoverable by the scribes which give some nice bonuses, the thesis idea is great. However, can we not have all three of them give the same stat bonus, please?

There are a ton of ‘basic’ decoration items that are used to make upgraded furniture items with level 25, 50, and 75 schematics. These items are not sold by the Decorations Vendor Level 1. You know, the basic vendor that you can get fairly easily. No, The basic decorations vendor only sells the first five. You can buy Chest, Table, Chair, Bookshelf, and Basket from the level 1 vendor. That is unacceptable. We should not be expected to unlock vendor 2 and 3 in order to do our basic tier 1 decorations crafting.

The materials requirement for the very first WvW schematic is abhorrently ridiculous. To make a Supply Drop, which is a simple drop of 100 wvw supply into your claimed objective it requires the following:

1 badge of Tribute
1 Resonating Sliver
1 Copper Reinforcing Plate
1 Bag of shimmering energy

This wouldn’t be so bad if BOTH of the last two ingredients didn’t take a Linen Supply Sack, each of which requires 200 Flax Fibers. Which means, basically, that a WvW guild is going to have to zerg through maguuma for a couple of DAYS to get enough flax fibers to save five minutes of standing around just waiting for supply to return. This is simply dumb. Beyond dumb. This was a decision made by someone who doesn’t play WvW and/or tried to collect 400 flax fibers.

Each one of these Tier 1 super low level schematic builds currently would cost 40g or several days of fiber hunting. For a one-time use upgrade that only drops 100 supply.

Currently, the return on investment of both time and materials for scribing is simply not there. A -lot- of work needs to go into seriously looking at the de facto results of the implementation choices of this profession.

We should just be able to change the colour of accessories in the armor dye window.

I’d be doing much better in HoT if I was awarded some XP each time I die.

I used to be very unhappy for being poor. Until I find the power of hallucination.

When I see a Ferrari, I stopped thinking I want it. I start to tell myself sports car are very uncomfortable anyway.

When I see people with a big house, I start telling myself who want big house anyway. It take too long to clean up.

When I see people with legendary, I just tell myself who would want some sparkly shinny item with so many particle effect that you can’t see anything. “Point to the big Norn warrior wearing twilight”. And the little asura that wear sunrise looks like a kid running around peeing.

Some people make the claim “I want my elite specialist now, so I can play the new content with it…..” I just tell myself, those specialist suck anyway. Really, who in the right mind use druid/reaper/dragonhunter to explore the jungle. Those spec is really bad at exploration.

Some people complain about the mastery grind. But really, why are you grinding for an auto loot which crash your game. A precursor hunt mastery which cost more than buying the precursor directly from the trading post. A fractal mastery which drop bad loot.

I listen to many small guild complain about guild hall grind. But really, I don’t even understand why anyone care. Why are people grinding for a npc repair guy or merchant, which every map have.

So you see, instead of thinking the grass is always greener on the other side, think the grass is always greener on your side.

That being said, I’m finally rich enough to afford legendary. I think legendary are really cool. After I got my druid specialist, I find it being really cool. But I never use it. After I finally reach mastery level 30. I tell myself everyone lower level than me is a noob, and everyone higher level than me have no life.

Cheer and stay happy.

I know the idea of a repeatable mastery may not sound desirable or logical, but hear me out.

I think after everyone is done grinding away at the Central Tyrian and Maguuma Masteries, there should be something in place that you can just set as your focus that will be infinitely repeatable and grant you something when you finish, and Masteries that work anywhere you are. It could also be used to grant a way to farm some potentially rare items that currently have no fantastic way of being farmed

Some ideas could be:
—Tome of Knowledge, needing 1,024,000 XP.
You may have a character you really enjoy playing but would love to have alts at 80 to play. Note that this XP amount is about 4x more than what should be needed for any given level, and therefore it should be reasonably more time consuming to get than it would be to get any level just through world completion or any other means. If there is any reason why this could be gotten faster than a normal level, other than XP boosts, which is completely supportable, then I think that method of gaining XP should be nerfed.

—Spirit Shard, needing 512,000 or 1,024,000 XP
Aside from dailies, there hasn’t really be any solid way of getting these since the skill point change. I don’t know how well balanced 1million XP is for these, especially since it is farmable, but I think it sounds reasonable, especially because you do need a lot of them, at least for Legendaries.

—Transmutation Charge, needing 512,000 XP
I imagine ANet wants to keep these limited enough that some people will buy them, but it would be nice to have a steady source of these outside of PvP, even if it is a big draw of PvP.

