Guild Wars 2

Strang.8170:

Time investment gap is what they sought to fix.

Power gap is what they created with it.

And in the process time investment gap got wider too.

Indeed and failing to realise that the section of the community demanding it do not want to invest any time and play the game for years to finally get there… but do actually want the power gap as a reward and want it now. The other gap that’s been created is the community split that will only get wider it’s just seems impossible to bring the 2 sides together now that’s probably the real shame in it all.

The AMA seemed to me to just muddy the waters. I couldn’t find anything reassuring in it.

Claiming to be for the community as a whole when you’ve just brought out a patch for and in response to one very specific section of the community sounds a bit hollow to me.

All that’s really changed is we have official confirmation that the vertical gear progression is here to stay. There was still a lot of evasion in the answers and they failed to take any questions about their vision of the game pre patch and now.

So no I’m not reassured and my desire to spend any time or money has not been rekindled. So I guess I’ll sit in the wait and see camp.

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

This seems to me precisely what they did do. Design for one specific type of player with no feedback – just demands and once you start changing a game on the demand slope it’s impossible to please the community as a whole and never ending.

Ok so now we have vertical progression the next demand (already hitting the forums) make it easier… then it’ll be automatic dungeon finder, dedicated healers and tanks, mounts, gearscore, arena it’s a very slippery slope. And it’s a fact that Blizzard just do that stuff better shown by the customer base – all of the clones have (had) very small customer bases.

nachtnebel.9168:

The Lost Shore patch divided the community and a lot of players are pissed cause Arena Net broke a very important promise. In addition, you now have to spend a lot of your time sitting in Lion’s Arch and spamming “lfg/lfm” if you want to do the new dungeon, which is the only way to get the best in slot gear. You can’t level your twinks if you are wasting your time spamming stupid text messages.

Merthax.5172:

I think it’s the uncertainty about what direction the game is headed. People are waiting to know more.

This and this I think. Fractals was a terrible idea take a couple of days off playing and you come back to find everyone’s way past your fractals level… no-ones doing dungeons, LA has overflow but zones are empty except for karma zergs…. wth…

Apart from lore and no monthly fee there’s really not much let alone best bits. The best bits for me were things like hard mode, vanquishing, and especially signet of capture. I also miss heroes and henchies trying to level alts in GW2 ghost zones.

GW1 was all about varied and achievable goals. GW2 I find has tunnel vision in comparison and seems to have suddenly become very alt unfriendly.

ETA: Oh and being able to change districts to play with others find yourself in a quiet area change district and find ppl. GW2 if it’s dead it’s dead.

Not really fixed.. it should have a title and be no deaths ever

+1

I’m usually very put-off by wall of text posts… but I read every word and thank you OP you’ve managed to articulate what a many of us are thinking and do it in a positive way.

Xpiher.5209:

They aren’t going to do it because they plan on continuing with adding 2-3 pieces of ascended gear every 3-4 months. They are also tieing content directly to agony. GW1 and people who hate gear treedmills lost.

No… ANet lost.

I’ve yet to see any of the brilliance from GW1 the whole ethos here has shifted. Fractals is not encouraging but requiring elitism and has a core of exclusion (because you cannot progress with players of a lower difficulty level in your party) and to get the new Ascended items there is only one route Fractals.

The weekends event had absolutely no imagination behind it… gamebreaking lag in Phase 1, bugged NPC’s in Phase 2 and Phase 3 was purely about how to waste 2+ hours. Killing the same mobs in practically the same place for 2+ hours hardly new, groundbreaking or innovative! Possibly worth it if you got a precursor from the chest but not everyone did.

Too embarrased to give out any seriously… only one person is left from the group of 40 or so players I’ve gamed with on and off for the past 5 years and that came to GW2.

Merthax.5172:

To OP: I’m simply going to work on leveling alts and avoiding the whole end-game gear grind altogether.

I would have expected to be playing this game for years, but it looks like it will just be a few months.

