Guild Wars 2

My first one was Kudzu, and I made it because I browsed through the precursor crafting collections and found the Leaf of Kudzu collection to be looking interesting. I really enjoyed that one, and I still carry around the flowers from collection one and occasionally visit the garden from collection three. In the end I made the legendary simply because I had the precursor and the mats for it (and ended up making a new female asura ranger in the process, because my main male charr ranger wouldn’t be caught dead with a flowery bow ).

My 2nd legendary weapon was one of those “once in a lifetime” happenings. I managed to pull a precursor out of a Silverwastes chest a couple of weeks ago (my only one in 5 years of playing), and it turned out to be the one for the only legendary I had ever considered crafting for its skin, the focus. So now my chronomancers (focus being my favourite mesmer weapon) all carry around the minstrel, and I love its animations and sound effects .

Disclaimer: I never farmed for my legendaries, just used mats I had collected in my regular playtime. The actual making of the legendaries only happened when I had the precursors and noticed my material stash was big enough to go the next step, so there wasn’t really much expectation or anticipation involved .

There’s always one collection piece that is the last one missing and seems to take forever to get. On my 2nd account all I’m missing for this collection is actually the Tequatl one, as I don’t enjoy world bosses at all and really only do them if I happen upon one by accident. Maybe in a couple of years, when I have nothing else to do, I’ll go try to grab that spoon .

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

Half tempted to solo the last instance of HoT without armor and no traits allocated just to prove a point on how soloable it is.

The two biggest barriers to completing such content are twitch skill and willingness to experiment to find something that works. You cannot teach twitch skill, but you can show people builds that work. Removing your build would simply be demonstrating your twitch. All you’d be doing was proving someone wrong on the internet. That would not be helpful.

Except twitch skill isn’t really needed for that instance. Content can only get dumbed down so much before it becomes a detriment to the other players. It should not be balanced around the lowest denominator.

So, what, it’s all about build, then? How is doing the instance without a build going to help?

Actually it’s neither build nore equipment that seems to be the problem most of the time, but experience and ability to figure out the fight mechanics.

I joined a couple of guildies for the final HoT mission a while back. From experience (as in: having spent more than enough time in that instance solo before) I took a chrono and switched her to a half-baked condi spec (I usually prefer power chrono), as I knew that build could literally bleed big Mordy to death, leaving me free to focus my attention on avoiding all the stuff that hurts.

Long story short: everybody wiped on the first flight phase, but Caithe would rez me (and only me) again and again, so I gave up trying to die and went on with things (fully expecting to go down somewhere before the end). It took half an hour or more, but my “damage without having to pay attention to damaging” condi build (put up illusions whenever there’s room and shatter when I have a moment to think of it) actually managed to take down the boss.

Am I a better player than the rest of my group? Most certainly not. My advantages were experience in the fight, having figured out some of the mechanics before, and bringing a (certainly not optimized) character that allowed me to pay attention to avoiding damage most of all (a build born out of prior experience with the fight, quickly thrown together from whatever equip I had at hand).

In hard fights (and the final HoT fight definitely falls in that category for me) I find that it pays most if I don’t go in trying to win straight away, but rather try to figure out one step (or one fight mechanic) after the other. If that means dying because what I tried didn’t work then that’s ok, as long as it helps me see what mistakes I should avoid next time.

If you’re having trouble with fights, you might try to bring a character/build that leaves room for mistakes, so you have more room to figure out what goes wrong. If you don’t win straight away, try to take the fight one step at a time. Most (if not all) of the time it’s simply fight mechanics you’re missing, and once you’ve got them figured out (which certainly is possible to do without Dulfy or YouTube if you want to) you’ll find that story fights (excluding dungeon and raid story of course ) really are soloable for everyone.

dagrdagaz.4913:

Rasimir.6239:

She’s already planning to unlock the raptor once PoF hits (she’s played the demo where she unlocked the raptor in the first story instance), so her low levels will be able to ride, too .

Mounts in core Tyria might not be implemented at launch of PoF, but added later.
(With HoT, Gliding in core Tyria was added later.)

Didn’t people already bring their mounts out of the PoF maps and into Core Tyria during the demo weekend?

But regardless, even if it’s not available in Core Tyria right away, she’ll just hop onto her necromancer and do the raptor race every once in a while. It was hands down her favourite content during the demo .

My youngest daughter had a similar problem with HoT. She only plays around casually and didn’t have any character even close to max level, but was dying to be able to glide. We decided on a class she could best play at level 80 without going to much into it, which turned out to be the necromancer (your choice may vary depending on how deep into the combat mechanics of this game you’d like to dive). She boosted her newly created necromancer to level 80, played the introductory story steps, and unlocked the mastery system and the gliding mastery before going back to her lower level characters. Occasionally she pulls out her level 80 to play another story step, but mostly just enjoys gliding on her lower level toons. She’s already planning to unlock the raptor once PoF hits (she’s played the demo where she unlocked the raptor in the first story instance), so her low levels will be able to ride, too .

STIHL.2489:

In the end, a hard meter to pass helps everyone involved. if gives people looking into getting into raids a direction and a demand to meet to allow them to judge if they are serious enough to want to do this, and it ensures that to the people doing raids that the people looking to join them at the very least, put in the work to be ready for this.

I do not see any downside to putting in that fixed requirement, in fact it would help everyone in the long run. If you feel there is a downside, I am willing to hear it, but, it would need to a logical rational downside, not simply that you do not like it.

This is a game. Entertainment. I don’t want to work in a game. I don’t want to be serious about a game. I want to play a game and be entertained.

This is the game where you spend your time having fun, not preparing to have fun. ANet has said so time and time again. And it works for the vast majority of players of this game. Excluding players for whatever reason isn’t on the agenda and doesn’t mesh with the direction of this game at all.

For reference: I’ve participated in several raid boss kills (and I mean participated, not being carried) on different classes. I’ve had my Ad Infinitum since shortly after it was released. I’m certainly able to play raids and t4 fractals, even though I seldom do it (due to rl restrictions).

I still don’t see the point in excluding people from content by enforcing hard gates that require them to prepare in totally different kinds of content to even be able to try raids, and allow access only to people with a specific mindset.

What is endgame to you?

