Guild Wars 2

zealex.9410:

Randulf.7614:

Fractured.3928:

Honestly I kinda agree with OP. Maps and story shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall like that. Even more so, that they are locked behind ANOTHER paywall (HoT).

Arenanet is making bank off of microtransactions too, so the whole “They need money to make content”. They are making plenty of money, they just want to make more. Not only that, but for a full priced Expansion, HoT probably had the least content out of any MMO expansion I’ve seen, by a lot.

However, since if you’re actively playing when the story releases, it is free. I can’t really get up on a soap box and complain about it.

I would be surprised if micro transactions cover every expense, especially given that since HoT we have had a steady and constant stream of content and that looks to be continuing. I’m not a big fan of the LS model as I find it inhibits recommending to friends who would mostly only play for story, but I’m also uncertain of a better solution, given that fully free is not one of those and you can buy with in game currency (gold-gems).

As for the size of HoT, yes content wise it was smaller than hoped, but it nowhere near comes close to bottom of the pile. I’ve seen vastly smaller ones in other MMO’s like Lotro and some Funcom games. Sure it doesn’t match the big ones I imagine WoW, FF14 and prob TESO put out, but it did have a strong replay value, given 2 years on those maps are well sustained.

Hot was as big uf not bigger than Morrowind.

Noted. I was never 100% on ESO expac sizes having not really seen them – I just didn’t have the time to invest in the game despite liking the franchise

Fractured.3928:

Honestly I kinda agree with OP. Maps and story shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall like that. Even more so, that they are locked behind ANOTHER paywall (HoT).

Arenanet is making bank off of microtransactions too, so the whole “They need money to make content”. They are making plenty of money, they just want to make more. Not only that, but for a full priced Expansion, HoT probably had the least content out of any MMO expansion I’ve seen, by a lot.

However, since if you’re actively playing when the story releases, it is free. I can’t really get up on a soap box and complain about it.

I would be surprised if micro transactions cover every expense, especially given that since HoT we have had a steady and constant stream of content and that looks to be continuing. I’m not a big fan of the LS model as I find it inhibits recommending to friends who would mostly only play for story, but I’m also uncertain of a better solution, given that fully free is not one of those and you can buy with in game currency (gold-gems).

As for the size of HoT, yes content wise it was smaller than hoped, but it nowhere near comes close to bottom of the pile. I’ve seen vastly smaller ones in other MMO’s like Lotro and some Funcom games. Sure it doesn’t match the big ones I imagine WoW, FF14 and prob TESO put out, but it did have a strong replay value, given 2 years on those maps are well sustained.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve given the matter some thought and I’ve decided that I’m willing for y’all to release the expansion early.

Will tomorrow at noon your time be ok?

I’m unlikely to be up at noon. 1pm would suit me better

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

That is very positive news. Of the 3 recent ones, I’d say Nightmare got the length spot on, but as you say S.O. was very much out of sync with most of the fractals (except Dredge which I largely avoid if I can).

I also hope we go back to the idea of visiting snapshots of known and unknown history/lore again. Things like Cliffside have that fantastic feel of wonder and mystery when you see the colossus and we get to speculate on the Uncategorised location, whilst fractals like Urban and Jade Maw tie into original GW lore. I’m hoping the next one will return to something like those.

Nice! Looking forward to it and getting to play a Deadeye….

BOOM! Headshot!

The game uses megaserver technology to bring people together, meaning you can get people from multiple servers on your map.

Even if it didn’t, the items in question are so widespread now due to their popularity, such a server would not exist anyway.

I’m not a big fan of some of them either, but like most people in the real world, I just walk past and ignore them.

This was their last update;

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Current-State-of-Support-August-28-2017/first#post6726387

20 days seems….excessive though even given this update

I’m not sure I see why they should do this. Those who want to improve will either find this info themselves or learn from friends/guildies.

Those who are happy with their skill level (high or low), wont use the guides regardless as to where they are. I rarely use player made guides for example and still wouldn;t use them any more if they were linked officially

Capes are a popular request, but due to Charr models being highly problematic to implement (one dev alluded the other day that if they didn’t exist, things would be much easier for all manor of associated armours). It’s not beyond the realms of possibility though given they have found a way to adjust models to mounts.

I think I’d rather see them just as an accessory though. They don’t strike me as adding anything as a mastery. We already have gliding which would be one significant use. Masteries are being used more and more as a natural or at least thematic fit to the maps/expansion they tie into and capes….well they’re just capes really.