Same thing after years of loving GW and waiting for this game I’m utterly disillusioned this is simply not the game marketed to me. As a FTP game I’ve been buying gems monthly to support ANet and because I felt the game was worthy of subscription but I’m not doing that anymore.

I have 2 lv 80 full exotic characters but I don’t want to support the elitist/exclusion part of the game which is now the endgame. I’m happy to run a dungeon with any group (scaled levels, new players, regardless of gear) and yes I object to being forced to demand criteria when lfg like must be fractal lv X

The only thing left to enjoy is levelling an alt of each race/prof.

The OP has nailed it… The game is all about Fractals and ANet’s new exclusion and elitism policy now – other areas are deserted as if places like Cursed Shore weren’t deserted enough already outside the karma zerg routes.

I so want Cantha!! And Ritualist

It was my favourite area in GW1. Why oh why can’t they just stop messing with failed bug riddled events clearly designed for locusts and just get working on the expansions… paid expansions… proper expansions.

Luculus.9860:

Do people think, in general, that these forums (and game forums in general) are so negative because the people who are really enjoying themselves just play and don’t come here to whine?

I mean this seriously.

I’ve always thought this and I think it’s true the majority of players (in any game) don’t get involved in the forums that’s easy to determine by the amount of posts vs players even in the large threads. But… it also means when this group are unhappy they don’t come to the forums to announce it to everyone so we can’t just assume that they are “happily” playing the game.

If mapchat is a guide my experience ingame is the ratio of generally unhappy to best ever is pretty much the same as here.

3 for me …

7 days ago I was relatively happy with the game but now… Communication is abysmal and seriously 2+ hours of doing the same thing it was like killing the same mob endlessly no game mechanics no imagination involved at all… the mess of freezing lag in Phase 1, running from one bugged NPC to the next in Phase 2 and disconnects and the littering of precursors in Phase 3 all of that after publicly trashing their own manifesto. Awful doesn’t begin to describe it for me..

ANet should do many things but cater for ppl who can’t log in because of RL stuff well no matter when/what there will always be someone that can’t be online and that’s just a plain silly complaint.

The event itself was the most mind numbingly boring 2 hours I’ve spent in any game and the whole idea of dishing out Precursors like that always going to create uproar especially coming on the back of Ascended items and the public trashing of their own manifesto. Get a grip ANet before it’s too late please!

Never had any problem with matts for my characters I used Frostgorge Sound a lot (it’s a much more pleasant place to farm) that and TP to sell the matts I didn’t need to get the matts I did. Orr’s only use is Karma zergs

Do you know what… this game was years in development… if ANet had decided they were wrong or even changed their minds about the game they were making there is such a thing as communication. They should have been honest and COMMUNICATED with their player base.

They still aren’t doing that the Manifesto remains the same and the fluffy PR statements they use to communicate with us – don’t tell us anything.

I played TSW for a few months after it’s launch and sure it has some interesting features but it was incedibly buggy and felt for me like it lacked any sense of community. As has been mentioned it does have gear grinds but it was the fact that the endgame demand to conform to cookie cutter builds was very high – that’s the thing that turned me off the game.

I’m keeping an eye on Elder Scrolls but I still live in hope someone will make a truly different MMO I do get the feeling sadly that if the mould is ever to be broken it will end up being Blizzard themselves that do it… they’re being very cagey about Titan.

/signed – YES!

You’ve expressed my feeling exactly OP.

I’ve been such a fan of both GW and ANet and right now I’m just so disappointed in them. As far as I’m concerned this isn’t the game they promised and it is devolving into another cloned MMO with the same tired old format. What are they thinking! And are they big enough to admit this is a mistake? I hope really so.