This game is very much a “make your own fun” kind of game. If you are an activity-driven player (as in: play the game to enjoy the activities you do), there’s no end to things you can do. If you’re a reward-driven player (as in: play the game to gather increasingly more and better loot, be it equipment or other shinies) you’ll likely run out of things to do sooner or later.

Personally I’m definitely of the first type. Even after 5 years and thousands of hours I still find more stuff to do than time to do it. I love just jumping onto a character (I have many of them by now) and do whatever catches my fancy that day. Mostly I start with casually strolling around some map or another, doing events that come my way, exploring the world, listening and talking to npc, and gathering whatever comes my way.

The game world is so huge that this never gets old to me. There’ll always be areas I haven’t been to in a while, npc I’ve never really talked to, and even today I still come across the occasional event that I’ve never seen before, and many I still like to take part in even though I’ve done them lots of times before.

There’s countless event chains and side stories to discover in addition to the personal story if you’re into that kind of thing (well, you could probably count them if you’d care to, but they are so many that I’ve long since lost track of any kind of counter ). There’s beautiful vistas, hidden stashes, and a variety of useful materials in every map of the game.

If you’re interested in having a good time rather than just gathering the most loot, you’ll find no end of endgame in this game. And eventually you’ll find that by having a good time, you’ve aquired enough wealth on the side to get your shinies anyway. I’ve gotten a few legendaries and countless ascended equipment pieces over the course of those 5 years I’ve been playing, and I haven’t farmed for a single one of them (well, beyond parking two or three characters at a material farming spot and giving up on them after “farming” round 2 or 3 … I guess I’m easily bored ).

This game is single player heaven. There’s a variety group activities (and those are mostly shown on YouTube, as they tend to be a lot more interesting for the watcher than a single asura aimlessly walking across the landscape ), too, but no need to take part in them if you don’t enjoy them or simply don’t want the hassle of finding a group.

The whole game is endgame. As stupid as this may sound, I think GW2 got this right. It’s not for everyone, but if you want to play the game (rather than chase the carrot) this is the right place to be.

veslarius.8425:

I took a break from gw2 in favor of eso because I’m fed up with the way they handle pve and pvp. Eso is great, but it has its faults to, like not being able to dye costumes unless you are a subscriber and similar annoyances. I ended up dropping about 1k usd into it for mounts and costumes etc.

Now with the expansion coming out, I returned to gw2 with my wife and we start working on the achievements and collection together in preparation for new legendaries. We do the Bloodstonefen event one time and she gets the Jade Core. I’m on my 3rd time now and still haven’t got it. Pelle at 8 times is stupdiculous.

This is a prime example of what I’m guessing will eventually be the death of gw2. They make important content such as legendary armor inaccessible without a group of 8-10 people while the content that can be done in small groups such as the achievements associated with the Jade Core are RNG based. This makes it so one person gets left behind, forced to do this once an hour event on repeat while the other person or persons need to move on in order to make continued progress.

This completely ruined our plans as me and my wife intended on spending the day playing gw2 together. This is just one example out of many common sense errors I’m seeing in gw2 design and problem-solving. If you need people to populate the map, and in a farmable resource that leaves people feeling that they made progress for their efforts instead of feeling cheated by gw2’s garbage RNG system.

Wait, you prefer ESO, the game where equipment stats have a significantly higher impact on your character abilities than they ever had or will have in GW2, and where you have to farm specific bosses and events hundreds if not thousands of times to even have the chance to get your hands on equipment with stats moderately matching your build, to GW2, then complain about the rng for definite best-in-slot equipment in GW2?

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with rng drops for legendary collections (or even most other collections with rare rewards), especially since GW2 rng seems to be very mild compared to most other games around. I get that it can feel cruel sometimes (thinks back to doing 30+ vinewrath events before getting my 3rd carapace coat, where friends got three coats in 2 events), but there’s bound to be outliers in any rng system.

The only alternative I see would be to do away with rng completely. While some would enjoy that, it would destroy the fun of the collection for many others, and turn them into a kind of shopping list that (many) people would rush through in a matter of hours, and possibly devalue the collection and its reward for feeling “too easy”.

From the developer viewpoint I suspect that this would be counterproductive, as collections are meant as scavenger hunts, to give people something enjoyable to do. It is unfortunate if you don’t like the “something to do” required to gain your loot of choice, but what’s ANet to do? If they start handing out legendary equipment for finishing of a guaranteed-to-aquire shopping list, they might as well put a vendor into Lion’s Arch that hands out said equipment to any player interacting with it.

Vayne.8563:

As for the first question, those NPCs should have been right where you were when the story ended, at the bottom of the spire.

If I’m not mistaken they’re actually in the small room off the top of the spire, where the Faolin fight in Bitter Harvest takes place. You should be able to get back into the instance lobby by talking to Agent Zrii in the starting area of the Dragon’s Stand map (check the wiki for more information).

The raid wings do hold story information, in a similar way that the dungeon story modes hold story information related to the personal story in the original game. It’s interesting to hear if you get the chance, but you’ll be well able to grasp the season 3 story without doing the raids.

Rhanoa.3960:

Standard POF $49.99 + Free GW2

New & Returning Players Get: (Non-HOT Purchasers)
*New Class
*Level Boost

Standard POF $49.99
Standard HOT $49.99
Standard GW2 $59.99
$159.97 5yr Investment. (Excluding deluxe & Gem purchase)

Veteran Players Get:
*Level Boost (By now some of may have 9 or more Characters at 80) Useless.

Correction: Standard PoF is only $29.99. It’s only $49.99* if you buy the bundle that includes both PoF and HoT.

That said, most wares tend to get cheaper as they get older. If you are an early adopter, expect to pay a premium for getting access to whatever you’re buying right now and not a few years down the road.

Aldath.1275:

Even if I mainly play low level Fractals and open world, the difference between, say, Viper and Rabid/Carrion is very noticeable.

Isn’t that a bit like comparing apples with oranges? Viper’s is a full offensive stat set, where rabid and carrion both bring defensive stats. Have you tried comparing viper’s with rampager’s or sinister’s? That would be the proper comparison I think, as both are full offensive, with sinister’s a bit heavier on condition damage, but rampager’s easier to aquire.

Twyn.7320:

It’s very easy to say that there’s a lot of content, but how much of it is actually meaningful content?