Alatar.7364:

Wait what? Capes? Did I miss something? Some Guild Chat video or review?

They’re speculating/suggesting an idea. It’s just mis-phrased to sound as fact

Triple Trouble is a highly organised event. Ideally you want to take advantage of the guilds who organise for the game on EU and NA servers (on EU, they advertise throughout the day). You will need access to TS to get info on which map they taxi to and usually be on the map up to 45 mins in advance (later is possible, but it depends on attendance).

Joining a map which isn’t organised by those groups has a high chance of failure due to a lack of coordination regardless of numbers.

As to redesigning the mega server, this is working as it should be, not sure based on what you are saying how it would be better. At least now, new map shards create, fill and create again. If they’re filling up fast, that shows the technology is working and the event is popular.

Support are very accomodating, I would doubt you will have an issue. They are quite snowed under atm, so don’t panic if it’s a few more days for answer. It can take up to a week due to the sheer volume of tickets being received

Anonymous GMs exist in many mmo’s. It does not discourage poor behaviour

Player based GM is a recipe for disaster. I have seen it implemented before in an older mmo, but they were more used for advice rather than enforcement. Only an employee of the company should be dealing direct with unwarranted behaviour and issues in games

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elegant_Armorsmith%27s_Backpack

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elegant_Weaponsmith%27s_Backpack

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elegant_Leatherworker%27s_Backpack

I recommend looking at the laurel vendor too. 25 laurels plus 15g will get Slickpack

Guild backpack should pretty cheap. You can also craft packs at various levels now as well. Some of them are pretty huge at max crafting

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Armorer (easy backpack)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_commendation_trader (slightly better back)

I love the Mai Trin fight. My mace/shield Pvt warrior (sacrilege i am sure..) had great fun duoing it with another zerker warrior (who I had to rez every couple of mins). That was a huge amount of fun for someone with my low skill set. Simple, relevant mechanics that can really punish. That’s the sort of fractal I like.

I imagine the lack of popularity is behind any further development. The activities outside of festivals are likely largely a wash out. Sure, players will go and do a quick daily and some players even made quite a name for themselves in the hunger games style one, but I would be surprised if their metrics ever showed much use out of them. I think they even experimented with new ones liek the weird basketball style one last year. I don;t remember that getting a lot of praise

The shooting range in DR was specifically moved to Verdant Brink as an adventure. However, whilst some of the adventures were quite fun, there has been a lot of hostile feedback to them. Partly due to the gating of mastery points, but then again, without the mastery points, would many do them regularly?

So whilst I could imagine Polymock, properly implemented could be successful, realistically, the others would be probably prove to dead content very quickly and so why waste the time making them if not enough actually play them?

STIHL.2489:

Rising Dusk.2408:

STIHL.2489:

You didn’t miss anything, the company moved anyway from fun Dungeon designs that have a story and a theme, to Fractals that feel like an RNG Grind Rusher wet dream. so that was spot on.

I like how you completely overlook the story and theme for the Fractals, lol. You people and your rose-tinted glasses.

That is because the “Story” if you could call it such, is “Hit the RNG button and see what random historical encounter comes up” .. so no.. no one missed anything to think fractals were lacking in that department.

Whilst I like the (earlier) fractal stories and themes (largely because the simple, subtle story works well for them), I agree there is a stronger narrative for the dungeons.

One point though and perhaps I misunderstood your post, fractals are no longer RNG selected and haven’t been for a couple of years now. You can select any individual one you like.

If Holosmith is grabbing you and you are happy to be up to speed on the game with your other level 80, I’d use the boost to prep your engineer ready. Holosmith seems to be the one I’m hearing a lot of positive comments about Vs the other specs. This has come from in game chatter. I would def avoid listening too much forum chatter about the new specs. Apparently they’re all “broken” and none are fit for release, which I find nonsense.

One further thing, be careful who you buy HoT from if you are getting ti cheap. A lot of dodgy codes going round from places that aren’t registered as official partners.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Randulf.7614:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Jahroots.6791:

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

Viirastra has 2 core mechanics:
1. Stand in the bubble when you have the skull
2. Bounce the marble on your head (only 1 person needed, backup helpful)

If you do these two mechanics correctly, the rest of the fight is pretty easy. Failing these two mechanics quickly snowballs the fight to failure.