I do recognize that some of the items I listed as potential rewards are intruding upon certain gamemodes that the game sets up for them to be rewards, but I think based on the amount of effort needed for them, it is reasonable.

Hail fellow jungle adventurers.

Seeing the massive list of hot being good or bad i felt the need to write my own initial impressions of the expansion while comparing it to the many other mmo/expac launches that I’ve been apart of.

I am an mmo nerd, not of the mtn dew variety but more the Red bull/Irn bru type if you want specifics, eu and na difference yeah?
Been on gw2 off and on since head start, before hot i viewed gw2 as one of the better more successful mmos available on market, one of a few i return to often.

Now with hot starting up there have been many changes and additions.
So lets get started on a mini review.

The Good.

I’ve not seen this mentioned much but the launch was smooth as silk, i mean seriously no queues, no getting stuck or lost unable to play with who i want. Only technical issue i had was a reward box that kept crashing my client which is now fixed might i add.

I praise anet for such a smooth ride so many other mmos cause serious frustrarion here and i think many players take gw2s professional launch for granted.

Content. I love the new maps, before id hardly ever step into pve. Why?
Because it was too easy, brain dead easy infact. You simply could not lose.
Entering verdent brink for the first time gives you a shock to the system, the game forces you to focus and pay attention.
No more spamming auto attack and only paying attention to how many champions you can tag rather than whether there is a threat to your chars well being around.

For me this is a vast improvement over the original game. I believe i might continue into pve instead of only being here for the wvw.
Anybody complaining about hardness for me should stick to the original brain dead head bashing mind numbingly boring original game, orr awaits you.

The design of the maps is amazing. Im discovering cool stuff every play session and i have much much more to do yet.

The new musical score is fantastic, I had music disabled in vanilla, bit bored listening to most of those tunes since gw1 but these new ones which borrow themes from certain popular movies and such are just brilliant.

I actually really like the mastery system.
It adds a unique take on the levelling formula of the classic Rpg.
I can safely say the expansion would be very boring without the required gating the mastery system provides locking you from parts of the world.

For example, i found a way down into the depths to this apparent massive underwater tunnel area on the 3rd map. I only had glider masteries.. I was thinking this looks cool.
I venture out only to start getting destroyed by many hungry fish. Turns out i couldn’t continue.. I tried anyway and died hah but the thing is.. I WANT to go there EVEN MORE now.
Thats basic messing with human psychology and its great, adds to the game.

Gliding.
I used to play Aion over the years and gliding is nostalgic for me.. More so with my black feather angel wings!!! =) Being able to use them as a glider is amazing. Gliding its self i think is also helped by the awesome map design.

Desert borderlands is nice though i have to explore it more.
Guild halls are cool.

The Bad.

Hero point elite spec gating. Duh.

This was a big mistake on anets part in my opinion.
They gave everyone full access to Elite specs in beta then lock them behind a wall on official launch.
Im not saying players should have gotten them for free but if i was designing it, id have made the hp requirement the same as other specs while gating them behind a system of close to map completion of the first map only (or 50 wvw ranks not kitten 200). Giving players a fine taste of the new expansion without feeling FORCED to do it, to unlock something they had before even if it was beta.

For example i enjoy the game but i have jumped ahead of my normal progression through the maps and masteries looking for hps i can get without it being restricted.
That forced me to see things such as the forgotten city and the mursat like people before i did the story. To see clear spoilers of what will happen in the story when id have not gone there before otherwise.
I.e. I know some skritt ship is involved and gets blown up some place and what that entails possibly.

Id also be spending time on the actual game instead of hunting for silly hps like a mad man which i might add is very immersion breaking and boring.
I am at grandmaster now (work alot this week) its not hard for me, i dont mind hard, its tedious not hard. Stupid design choice.

Im sure it will be fixed but maps can get empty of players, that is obviously a big negative and counter to the point of the megaserver.

Lack of loot on some events is lame even when killing lots of hard champ mobs.

The ugly……

One of my characters is a ranger (playing mes in hot) and they got screwed in the rear this expansion…
First they are the only elite spec to be pure healing.

Healing could go well with the core of any class as long as it was controled, in bw3 druid was fun. A sort of medi guardian style of play, many were calling it just that.

Then they go and gut druids Asteral Force mechanics WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE.
Seriously.
They went and changed the Entire concept and left the players to discover their new shiny toy they have bought and looked forward to playing is infact something else, something clunky, not fun. Just kitten really.

There is lots of feedback on the ranger forum about it but to me the biggest downer is the silence from Anet.
Certain devs were involved ireneo(sp) and probably Roy and neither have said anything about it.