I think this is the key point of the discussion. Or even more abstract: what is meaningful content?

Ask 5 players, and you’ll probably end up with 10 different definitions. There’s no general rule what kind of content is “meaningful”, as it’s all about personal preferences.

For me, meaningful content is the kind of content that I enjoy playing. Maps that I enjoy moving around in, eents that I enjoy, discoveries that I enjoy. I don’t care half as much for the loot as I care for the enjoyable activity.

For a player like me (and many that I know), this game has a wealth of meaningful content, actually a lot more than I could ever hope to exhaust. For you it seems not so much, as the content available doesn’t seem to give you as much fun as it gives to me.

You’re looking for something else. I am sure there are many players that do, players that enjoy similar things as you do, players that like GW2 but it doesn’t quite give them enough of that. But I am just as sure that there are also many players like me, that enjoy this game the way it is, that love just jumping in and out of content as life allows, that don’t care for pvp leader boards or best-in-slot equipment but rather for something fun to do with more emphasis on fun activity than reward.

This game, and especially this game’s pve content, is perfect for some players and less so for others. But don’t just dismiss the voices of those who like the current pve maps just because you are looking for something else.

Personally I’m (co-)leading a social pvx guild of about 100 members, many of which have been playing together for longer than this game even exists. We have an open membership, no requirement to represent. We have members that represent 100% and are in this one guild only, and members who never represent but still participate in guild chat, join guild groups for dungeons as well as pve, and even contribute to our guild treasury frequently and generously. Of course, there are also all kinds of in-betweens, and (unfortunately) a few that rarely if never interact with the guild any longer, but if you play within the same social circle for a long time there’s bound to be a few conflicts coming up inbetween .

I’m also member of two other guilds, one a very small friends guild, not much more than a glorified chat channel (but with our own guildhall ), and the other one a social guild with tendencies towards dungeons/fractals/raids as main content. Both guilds to me are most important for the guild chat and interaction with the guildies.

As such, I’m happy about being able to be in all games at once, because I can chat and interact with all of my friends in the different communities (the two larger guilds have different main languages as well as very different kind of players, so I’d have to leave one group of friends or the other if I were restricted to only one guild). I contribute to all of my guild with chat and activity participation as well as guildhall upgrades and such.

I can have (and have) different friends. Why should I feel less loyal to one because I feel loyal to the other? The same goes for groups of friends. There’s nothing in this game that keeps you from being loyal to different guilds at the same time if you want to.

Twyn.7320:

As for the ‘claiming my opinion is a percentage of the player-base’, my opinion is fuelled by the countless people across many guilds that I’m in who regularly drop out because there’s nothing to do, outside of maybe 3-4 PvP matches a day, and a WvW hour long zerg.

If you’re not bored, that’s fine. But there’s examples in GW2 of long-lasting content, and The Silverwastes is one of those things, that’s still regularly played even now.

If you go by the players you know and play with, then I have the complete oposite to your experience. My guilds are full of people that have been playing for a long time, many up to five years, without taking serious breaks inbetween, and they are all over the maps all the time, enjoying themselves. If anything I’d have to say Silverwastes is the worst meta judging from my friends and guildies, since I next to never see any of them there.

I don’t believe my friends and guildies are representative of a large part of the playerbase, but neither do I believe that your friends and guildies are. This games playerbase looks to me like a healthy mix of people with different interests, and content catering to a wide variety of those interests. Personally, I’m not a big fan of meta events (due to rl time restrictions) but enjoy (re-)playing events on all kinds of maps all the time. Rewards to me are secondary to enjoying what I’m doing.

PvE content always is finite, and no MMO developer can put out enough PvE content to keep all players happy. Some go more towards hard-to-get rng rewards and are played by people who enjoy that kind of stuff. Some have a variety of bosses and instances to farm for specific loot, and a playerbase that enjoys that kind of content. This game offers a variety of different environments and activities for people who enjoy open world exploration and interaction (among other things).

A lot of people that play GW2 (myself included) play this game because it lets you just jump in and enjoy pretty much every activity in the game without a lot of preparation. The maps, especially HoT and Season 3, are perfect for my playstyle as there’s always something to do and I end up with a lot of shinies by just playing whatever I enjoy playing that moment. No need to farm this map or that event chain or those bosses, I get my loot from pretty much everywhere and playing never feels like a waste of time, unlike previous MMOs I played where I had to play the same dailies/dungeons/raids day in day out to get my shinies and often came out of a playsession with empty hands.

There’s an end to map content, but it’s different for every person, and for many people playing this game the possibilities are really endless. If it’s the rewards that drive you, not the content, and you have a lot of time on your hands, I can easily believe that this game does not offer you nearly as much replayability as it does offer to me, but don’t make the mistake and think it’s a general problem just because you play with like-minded people. There are lots of other people around who think this game has a pretty good balance of carrots vs. things to do .

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

ok this is new. virtual motion sickness is an thing? not trying to be mean here but i’m genuinely surprised here.

Yes it is. I’ve had it as far back as the 90s (Ultima 7 and Wizardry 8 were the first games that got to me badly, and I was dying to play them ). I’ve learned to deal with it, know all the tricks (zoom out as much as possible, have a well-lit room so you have a static background to the moving screen images, turn off things like camera shaking and fiddle with control settings), but that only helps to a point. For me it’s especially when the movement of the screen image doesn’t exactly follow the commands I give that trigger it. It’s just like reading while riding in a car or bus (or even checking google maps on my mobile while on the passanger seat ). Still image while moving or moving image while sitting still both have the same effect.

I’m one of those people who don’t get along with the “sluggish” feel of mount movement. It’s not as bad as in some other games (LotRO mounted combat and even jumping in ESO come to mind, as well as lots of older games back to the 90s), but bad enough that I had to turn off the demo and go to sleep at 9 p.m. last night, after only an hour of playing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the mount, the movement animations are awesome, and it feels great to the way that I was so excited I simply ignored the first signs of motion sickness coming on and didn’t realize how bad it was until it was too late.

Key problems for me are similar to those already mentioned: whenever the movement of the mount feels “sluggish”, as in doesn’t exactly mirror the movement controls I give it (with mouse turning, keyboard turning doesn’t work for me at all even in regular GW2). Turning, stopping, and especially trying to inch it into a precise position seem to be my major problem areas.