There are also two minor mechanics:
1. Don’t stand in the AoEs (You can jump over many of them)
2. Kill the big clones, then drag the little ones to the boss.

Doing these two mechanics reduces the damage pressure to almost nothing.

Theres a bit more to the fight, but this is the core that will allow you to succeed in non CM.

If you are failing the marble, try lower tiers. The marble pattern is significantly easier. Also note that when the marble bounces on your head, it refreshes your SAS. Your SAS is OP and you should use it to move around.

Edit: If your group is learning, try having everyone do the marble at once. There is no time pressure on non CM, and doing the marble gives you lots of aegis and invulnerability so you can stay alive.

Out of curiosity, was is the thought behind the marble mechanic? To me, it didn’t feel an organic part of the fractal itself, more a random mechanic added, because more mechanics were felt to be needed.

I think that is what set this apart for me – the mechanics didn’t gel with what was going on around. Much of the other fractals work a) because they are short bursts and b) because the mechanics are organic to the environment. This felt too random or out of place if that makes sense.

Viirastra is innocent and playful, and literally thinks she is playing a game with the players, so marbles made thematic sense. Plus, the marble mechanic combines perfectly with the SAS skill, which brings the joy of movement in this fight to an entirely new level.

I can just about see that from what you are saying. I can’t say I agree it has translated well into the encounter, especially combined with all the other mechanics across the fractal that don’t quite mesh well together, but I appreciate you giving us a bit of context behind the design.

You may jest, but I have seen floating chairs (magically) cast as mounts in an older MMO.

Needless to say….it was awesome

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Jahroots.6791:

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

Viirastra has 2 core mechanics:
1. Stand in the bubble when you have the skull
2. Bounce the marble on your head (only 1 person needed, backup helpful)

If you do these two mechanics correctly, the rest of the fight is pretty easy. Failing these two mechanics quickly snowballs the fight to failure.

There are also two minor mechanics:
1. Don’t stand in the AoEs (You can jump over many of them)
2. Kill the big clones, then drag the little ones to the boss.

Doing these two mechanics reduces the damage pressure to almost nothing.

Theres a bit more to the fight, but this is the core that will allow you to succeed in non CM.

If you are failing the marble, try lower tiers. The marble pattern is significantly easier. Also note that when the marble bounces on your head, it refreshes your SAS. Your SAS is OP and you should use it to move around.

Edit: If your group is learning, try having everyone do the marble at once. There is no time pressure on non CM, and doing the marble gives you lots of aegis and invulnerability so you can stay alive.

Out of curiosity, was is the thought behind the marble mechanic? To me, it didn’t feel an organic part of the fractal itself, more a random mechanic added, because more mechanics were felt to be needed.

I think that is what set this apart for me – the mechanics didn’t gel with what was going on around. Much of the other fractals work a) because they are short bursts and b) because the mechanics are organic to the environment. This felt too random or out of place if that makes sense.

Sitting was addressed early on after launch. They made a decision after much discussion during development not to make that an option. The way it sounded made me believe it was an irreversible decision.

If I find the link, I’ll post it

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You realize that not everyone understands what you mean by “DLC” or “Expansion” — I certainly don’t. The entire game is downloadable and full of content, so why isn’t that all “downloadable content” aka DLC? And what is an expansion other than a bunch of DLCs bundled into a package for easier marketing?

If you play any game that has expansions or DLCs, you know the difference.

Expansions are basically half-games, while DLCs are even smaller. It’s like comparing flash fiction to short stories to novels (DLC to expansion to stand alone game respectively).

And there is no one who is not aware of this if they spend 10 minutes to look at it.

And of course, this is ignoring the fact that ArenaNet explicitly states that they’re selling Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, not Season 2, Heart of Thorns, Season 3, and Path of Fire. And no “not knowing terminology” is going to make that confusing.

Sorry, no. I see people referring to HoT as “DLC” — the terms aren’t used with a universal definition. I certainly had no idea what “Dragon’s Age: Origins” meant by DLC, since that was the first time I had seen the term. And I still feel the distinction is entirely arbitrary on the part of publisher — all content is downloadable to me, some of it is bundled and some of it isn’t, including stuff that can be labeled “DLC”.

While it’s true that a little bit of research will uncover what ANet offers for free, what if includes in the the price of each expac, etc, I’m sure you’re aware that not everyone follows the fine print.