Druid is the only elite spec being made only useful in raid situations and crap everywhere else.

The silence to me is quite pathetic and it does look like office politics playing a part of ruining parts of the game.
Anet need to get a grip, explain and communicate.
Druid may have needed toned down but this absolute gutting of the class without communication is highly unprofessional.

Overall; day one, druid made me mad, still does.
But i like hot.
I think hp grind was a mistake but think hardness and masteries is great.
Maps are amazing and the future of the game looks bright!!
Sorry for grammar, wrote on phone.

Reavx

sephiroth.4217:

Can we ask for exclusive hair colour options to also apply to hair accessories while we’re at it?

This so much.

And new horns for charr.

Can we ask for exclusive hair colour options to also apply to hair accessories while we’re at it?

Anybody remember the “Our Time Is Now” marketing video?

Honestly the marketing side of Anet hasnt always been good. They make mistakes. It happens.

perhaps this current events is also just a big mistake. I dont like all the nickel and diming going on, but hey i am willing to give them a chance to fix things this one last time, after the large marketing mistake of China NPE/Traits being forced on Western market consumers.

If the upvotes on the reddit thread “Don’t Pre-Purchase Heart of Thorns” are any indication, that’s a bare-minimum loss of $78k, so far, not including any upgrade packages. So the total is easily over $100,000 in lost sales, just from those who have viewed that thread and voted. It’s not a perfect metric, but people are speaking their minds and voting with their money right now.

Maybe if there was some discussion about the HoT packages and price points, this disaster could have been avoided. It’s not like we don’t want to give Anet our money, but we also want good value. If the price cannot be lowered at this point, at least pad the packages, especially the base one. It’s nickel and diming your customers, when you make them pay $50, then force them to buy a character slot for the new class.

CureForLiving.5360:

Frogs offer so much design variety!

http://listverse.com/2013/03/04/top-10-bizarre-frogs/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/60200/5-weird-looking-fascinating-frogs

I want to see a Dredge version of one of these – http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/13-of-the-ugliest-animals-on-the-planet/star-nosed-mole

*Disclaimer: The frog in the picture above is not really riding the beetle. They just share a health pool.

Imagine when they throw us into a larger scale map, event, and/or story that focuses us more in water combat – This will then come to pass.

I kinda hope it’s someone who got kittened they didn’t get a ticket from using 25 keys, so they bought all the chests to make other people kittened that they bought keys, but then couldn’t use them :P not hoping it for the drama, just for the giggles.
if someone is stocking them, they are likely storing them in the trading post pickup. infinite storage if you do it that way. some players even have 2nd accounts just for trading, so it doesn’t even have to interfere with their normal stuff.

Prototypemind.4026:

But that won’t increase demand for chests. They drop so often they only way you’re low is farming like crazy for the most part. I don’t forsee this being a worthwhile investment.

My guess is that the person in question is banking on the market memory not actually causing it to go down. If enough people just go with the current prices they’ll create enough of a buffer that the person in question will have actually created a new price for the BLC’s. Considering what we’re talking about, it’s reasonable to believe that he can succeed in doing so. The number of people that will really care about the difference between 60c and 1s40c (the Sell Listings from before and after) will largely be irrelevant, so it’s all up to the additional number of people pushing down the price through selling large quantities of Black Lion Chests directly to the bottom floor (ie. the Buy Orders). And with the massive amount of Buy Orders at 1s, it’s highly unlikely that it will manage to push through that barrier any time soon. Of course, over the course of the last couple of days the Supply has increased slightly faster than it had previously (more people are actually putting out Sell Orders due to the higher gain), so it’s possible that price memory still might take effect (ignoring the massive influx of Buy Orders suddenly thrown at 1s, the amount of people actually ordering the chests has actually managed to increase).

Of course, all this being said, this sort of maneuver won’t really gain any amount of money unless someone else actually does the same thing. Being able to sell ones bought at 50c at 1s at a profit means nothing when the ones you bought at 1s are still eating up all of your money. Unless demand actually increases by a notable amount to combat the amount of increased supply (due to more people hitting the “I’m willing to sell these now” point), the price will just have changed at that’d be that. And that sort of speculation on the BLC’s seems extremely foolish, as the entire point of them is to be a reasonably likely drop that causes incentive for people to want to spend money in the cash shop. Making them relevantly harder to obtain would go directly against ANet’s interests.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m thinking that those large quantities of buy orders (such as for 1s) were on purpose to encourage people to bid above them so they could sell them. All they need is something to stimulate demand such as new players starting the game and completing the first personal story chapter, expansion release and people do personal story on their new revenant, a new set skins, a sale on keys, etc.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Considering this is the second time this has happened, I guess there is a profit to it. The storage requirements must be fierce though, since they haven’t listed them back on the trading post.