Is there any chance you could implement a camera option that allows us to choose between the realistic default mount camera (the way it is now) and a precise camera that doesn’t bounce us around on screen but rather exactly mirrors the movement controls used?

Redden.5869:

I’m trying HOT for the first time and navigating the maps is a freakking nightmare. Imo when you play a game you should relax and enjoy it, but most of those maps are so kitten annoying and full of hordes of enemies that constantly harass you that I get so kittened to the point I just quit the game.

I agree with you that gameplay should be relaxing and enjoyable. But different people enjoy different things, and find different activities relaxing.

I’m as casual as they come, pretty old for gamer standards, with fulltime job and family (including two very “special” teenagers), house, and whatever else you can think of. I play this game whenever I find the time, to relax, to enjoy myself, to chat with friends. I refuse to grind or play any content I don’t enjoy.

That said, I love the HoT maps, and the Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons are probably my most favourite maps of the whole game. I love the exploration available on those maps, diving in blindly and exploring until I have figured out where to go and how to get to places. I love working my way around groups of mobs rather than just running through without paying attention to what is walking around.

Sometimes I die. Sometimes it’s a nuisance that I want to go places and can’t just walk straight in. But most of the time those maps are just so much more enjoyable and relaxing than going straight to an objective and being done with it.

To me, the journey really is the reward. That’s why I play MMOs in my free time, rather than just watching tv. I want to explore, I want to puzzle, I want to interact. This game sure is good for that, that’s why I’m playing this game to relax and enjoy myself. If it wasn’t like that, I’d rather find something else to spend my time with and leave this game to the people that enjoy this kind of thing.

That said, of course I’m hoping that PoF will give me more of what I love about the game, including multi-layered maps and true exploration.

xKole.9175:

I just feel like if they were adding new elites and utility skills it would have been a major point and not just skimmed over lightly while talking about specs.

Did you even check what an elite specialization is? Just by checking the wiki you’ll find the answer to your question:

In contrast to core specializations, which merely allow use of certain traits, choosing an elite specialization fundamentally changes abilities of a given profession by providing it access to a new weapon, healing skill, elite skill and a set of utility skills in addition to its own set of traits, as well as by altering or expanding on the base profession mechanic. All core profession skills, weapons and specializations are still available while an elite specialization is equipped.

Each (new and existing) elite specialization adds a new healing skill, a new elite skill and a set (usually four) of new utility skills. No need to give them special mention when they are a fundamental part of what makes up an elite spec anyway.

Every now and then I play GW2 with my daughters. The older one mostly only plays WvW and rarely if ever ventures into PvE, and only has a mastery level of 2 (gliding and pact mentor). The younger one prefers spending her time with jumping puzzles almost exclusively, and has so far made it to a mastery level of 3 (mushrooms in addition to the ones above). My own account has been sitting at a mastery level of 186 since the release of the last living story episode.

Still whenever one or both of them feel like pve, we have a great time in HoT and ls3 maps as well as story episodes. Most places in the maps are accessible without more masteries, and story instances usually are fine, too (unless you insist on doing all achievements right from the start). Sometimes I take one of my mesmers along, but usually there’s more than enough for us to do. If there’s a point they can’t do we’ll just continue on to the next.

If you want to play with your guildies, do so. You can play all HoT maps and enjoy yourself without more than the basic masteries. Sure with full masteries there’s even more to do, but as long as you’re willing to explore places you’ll find that most things can be enjoyable even without them. Just give it a try.

I don’t think it’s just current locations. There’s definitely several new areas that I can’t seem to place anywhere in the currently playable maps. There’s a Maguuma Wastes type area with purple vegetation and visible updrafts around 0:43, a lava type map with an insight and an updraft visible at 0:55, and what might be either a greener Orr or somewhere in the Maguuma Jungle with an unknown waypoint in the back at 1:03. Most likely all of these will be part of a new map released with episode 6.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

Or (ideas keep coming lol) Make a questline to help them return to Labyrinthe. You round up those wishing to go back, and guide and guard them on their return trip.

Sounds like a decent setting for a current events questline in the same spirit as the Caladbolg quests.

Personally I love that most of the fluff in this game isn’t “useful”, as I can go get it or not totally on the basis of enjoying the activity or object. As soon as there’s “purpose” added to our fluff, no matter if it’s minis, titles, skins or whatever, aquisition and usage are no longer based on personal enjoyment only but teinted by perceived “usefulness” to the point where you “have” to have and use something just for the utility, no matter if you enjoy it or not. We have Equipment with runes, sigils and different stat sets for that, as well as traits and skills. No need to stick the fun stuff into the same category, too.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_back_item

Would you mind explaining what changes in particular you are talking about?

Teon.5168:

Jayne.9251:

Do you need the new shinies to play the game?

Does not having them give you a massive disadvantage over those that do?

I don’t know about you, but I look much classier in shiney stuff lying dead on the battlefield.

Reminds me of the guard in met in WvW the other night, sporting the tag of a popular raid guild, seemingly trying to up participation by capturing/recapturing our spawn camp on an enemy border and afk-ing inbetween. Full legendary armor … except the pants. He’d died so often to enemy roamers attacking the camp that his pants were broken and showed his undies instead (yellow bikini pants in this case as it was the stereotypical human female you see in fractals and raids so often).

Danikat.8537:

Haleydawn.3764:

It’s a “one pay wall” package.

Pay one price, get the current game.

Yes but they could do something like Elder Scrolls Online did.

They offered the expansion + the core game for full price (same price the base game had been at release) and then just the expansion on it’s own for a discounted price.

So if you’re a new player you just pay once and get the full current game* but if you’re an existing player you don’t feel like you’re being charged twice for the stuff you’ve already got.

*Minus DLC in ESO/Living Story in GW2.

The Morrowind upgrade for ESO was almost as expensive as the full HoT game at launch (40€ for Morrowind vs. 45€ for HoT), while the full ESO+Morrowind package was considerably more expensive (60€ if I’m not mistaken).

If the next GW2 expansion keeps to a similar pricing model as HoT (and possibly includes some prepurchase extras for existing paid accounts again, as HoT did with the extra character slot), then I personally will find the pricing very acceptable even without an upgrade option (especially since HoT gave me a lot more content suitable to my tastes than Morrowind did, despite myself enjoying both the new class and zone/questlines in Morrowind atm).