So my point remains: it’s not obvious to everyone.

I don’t agree with critics who say that ANet misled them deliberately or that it’s unfair. I’m just saying it’s understandable that some people are confused the first time they run into this, potentially for each game.

I’m glad it’s easy for you and some other posters to understand without effort what is and isn’t included. I just ask that you consider that not everyone has the same innate understanding of game industry jargon.

Konig does make a valid point, however in your defence, the terms of DLC and expansion have blurred a lot over the last few years. Especially as some companies use DLC to cover basic patches and others use it to cover large chunks of content, whilst expansions themselves have shrunk (albeit not universally) as a result of the increased use of DLC’s.

Those who referred to HoT as being DLC though were just trying to to be facetious, people who thought they sounded big and clever by reducing something down because they knew better. HoT, despite any faults, was a clear expansion.

Probably the only one was Aurora. Not being fully previewable, it was difficult to see how it would look on all my toons. Sadly it doesn’t look great on most of them, except one of my least used ones.

I don’t actually regret the process though, since I thoroughly enjoyed working through the collections and maps. It gave me a renewed purpose i was lacking recently, but the end result has not quite lived up to the journey.

Usually I make a theme fit around a legendary, this time it was the orher way rpynd, which was probably the problem.

Endless Soul.5178:

Randulf.7614:

This is the second thread on this today. It seems to have flown over my head.

The post from Evon Gnashblade is a parody of the song All Star by the band Smashmouth.

Right, never heard of them. Probably why I’m in the dark here.

As you were..

This is the second thread on this today. It seems to have flown over my head.

Chuka is spot on visually right now. I;d rather they didn’t mess around graphically with any further legendaries.

I’m not against a more ferocious audio sound though

The choices are;

- Everyone pays for each episode/season as it comes along
- Everyone pays more for the expansion, with LS included in price
- Free for a period, then pay after grace period expires (current)
- Free for everyone

The latter isn’t an option since we’d have considerably less content due to a lack of funding. Option 2 is clearer and more accessible for newer players, but option 3 is the fairest for loyal players and encourages players to login for each episode rather than wait. It also appears to be the most popular since an increasing number of players get it for free.

I do think it is a barrier to new players as it is, but that is more likely a lack of clarity in how they advertise their content to new players.

The available skins rotate on a semi regular basis. We have no idea when or what is in a future rotation. They also add a set in as rare drops from the chests as well

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

But, it’s 6pm BST, which is an hour later than GMT. (Their daylight saving time, I believe.)

Correct. 6pm BST (ie UK time) = 5pm GMT.

That will change at the end of October when they sync up

Dev responses to similar behaviour

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

Also

Chris Cleary.8017:

I’ll pitch in on this thread, as there seems to be some confusion about this situation.

The auto-cast feature was never intended to be used as an AFK farming mechanism, and usage of the auto-cast feature while AFK is fine as long as it is not used to facilitate unattended gameplay.

Mastery auto-loot also stopping players from being flagged afk seems like a bug instead of a feature, and I’ll be sure to bring it up today while we have a chat about this internally.

1) Using skill (1 or more) while AFK
2) AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at
3) Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

If all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it.

As far I personally am concerned, I could care less. If that’s how players want to play, good luck to them. It’s not fun to me, but it has zero impact on my gameplay

Xashija.7913:

I think the problem is there’s nothing new, so many players won’t join the stress test. Maybe it’d be better, for example, to show the whole new map so people want to see the rest of it and want to join your stress test more likely.

There were nearly no players from EU last test. This can’t be your goal.

I can’t imagine a scenario where they’d struggle to get enough players to login for a stress test on unreleased content or where players were already bored of it. Players will happily login for just a couple of hours just to mess around and try out an elite they previously hadn’t or just wander around on a mount.

This test appears to be more time suitable for the EU players, so I think that will resolve the problem there too (although we have zero idea how many EU players played last time)

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I wonder if tonics work with that glider.

Riding on a fireball as a giant plastic Halloween spider might be just what I need to do.

Or…Surfing in full celestial with the Mad Moon shield….

Just sayin’…

It’s flashy, over the top, utterly ridiculous, lag inducing, PC destroying and totally out of place.

I want one!

Ah right. Know the term, never seen it shortened before.

Cheers!

I only know FOTM as fractal of the mists. What’s the FOTM you’re using?