Well simply put at least EU players will be able to get into Desolation Borderlands now during our prime time. And mapchat in LA has improved 100% in the past week no-one demanding everyone go to WvW, stay up all night to help out – alternated with how US players are saving us all and are oh so much better than everyone else, no-one asking for funds.. not to mention the bad feeling towards Desolation they created by their attitude – if RUIN are gone forever great! A US guild should never have been allowed to hop on an already full EU server in the first place – or what is the point of having regions. at all

Pythax.6802:

I’m not sure if any of the complainers in this thread have taken the time to read Linseys post on the ascended gear, but she does state that the infusions merely help defend against the Agony stat, it states no where that without the Infusion slot you won’t be able to complete the dungeons (if this is wrong, then my bad – it’s early here, still half asleep X).

But seriously, can’t we all just wait and see how the whole ascended gear pans out? Is it really nessecary to doomsay the games end before we have actual facts to base our concerns off?

Doesn’t her post make it clear that the new dungeon becomes more difficult the further in you go and Agony builds like a timer so without the infusion to combat it… you’re obviously not going to be able to complete it.

The one solid fact that we don’t need to wait for is that ANet have sadly taken a direction away from their philosphy. We were told GW2 wouldn’t include exclusion from some content based on gear and there would be multiple paths to achieve endgame goals. 3 months just 3 months in this may appear a relatively small deal but the direction change is a huge deal.

They’re also being very vague and not addressing the concerns players have just issuing PR statements all fluff and no substance. I waited years for this game – years of being told no gear grind, no gear grind, no exclusion from content based on how you like to play and whoosh 3 months in what am I looking forward to this weekend the introduction of gear grind and exclusion from content X if I don’t get Y. And the birth of another MMO clone which is just Zzzzz.

He starts out ok being all humble and doing something he doesn’t really want to for all the right reasons and ends up dishing out stupid token titles like Marshall and Commander on a massive power trip. Oh and because he has a really annoying pompous voice and his dialogue is awful.

GW1 ascended was nothing like this you went to a place.. did a thing and the guy infused your current armor giving you some resistance to a certain kind of mob no stat benefit at all.

Anet philosophy afaik has always been to turn away from the traditional format and not become just another clone – multiple paths to the same goal so players can play the game however they want and still arrive at the same place gearwise was a core part. This change just 3 months in… 3 months in is a complete reversal of that it seems to me… and I’m pretty disappointed in them.

Legendary which was supposed to be difficult is being turned into a scavenger hunt and players will be forced into dungeons and for what… all to placate the WoWesq forum QQing.

A bridge between Exotic and Legendary fine but it needs multiple paths to achieve to live up to the “play the game however you want” billing.

There are people who will always rush ignore the majority of content to get to the best there is and then complain how they have nothing to do! ANet will never make them happy. And rather than bust a gut trying by rushing out new content how about fixing exsisting in-game problems (like Arah being bugged more often than it’s active). As a subscription free model there is no problem imo in expecting paid expansions.

Strucker.8274:

I’ve played MMO’s for 10+ years, I haven’t been this relaxed or satisfied with a game in a very long time.

Same here

Some ppl are so brainwashed they’ve lost the ability to comprehend methinks. Throw the tradition of i am the tank everyone needs me i am the healer everyone needs me give me the loot and the gear give me the epics let me roll around being leet and better than everone else let me one shot stuff and let me skip stuff and do dungeons for epic rewards in 10 mins… i’ve earned it and make this game just like …… Get rid of all that and the game becomes fun and if it’s not fun why the heck would you play it.

GW2 is not like every other MMO out there (as has been pointed out) the only real reason to group is for dungeons (and possibly karma farms). Pugs are always hit and miss and ideally dungeon groups would be found via a guild or via server mapchat.

There is no holy trinity so groups need to use co-operation and communication. LFG tools in every game I’ve played have only encouraged the opposite a real lack of communication and when they go cross server they become the pits in player attitudes. These tools breed laziness and intolerance and still ppl spam mapchat.

For the most part the GW2 community is a pleasant one when compared to other gaming communities that’s partly due to accountability and ANet not tolerating certain types of behaviours. So if ANet are planning a system it should not be like any other LFG system and absolutely not cross server hopefully they will get overflows working as intended and able to be used if you’re looking for group outside of your own server or want to group with friends on other servers.