Will.9785:

I agree that high level content is not rewarding… but do you know why you feel that way? Its because you needed to get the end level items (ascended gear) before you could even do that content.

As a matter of fact, you don’t. If you play fractals, you’ll likely have all the resources in place to get and upgrade your ascended equipment by the time you reach the fractal levels that require that much agony resistance. If you play raids, you can in fact play them just as well in exotics if you know what you’re doing.

Jumpin Lumpix.6108:

I would rather craft 6 legendaries or get legend in 4 seperate pvp tournaments then grind 2k ranks in pvd, wvw

That right there looks like your problem. Have you ever considered playing wvw (not just pvd k-training) for fun? You’ll be surprised how quickly the ranks fly past if you do something enjoyable.

Hitman.5829:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Hitman.5829:

If Anet cannot de-rank the EoTM farmers, the least they should do is remove reward based on level to make it fair for everyone.

And base the reward you’re talking about on what instead?

Just remove pips based on rank, simple! But it needs to be done fast because if they wait 10 years to fix it then it will be too late.

But what about those players who earned their rank fairly by playing regular WvW? Is it fair to them to not have that playtime count at all with the new rewards?

The new system is set up especially to reward people who play the game mode, not those loot vultures who flock to wherever the newest shinies are to be had. Personally I think ANet did a good job this time, learning from the mistakes of the former wvw tournaments (where regular wvw players playing their normal game were often left behind by those who just came in to beeline for their own personal best gain regardless of what the server as a whole might need).

I am a pvx player, enjoying wvw but mostly just playing with friends. Last night, I got into the borderlands with one of my best friends. We played together, capped sentries, camps, the occasional tower, did some defending. For every tick we got I got 2 pips (later on 3 as I reached silver ranks sometime last night) while he got 7.

The difference is due to me just playing wvw casually while he has pretty much lived the game mode for the last 5 years, with hours spent scouting, sieging up towers and keeps, defending for little to no gain, and the like. If he had played for rank or loot he probably would be far beyong mithril ranks by now.

I got 2 or 3 pips for every 7 he got, and I’m totally fine with it. He deserves it. Are there people that might not “deserve” their pip gain? Of course, there always will be in every game mode. I know a lot of players in pve that got tons of legendaries way before I got one because they mindlessly farmed bordering on exploiting whatever farm of the week there was before it got nerfed. I know people with maxed pvp ranks just from rankfarm arenas. My rank is still below 60, but without a single rankfarm and mostly only ranked play (once I had a rough idea on how to play).

Should everyone who got their legendary or their pvp rank “easier” than me be stripped of their gain, to the detriment of all those (many more) people who got theirs fairly through playing their game modes? I don’t think so. And just as well I don’t think punishing loyal wvw players to get at the few that took the path of least resistance (and most boredom) should be a thing.

Learn to live with it. You can play, or you can farm. If you (like I do) choose to play, then you know you’ve earned your shinies yourself and had a great time doing so. Don’t let others dampen your enjoyment because they decided to waste their time grinding boring farms to get to the shinies faster.

Jumpin Lumpix.6108:

MadBomber.3719:

sorry man 360 hours in 5 years is not a lot…

I’ve been playing games for 25 yrs now 500 hrs for me in wvw and I’ve mastered 99% of the game mode, telling me I need to spend another 1500 hrs is ridiculous when I’ve already mastered it after about 50 hrs.

You don’t have to spend any time in wvw if you don’t like to. The rewards aren’t meant as a sign of mastery. They are meant as an extra for people who play for the fun of it.

What would be gained for either ANet, the game mode, or the community you are playing in/with if you only play to grab the shinies via the most bearable (for you) route, then bow out again?

Disclaimer: I play wvw only casually, mostly with friends and guildies because I enjoy playing with them, which has brought me to roughly 650 ranks on my main account. I’m sure I’ll eventually get my hands on some goodies I’d like to have (there’s one of the mistforge hero’s weapon skins I’ve had my eye on ever since I didn’t have enough tickets to get it during the last wvw season), but if what I want costs more than I gain by playing and enjoying myself, then I’ll just do without it.

I usually park my toon in the guild hall whenever I need to step away for a moment (bathroom, kids, cooking, whatever). Heart of the Mists is also a decent option, although it’s too crowded for my taste.

One of the main reasons I love this game is that it allows me to play for 30 minutes here or there when real life allows and still feel like I’m doing something productive. Many of the high-level maps can be played this way, if not most (except Dragon’s Stand due to the length of its meta).

I don’t farm. My time is too precious for that. Fortunately, this game was built around the idea that players gather their shinies by playing, not farming. I play wherever I enjoy myself and don’t worry about needing to get this or that, and at the end of the day I find myself with enough resources to regularly be able to afford some shinies, which among other things include two legendary weapons, a legendary backpiece and lots of ascended stuff after 4.5 years of playing that way.

Play when you have the time to play, and accept the fact that you won’t play when you don’t have the time. You’ll get your shinies just from playing. There’s no need to half-afk farm in this game.

Silmar Alech.4305:

Ayrilana.1396:

The map allows you to switch between “floors”.

Sure, but this doesn’t help. You still doesn’t see paths and ways to a point of interest, if the entrance is on a different level than the point of interest. It’s even worse: the map changes as you walk. Underground areas are uncovered in part while you walk through them, but you only see your current height uncovered. If you walk down, the upper area behind you is covered again and the next lower part in front of you is uncovered. You never see the whole way, the whole level. Especially for added semi-levels that lay between the switchable floors of the map. Draconis Mons has tons of these semi-levels.

It’s as you have printed 3 big paper maps of Draconis Mons on your desk and about 100 independent small scrap pieces of paper where the semi-levels between the big paper maps are scribbled. Totally chaotic.

I found with both Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons that the map made a lot of sense once I had a rough idea of the layout of the map. It is indeed useless if you’ve never been there and have no idea where to go, but once you have been around the map a bit you’ll discover the paths and landmarks on the map and will be able to piece it all together.

Or at least that was my experience with both of these maps . Personal experience may vary.

For me, the big advantage of events over classic questing is that you are free to play, skip, or repeat events as you like. I’m playing a quest-centric mmo on the side, and playing through the same quests with several characters really turns me off of that (otherwise really nice) game. With events, I’m free to choose whether to involve myself into the story or just skip it in favor of something different to do.