Tequatl also gives 2 gold for a kill. A kill is usually 10-15mins, but it does require being on a full map when he spawns.

Vayne.8563:

The history is more complex than people have been saying. It’s true originally we could buy the gift of battle with badges of honor, But it’s also true that originally we had to complete all 4 WvW zones as part of world complete, which depending on your server could sometimes take months.

Back then badges of honor didn’t come in achievement point chests, so we had to get them by playing It’s a pretty good bet you’d have needed 8 hours of playing in WvW to get a legendary when the game launched. Achievement point rewards like badges and not having to do map completion in those zones changed the landscape.

It’s not any harder now than it was at launch.

Agreed, I’d say it was much easier now. I remember working towards my first legendary. It took me a long time to get those 500 badges and you really had time it right to ensure you could cap things like enemy borderlands and stonemist castle (at which point you’d try and relog as many toons as poss before it was recapped).

Things are more within your control now

HoT will give you access to the elite specs will give you better options to be more competitive. That isn’t to say you can’t be competitive without them, but it will make it harder.

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten we used to have to get 100% WvW map for World Map Completion.

Paulie.6215:

According to the Wiki, the appearance is the same for WvW and PvP armor?

Sooo, for wvw and pvp, the only difference between ascended and legendary is the purple name in the tooltip?

Is this true?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_armor

No, tne difference is in being able to change stats on the fly. I think also runes as well?

GreenZap.1352:

Does my mesmer main; Elonian sword-dancer, bard and poet Zayn Al’Sabaan qualify?

Carrying his trusty blade Saif-al-Din (Dire ceremonial scimitar), a blade that bestows the wearer with the ability to create powerful illusion such as clones of him/herself.

- I want another chestpiece but… GW2 doesn’t exactly have a huge resource bank for armor skins.

That is a very GW1-esque look.

Flatley.1620:

Wait, wait… Wha?

Excuse my ignorance as I’ve never aspired to legendary gear as I know it will be well without my reach. However, you’re saying it’s no better than ascended stat wise? I never realised that!

Surely it’s a different ball game with weapons isn’t it?

Sorry if I’m out of touch, which I clearly am!

Legendaries were originally exotic stats, but when ascended was added, it was raised to match those. Legendary was designed not to be a stat grind, but a cosmetic achievement in keeping with the original design of no major gear treadmills. They later added the extra function of swapping stats on the fly, which ascended cannot do.

As a non wvwer and non pvper, i supported this change. Legendaries should involve leaving ones comfort zone and spreading the content across as many modes as are accessible. Ive had to do fractals, jumping puzzles and achievements i would normally avoid, as well as wvw and before tokens were cheap, pvp as well.

500 badges still required doing wvw anyway. We also have edge of the mists which is just a train of capping pve camps to help. Alongside dailies, there are enough options to avoid the worst of wvw if you want to. Sure it is a bit longer, but in the grand scheme of making a legendary, it is a blip.

Look at it from a wvw and pvp point of view. Those guys have to leave wvw to play pve for legendary weapons, more than we have to join wvw for ours.

dbill.7483:

So here’s Iggy Popa, my level 80 Ascended Necro/Reaper. When she not corrupting foes in WvW she likes to hang out at the Dead End bar singing karaoke. She’s fond of Broadway showtunes……

Love this. I have a similar theme going on my Asura, but this is much better

Also…

my other Ele, Eddie Gold (poss a tad too flashy for this thread though)

and my main and namesake, Randulf Rawhide

My Tempest, Goliath Bill. I do have an aura, but I don;t always use it because I find it often spoils his look. I went for a noble look, but one in tribute to his GW1 relative, wears the colours of a pyromancer

Out of curiosity, again sorry to veer off topic a bit, but has anyone tried using it alongisde other auras to create a different colour? (if that is possible)

I thought the breaks between ls3 episodes were spot on. 2-3 month for content is nothing at all. I’d much rather that than the messy, rushed and often shallow gameplay LS1 offered. I have criticisms of LS3 (mostly narrative), but the release cadence is def not one of them. They got that right in my opinion.

I do however hope LS4 isn;t January. They said they would not start LS4 unless they were confident enough players had finished PoF. If this is a content heavy expac, then with 2 festivals as well, January is far too soon for a new episode. I don’t want to feel rushed into what absolutely needs to be a huge, in depth, sweeping story arc (wishful thinking I know, but it still needs to happen imo), just to keep to an arbitrary schedule.