• Removing pet damage as a whole and adding it to the ranger. (??)*

No, no, no!!!!

Why the heck don’t these ppl that want to play Ranger without a pet roll warrior? The whole point of the prof is that a Ranger is only half a player without the pet I’d like to see pet damage buffed it should certainly include some aoe abilities- if they take away pet damage they may as well dump the Ranger prof entirely.

Ranger is playable and fun… does it feel underpowered yes it does… if they buff it too much Ranger will become the new Thief with everyone screaming nerf! Happens every game with every Ranger like character.

What I for one hope they don’t change is the damage split between Ranger and pet it’s kind of the whole point of the prof… and means you need some skilll to manage the pet not just chuck it in there let it die and then QQ. Those who want to play Ranger without a pet should try Warrior IMO.

Brilliant my Norn and Asura thank you… as others have mentioned it eats a handful of FPS but well worth it. No negative differences with it enabled that I’ve found so far.

Seeing as I’m playing GW2 and not WoW – MKT wins heads down…
I would have preferred him to be a little more GW1 -but can’t have everything – his transition to GW2 was pretty good.

Huge fun yes sure there have been problems not suprising as this was an ambitious event! ANet could have played it safe and done something simple but it’s been spectacular Good job!

PS: Good job too OP we needed a thread like this! I can’t believe the level of rudeness and abuse that’s been thrown around makes me thoroughly ashamed tbh… gamers used to be so nice!

So use the mouse features to bind the ones you do want Logitech has 3 modes does it not weapon swapping is only 2. Like 0-9 seriously it’s not even hard to remember what’s where and map your mouse/keyboard. You either have to learn the UI or learn your mouse and use it’s features.

Both waypoints and repairs are moderate costs easily recouped in one heart quest, one event or one round of gathering. PvP tab go to heart of the mists take portal to Lion’s Arch – that makes one leg of going to the bank/merchant/changing zones free.

The number affected by power outages vs the number of players in the game…..

The self entitlement generation – <rollseyes>could they please extend any future event whenever I get a power outage…. my ISP flips… and if my computer dies stop the game till I get a new one…. Blast I forgot about work that seriously interrupts my ability to play… please make events at weekends only and not the 3rd weekend in the month. </rollseyes>

Huge update and well worth the wait.

The detail in this game is amazing and too often ignored in a pile of whines and suggestions to turn this game into something else /rolleyes Good job devs… good job!

DarkMonk.4531:

I`m at a loss. I`ve played Engineer, Elementalist, Ranger and a Warrior. In comparison to them my Guardian is an unkillable mob-grinding machine. What do I do wrong?

LOL exactly! I feel the same (after Ranger, Ele, Mesmer) am wondering why Guardians need health…. O>O

Actually it’s a good thing. Helps us with the map chat spammers as well as gold sellers.

When you take away out gearing other players – all that defines you is skill.

So if we all have the same gear the better player is the more skilled player it shows the state of gaming when players are crying to be over geared to press the i-win button and calling players favouring skill losers rofl!

Even worse is demanding the game changes it’s whole ethos drops it’s unique selling points to become a gearscored but FTP clone for the elites with epics who are afraid to play on a level playing field.

Once the bar didn’t move at all.. I got suspicious… so I asked mbf google and found that this is and has always been broken it does not work and has never has worked and is not similar to the monthly title re zoning, logging. So I have kept an empty character slot for when it’s fixed

To avoid the confusion and frustration tho it might be an idea for ANet to mark it on the Achievements tab as an indication or just remove it entirely from ths list.

This bugged out for me at the defend the front gate part with my mesmer last night. Nothing happened after the first half a dozen mobs there were NO sneaky Risen left anywhere (I was solo didn’t skip cutscenes).