We do have “classic” quests in the stories we get (personal, HoT, Living Story), and they often are a lot more involved than events and/or hearts, but they also run into the same trap classic quests do: play through them with several characters and you are bound to get bored with them sooner or later.

If you are a one-character player that point doesn’t matter as you aren’t likely to play through the story several times anyway, but this game excells at content for people who enjoy playing many different characters, and the event system is one of the points that make it stand out on that front.

I seem to recall that in the announcement for HoT they said “we want to make a game where you enjoy meeting other players”. That unfortunately rules out open-world puzzles for the most part. Have you ever tried getting the coordinates for Portmatt’s laboratory right, while a random clueless stranger wanders in and messes up the seettings? Most kinds of puzzles aren’t easy to scale for various amounts of participants, and even harder to coordinate between random strangers strolling by, which I suspect is the main reason we mostly only get those in stories and instanced group content.

I like this game because it allows me to play with as many or as few people as happen to be around, no matter if they are friends or total strangers, and the event system we’ve got works great for that. That other game I mentioned goes the way of quest choices changing the world for good, and even just playing through with my husband it is a huge bother, with npcs (dis-)appearing and questlines only available to one of us constantly.

I’m sure there are many people that would prefer classic story quests and lasting consequences, but (even if I hate repeating what’s been said so often) there are many games out that catering to that kind of gameplay. I love GW2 for allowing me a flexible gameplay experience with all my different characters as well as different people, and our event system is next to perfect for that.

Faaris.8013:

Rasimir.6239:

I can spend weeks going around trying to find all the paths and interesting bits and pieces. There’s so much to see and hear and discover in this game, you’re missing out on most of it if you just blindly follow in somebody else’s steps.

But you are missing out on other things in exchange, like masteries or fancy armor/weapons or fractal content etc. You can’t have all of it at the same time. You postpone all of this stuff because exploring comes first for you. Others want the fun stuff first and then start exploring. As I said, exploring with specific masteries is more fun for me than without them.

Actually I’m not. Masteries come so quickly I had maxed and unlocked the recent one when I had barely even entered the new map. By the time I know what’s going on I have long finished whatever progression there is that has an actual impact on gameplay and exploration.

As for fancy armor and weapons, does it really impact your enjoyment of your in-game time if you get your fancy cosmetics a week later? I’m having a hard time grasping that idea, especially when it comes to cosmetic rewards for basic gameplay (if we can agree on the fact that exploration is basic gameplay).

Of course I want that ascended druid stone backpack, the skin is gorgeous. But I want to enjoy getting it. Just having it, or worse having to do stuff I don’t enjoy to get it, just isn’t worth any digital shiny. It’ll probably take me a few weeks to get it, since I have only yet found three of the four druids I need to visit for the first level collection, and don’t really know (nor do I want to know) what the next three collections require, but I’d rather not have that skin than do unfun chores like look up every detail that others figured out.

If you want to look it up that’s your choice, but don’t try to blame it on anybody else if you choose to do this in a way that you don’t find fun.

finkle.9513:

I tend to come back and do the new Living World realses, then try the achievements… then stop playing as it feels like a chore to look up each achievement … it becomes the opposite of fun.

But why? Why not just go out into the map and explore? Why not try to find things for yourself rather than following other people’s trails?

The most fun I have with new maps (and especially with the latest one) in this game is exploration. I can spend weeks going around trying to find all the paths and interesting bits and pieces. There’s so much to see and hear and discover in this game, you’re missing out on most of it if you just blindly follow in somebody else’s steps.

I am not above checking the wiki (or in rare cases even Dulfy) occasionally, but usually not until I have explored the map to the fullest. And full exploration of the detailed maps this game has isn’t done in an hour or a day, or even a week. Take your time and enjoy the maps, it’s a lot more fun than just spoiling every discovery through outside sources as fast as possible to be able to complain about “not enough content” afterwards.

Zappix.7928:

we need some more flat maps just for a change

You mean maps like Lake Doric? Or Bitterfrost? Even Ember Bay was mostly flat (jp area excluded), and Bloodstone Fen, while having three layers, basically had three flat layers without interaction placed on top of each other. How much change do you need when one map out of five that’s catering to those of us who love to explore is too much?

Sartharina.3542:

Carighan.6758:

Uuuuh. I just walk around and explore? Why would I be in any hurry to find things?

You have to leave for work in an hour.

So what? Everything will still be there, waiting for me to explore, when I get back home tonight .

Personally, I just play whatever content catches my fancy that day. If I “fall behind” then I can be moderately sure that in a few days/weeks/months I’ll pick up whatever I may have missed out just now. That’s the beauty of this game, you can’t really fall behind, as you can always do the content at a later date. Thanks to megaservers there’s no shortage of people on any map in this game.

I do have goals in this game, but as it’s my free time to enjoy myself, I don’t really care if said goal takes a week or a month longer, the important thing to me is to have fun. As such, I have actually taken up a legendary journey (the one for Nevermore, since I would love to have the skin of the 2nd precursor iteration) about a year ago, but have yet to finish the 2nd level of that one. It took me months to get the first level collection done, since I would only look into it whenever I was looking for inspiration of what to play that day, and more often than not would already get sidetracked on the way to the event or vendor I had made out as my current goal.

Right now I’ve got my eyes on the ascended druidstone backpiece from the new map. I expect to take a couple of months (or probably even many) to get it, since I won’t be in the mood of playing the new map all the time, but who cares? One day, this lovely piece of flowery shrub will be mine, and I’ll have fun all the way there.

So my “casual secret” is to see the gameplay as the reward itself, and only have rough goals to guide your gameplay if you are totally at a loss at what seems fun that day. A variety of different goals also helps to always find something fun to do.

And if all else fails, even some casual map exploration or event training anywhere on Tyria may produce stuff for your material storage that may come in handy at a later time to help towards a goal you have yet to find. Imagine my surprise when I looted my first precursor the other day (after way too many hours having fun in this game), and finding that my material storage held enough stuff to craft the legendary right away. Double luck that it was the only legendary weapon that I really liked, so I now have a fun new toy that’s contributing to me just sending my little asura out into the world to have fun .

jihm.2315:

i mean exploring is cool for those who like it but for me personally i have no mood to spend 3 hours to find a vista or a mastery, game is forcing me to go to youtube.
also those who say that all mmos have youtube guides yes they have guides for gold farming , boss encounters and crafting mostly.