They likely are using an alt account and just have them sitting waiting to be picked up rather than in their inventory.

That must be it, because it’s over 9000 stacks of chests.

eh I wish they would up the cap to 90 so I can have one of every class (including Revenant) of every race of both genders.

Enko.6123:

eh I wish they would up the cap to 90 so I can have one of every class (including Revenant) of every race of both genders.

:O I think I’d get stumped thinking up 90 character names!

Enko.6123:

Miss Lana.5276:

Enko.6123:

Here’s what I’m doing with my 41 character slots:
Goals:
1. 1 character of each class of each race of one gender. [Completed except Revenant]. 14 are at level 80. Others are between lvl 21-34 intentionally to farm Silver Doubloons
Fully gear all 40 characters. Full ascended armors and weapons. [11 Ascended Armors/43 Ascended Weapons made]
2. All characters 100% map completion. Working on Charr Ranger. [8 of 45 completed]
3. All characters personal story completed. [1 of 45]
4. All Dungeons unlocked for all characters.

You have 41 too? :O

Yeah I’m working my way through them all in world completion, gearing and leveling. I’m at 10 80’s. One is at 74 and one’s at 50. The rest are between 20-25 (thank goodness for those insta lvl 20 scrolls, right?). I used to have them all parked at the end of the Not So Secret jumping puzzle for the blade shards, but now I have enough to make all 3 versions of the backpiece, I’ve moved them to an ore farming location.

Peronal story is probably the very last thing on my list. When a toon hits ~60 I go through the personal story to “The Battle of Claw Island”, so I get all 3 keys from them. That being said I’ve run Arah story through with about ~4 of my characters. I’m so confident with it now I’ll take an entire group of players who have never done it before and just explain to them what needs to be done and when.

I’m saving 5 of my insta-20 scrolls for the 5 revs I’ll be making. The rest I use on key farming if I can be bothered to do so.

These are my other goals
All Dyes Unlocked. Completed
All Miniatures Unlocked. [LLamas, Mordrem Teragriff, Mordrem Troll, Mordrem Husk, Black Bear Cub remaining]
Full Wardrobe unlocked. 70k gold worth of skins to go. Working on the last 10 legendaries before I go on to the rest. Current progress

Holy mother of kitten

I bow to your obvious supreme gold/item farming skills! I’m in the middle of making my third legendary. But then again I don’t hardcore farm. I often stand around in LA and kitten while eating or watching a movie. I’m just working on 100% on all my 80’s atm. I find it relaxing, and I often get keys for it too

Miss Lana.5276:

Enko.6123:

Here’s what I’m doing with my 41 character slots:
Goals:
1. 1 character of each class of each race of one gender. [Completed except Revenant]. 14 are at level 80. Others are between lvl 21-34 intentionally to farm Silver Doubloons
Fully gear all 40 characters. Full ascended armors and weapons. [11 Ascended Armors/43 Ascended Weapons made]
2. All characters 100% map completion. Working on Charr Ranger. [8 of 45 completed]
3. All characters personal story completed. [1 of 45]
4. All Dungeons unlocked for all characters.

You have 41 too? :O

Yeah I’m working my way through them all in world completion, gearing and leveling. I’m at 10 80’s. One is at 74 and one’s at 50. The rest are between 20-25 (thank goodness for those insta lvl 20 scrolls, right?). I used to have them all parked at the end of the Not So Secret jumping puzzle for the blade shards, but now I have enough to make all 3 versions of the backpiece, I’ve moved them to an ore farming location.

Peronal story is probably the very last thing on my list. When a toon hits ~60 I go through the personal story to “The Battle of Claw Island”, so I get all 3 keys from them. That being said I’ve run Arah story through with about ~4 of my characters. I’m so confident with it now I’ll take an entire group of players who have never done it before and just explain to them what needs to be done and when.

I’m saving 5 of my insta-20 scrolls for the 5 revs I’ll be making. The rest I use on key farming if I can be bothered to do so.

These are my other goals
All Dyes Unlocked. Completed
All Miniatures Unlocked. [LLamas, Mordrem Teragriff, Mordrem Troll, Mordrem Husk, Black Bear Cub remaining]
Full Wardrobe unlocked. 70k gold worth of skins to go. Working on the last 10 legendaries before I go on to the rest. Current progress