Let me get this straight: the game is “forcing” you to go to youtube because you insist to quickly master content meant for people who enjoy different things than you?

If you want to play the story then do so, but exploring the right paths is part of the story, and if you don’t enjoy that part then maybe the story isn’t the right fit for your gaming time?

Personally I love exploration. I’m very much a “learning by doing” person in games. Looking up paths or mechanics on youtube doesn’t help me one bit, but experiencing stuff, whether it’s a map to explore or a raid fight to win, is the way I learn things.

The new map has given me an experience that reminds me of the old rpgs I loved to play back in the 80s and 90s (yes, I’m that old ), before in-game maps and automapping were a thing, and I had a blast figuiring out how to get to places.

Personally I would love a lot more maps of this kind, but I can accept that a lot of people don’t enjoy this kind of thing as much as I do, so I can live with the fact that true exploration maps are few and far between. But don’t touch my exploration maps because you don’t like to explore and don’t like to youtube your way around either!

Character bound masteries with specific (story? event? …?) activities to unlock them reminds me awfully of the 2nd iteration of this game’s trait system. I’ve got a whole bunch of characters that unlocked traits under that system, and while I enjoyed it in theory, practically it was an awfull chore to go hunt the same event/do the same story/clear the same map/etc with each character again.

Account-bound progression is a huge boon to people who enjoy playing a variety of different characters. It’s one of the strongest points this game has for me: I can unlock a story/achievement/mastery on one character and next day switch to another one and have everything I unlocked the day before available.

This game is going out of its way to give its players the ability to progress on any character they feel like playing at the time and keeping that progress when switching to another character. I don’t see them changing this in any way that would make progression repetitive if you want to play different characters.

That said, personally I enjoy the mastery system the way it is because it gives a sense of progression over time (through experience gain), a variety of goals to reach milestones in that progression (by way of doing achievements that award mastery points), and I can play with any character I feel like to make use of that progression, unlike other games where each character has to re-do a large amount of stuff to get access to the same perks that my other character(s) already unlocked.

HollowDean.5134:

I really hate doing achievements, it ruins the game for me.

Could you explain what you mean by this? Achievments by themselves aren’t really a specific activity but just this game’s method of listing stuff you’ve done in game. Whether it’s reaching a certain character level, exploring a certain area, taking part in a specific event, channeling a mastery insight, finishing a step in the story, or finding a bunch of knicknacks (tied together through a collection), the achievement panel really only gives you (and the game) a way to track whether you’ve “been there, done that” or not. The activities that are tracked through achievements are as varied as anything you can do in game.

Have you played all the stories available (personal, HoT, living world season 2+3)? Explored the map and taken part in events you come across? Explored the maps for hidden items and places? If you don’t want the guidance of the achievement log to get hints as to where mastery points are located, going out into the world of Tyria really is the only way to do it .

Most importantly: just do whatever you enjoy. I rarely check the achievement log, and achievements still get done more often than not, without me worrying about them at all. This game is great that way, that you get most of what’s available without the need to farm for anything specifically.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t understand their insistence that I must play the story on each toon or spend currency (for which I have other uses) to get a portal scroll that I will likely only use once or twice per toon.

Where do you draw the line between exploration and gating? Is it just that you prefer other avenues of access? Run half-way across Tyria like you have to do to access the Arah dungeon in Cursed Shore or the Dragon’s Stand map? Play long event chains (that may or may not need several players to succeed), like you need to access the Crucible of Eternity dungeon or map areas in some of the HoT maps?

To me investing some kind of time and minimal effort into opening new areas is part of what a game like this is all about. Whether it’s traveling time (and dealing with the local wildlife on the way), event completion, or story instances doesn’t make that much of a difference.

I do agree that doing the same thing again and again back to back is boring. Fortunately, having several characters already past their 4th birthday, I’ve got a stack of teleport to friend stones in store (with some additional stones from black lion chests opened with keys found or earned through in-game activities), so if I “need” a character at a place and don’t feel like doing the job, I’ll send them there. The supply of stones isn’t endless, but I find it more than enough to shortcut the chore if playing the game starts to become one.

As a long-term player you should have the tools to shortcut the journey if you really need to. But what is so important on the new map that you absolutely need many different characters there right away to the point where it’s too much to play the introductory story instance? And (to get back to my initial question) where should ANet draw the line between progression by gameplay and instant access?

All I can say is the average in my houshold is around 80, consisting of my main account at 186, my secondary account around 125, daughter #1 who only plays wvw at 3 mastery points, and daughter #2 (who only does jps on leveling toons and is too chicken to go anywhere there’s a chance of fighting) at 2 mastery points . Both kids play regularly, just not in content/with levels that gain mastery experience, and thus neatly average out my own (pve-heavy) accounts.

Ohoni.6057:

That’s exactly my point, that shouldn’t be necessary. You should not have to “learn” this fight, this is a fight that you should be able to beat on the first try, no deaths, regardless of skill level or build type. The only difference skill should make is in how long the fight lasts.

Why have a fight at all if you win by default, without any knowledge of the fight or fight mechanics? You might just as well skip the fight and just do cutscenes then.

Ashantara.8731:

I made the same complaint just the other day. While I enjoy the new means of travel (gliding, ley-lines, mushrooms, tubes, oakheart), I don’t find it particularly appealing nor impressive to make any of those the main means of travel while walking seems to have become the exception (even story missions now require gliding).

You can reach all of the story locations on foot, without any of those “new-fangled” movement skills. I did this just yesterday simply to get a better feel for the map and it’s layout. It takes a while, and there is a lot of aggressive wildlife crossing your path, but it’s perfectly doable (and helped me a ton to finding my way around with movement skills afterwards ).

Ashantara.8731:

It has grown to a point where I would say this has become a major annoyance for old school players; “old” by the means of GW play time and players’ age, as IMO only youngsters can enjoy seeing a classic RPG being turned into a platformer (hint: this is still Guild Wars, not Donkey Kong).

At almost 50 years on earth, 4.5 years in Tyria, and with poor reflexes and coordination to begin with, I guess I do qualify under your definition of “old”, but still I love that after the (to me) boring flat maps of the previous episodes we finally get a vertical one again. I’m having a blast exploring the map and trying to find my way around. It does remind me of the computer rpgs I loved to play back in the 80s and 90s where you had to explore and map everything yourself (or wait for your game magazine of choice to print spoiler maps … but most of the time I had my games mapped way before spoiler maps were available).

Anyway, we’ve had a good many mostly horizontal maps lately. If you don’t like vertical maps that’s fine, but please allow those of us who enjoy this kind of map (with and without the travel perks) to have one of them occasionally, too.

The point that I’m missing in this whole discussion: what 100g armour does a new, casual player need that can’t be replaced by equally viable armour that is available much cheaper?

If it’s berserker exotics or any of the other core craftable stats, you can buy named dropped armour of those stats from the trading post for much less, get them with karma from the Orr temples, from dungeon runs via tokens, through badges of honour and a comparatively small amount of gold from wvw vendors, through a variety of pvp and wvw reward tracks, and probably from other sources I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Sure, there are craftable stats that are harder to get, namely the HoT stat sets, but they are meant to be for the min-maxers among the players that need a goal to work towards, and not something that is critical to have access to right away as a new, casual player. The difference between these sets and those available easily really doesn’t make or break your gameplay.

I’m as casual as they come, to the point where I refuse to farm. I have goals in this game, actually quite a lot of them, but if I find I don’t enjoy what it takes to reach those goals, then I’ll gladly put those goals aside for the time being and do something else. Still I find that resources, no matter if currency or materials, comes plenty in all parts of the game and piles up without the need to farm any of it.

zealex.9410:

And who know maybe the new maps will be huge with like 2 wp only there mounts will make sense.

You really want to go back to the old days of MMOs where each death means you have to go back to the spawn point in the corner of the map, then jump on your mount and ride back all the way to where you died? If that’s your justification for mounts, then GW2 has long since implemented a way better system.

Personally I like my collectibles well enough and have enjoyed collecting mounts in other games where those were a thing, but I don’t miss the movement aspect of mount systems one bit. GW2 lets me choose whether to waypoint right where I want to go, or leisurely run across the countryside to explore things as I pass them. I really prefer this system to being forced to travel distances again and again, and I suspect I’m not the only player in this game that enjoys the flexibility of the waypoint system compared to mount-based traveling.

Redfeather.6401:

Cyninja.2954:

Redfeather.6401:

Just so people know…

My second post was because for the past few years I have taken breaks, and during the breaks come back to the forums and made suggestions. The responses were always 1. GW2 does it already, 2. GW2 doesn’t need it. 3. GW2 would need to be completely overhaualed to change. Always the same outcome to my topics, but I honestly forget that over time and need to be reminded.

So in one response to my topic I was quickly reminded that the game just isn’t going to change, and I am looking for change. It’s all good everyone. good luck and have fun!

Well it’s good that you realised this yourself. The question one would have to answer I guess is, why should GW2 change? It has a niche of its own. Making GW2 more WoW, BDO, Archage, etc. like would just make it compete with the respective game in their category.

Better be unique and improve on your concept and design than copy someone else. This goes double for game mechanics which make MMOs seem similar. It’s imo one of the major reasons all those WoW clones failed a couple of years back. Why go for 2nd best when you can play the original.

I just liked how the game I am currently playing keeps changing things up and dropping new mechanics unto me as I get further… to both keep me engaged, and give me new directions of progression.

Like I just got a handle of the skill add-on system in bdo and the game drops awakening on me. And as I just start to get a handle on that, Pearl Abyss reveals they are working on an awakening 2.0 system that allows the merging of non-awakened skills. That really excited me, and I wish GW2 kept that feeling of ‘there is always more to come’ where character progression is concerned.

GW2 has gone out of the way to allow people to get to their max performance (max level, max equipment, max masteries) quickly. It aims more at people who like to play around in their full capacity than those who like to spend their game time progressing endlessly towards an almost unreachable goal.

This aim comes at the price of having the most noticable progression (unlocking advanced skills through traits/better sigils/better runes) happen in a rather short part of the average game life. The “not much progression after the initial ramp-up” is by design, and a lot of people playing GW2 actually enjoy the system the way it is and prefer it to one where it takes a long time to get to your max potential.

Late-game progression in GW2 is mostly in cosmetics, collections, achievements, not character power. A lot of people already complained about the mastery system (which I personally have enjoyed) as being too much “power progression” for their taste. I doubt adding yet more character “power” progression to late-game would suit this game and its audience.

The achievement carries over between festivals. I got a Kaiser Snake weapon box last Friday since I had the achievement at 6/8 from last year, and only needed Thursday’s and Friday’s dailies to finish it. So if you “miss” one day now you’ll at most delay getting a box to next year, but you’ll get it eventually (if you still play and still care then of course ).

FrizzFreston.5290:

Rasimir.6239:

I can do the jumps just fine, but I can’t turn and move precisely at the same time, at least not quick enough to beat the timer (and I have literally spent hours each year trying that jp).

The need to change directions, jump precisely, and keep the timing to not get knocked off by those troll stones is pretty much beyond me.

Coordinating direction changes, precision jumping, and timed movement is beyond “just practice” for a lot of players.

I’m not sure it would change anything as I dunno how you have it set up, but I personally run with action camera so that I can strafe and back pedal as fast as I can walk forward. Also not needing to press extra button for mouse turning is easier on my hands. So, WASD and turning with the mouse whilst clicking for auto attack seems the easiest and fastest setup for me. Turning with directional keys or A and D is just too slow, though like I said I dunno if you use that to turn. I definitely would not ever want to try that section with key turning or any other part of the game for that matter.

Good control setup can change your whole experience, especially if you have trouble.

Other than that, my first attempt through it also took that long. These days it takes much shorter.

Thanks for the tips. I’m already doing most of that, minus the action camera, as I’m prone to sea-sickness and the screen movements from action camera intensify that. That stupid furniture shop definitely isn’t worth having to lie down with a splitting headache and a sick stomach for a couple of hours afterwards .

I can accept that I just have really really poor muscle coordination (always had, to the point where it got me off getting graded in sports back in school), and while practice always helps, no amount will get me anywhere near normal.