No choice but to log out and start again and here’s where it gets interesting. When I logged back in all the undead that should have been in the instanced story were on the entry point…

Bypassed the bug by running to the gate after logging camp letting the NPC’s handle the first wave which killed them all ofc! Then pulled all the waves in small groups dragging them just inside the fort gates and killed them there by myself. It worked but took ages!

Transferring a US Guild (of allegedly 1500) as has happened on Desolation which was already a high population EU server is not a way to fix the problem either! It simply means the EU players on that server since launch now can’t get in at all during evening peak times or late night. Why are there regions at all?

Seriously… I have been at Cursed Shore 2-3 hours at a time and DR for Karma has not hit me once since the patch.. DR for loot kicks in after about 45 mins to an hour. But I move around…

What those against DR seem want is to be in one place move as little as possible and get rewarded – bots of course should be banned asap but real players shouldn’t be rewarded either for using the same tactics.

For 2 days in the 2-3 hours I’ve been in Cursed Shore on my server the temples have been contested the whole time because groups stay around the R&D or Shelter elsewhere in Cursed Shore you rarely see another player.

I don’t miss raids at all been there done that… so boring in the end. That there aren’t any and won’t be any is a huge plus if ppl want to raid there are games with raids just don’t try and turn GW2 into just like ….. I agree with the poster who said small groups with brains loving that atm.

All of the time I’ve been gaming it has been considered both polite and practical to have main channel chat in English on European (not designated another specific language) servers.

Why? Because the largest number of people can understand English in most European countries it is taught in schools, it is the most popular 2nd language. So it’s obvious that chat in English will be understood by the majority of players on a public channel. If there were 20 people having conversations in 10 languages on public chat the channel would be rendered useless.

Personally I have no problem with a guild advert in another language nor someone asking a question whisper is there for a reply or conversation. It’s the ones who use the public channel as their own private <insert random language here> conversation channel that yes I do have an issue with.

My OH, rl friends and the majority of guild members do not have English as a first language and all use English exclusively on public channels.

This rascist argument is relatively new and usually raised from the me generation who feel they shouldn’t have to consider anyone but me IMO.

If they were account bound the market would be saturated with dyes – the drop rate is quite high and there is a crafting ability to make dyes aside from packs in the ingame store.

So per character is reasonable… and I disagree with making them account bound. If they were account bound the drop rate would have to be reduced and the crafting option removed to limit the number of dyes in the world or dye would become rampant like sticks of butter

I have a rainbow thing going on one character collects blues, one reds, one yellows etc and every 5th dye I get goes unidentified into my bank towards the later recipies that need 250 unidentified dyes.

Cezton.2415:

Swiftness is fine and all. I can use my staff, or my retreat ability as a Guardian to get around faster. As you can tell I’m mainly referring to Orr.

If you die, you spend money. If you run around, you attract countless enemies, and there lies the money thing again. It just feels clunky is all I’m saying.

You atract countless enemies if you try to run past everything. Killing your way through is a lot cheaper and safer.

I wouldn’t mind a small increase in runspeed but tbh I don’t want mounts. The teleport/waypoint system is way better.

Still bugged for me too and it almost feels random because following the steps posted where it has worked doesn’t seem to mean those steps work for everyone.

I did have what is maybe a clue by way of a very similar bug on an early story quest in Caledonia Forest NPC refused to move… talk… etc. After a couple of tries it turned out the NPC had to be led around a small bump in the terrain if I went over it he froze if I went round it he followed.

This one however I don’t fancy going back and looking for terrain bumps So I’ll hang out for a fix.

Tera was awful. clunky and unresponsive any thoughts on implementing anything like this has to be made optional.

Waypoints inside a city are free once you’re there. There is free travel to LA. I don’t see any reason for free home city travel tbh. The cost is moderate as it is.

I agree someone heading your way does not mean they are going to revive you, you get a message if someone is reviving you personally I prefer a clean map. Stats the general idea is there or at least I understand it – it’s not a game for the traditional mmo number crunching thankfully. Why should we be able to customise all controls? Considering there aren’t groups for events 20 ppl pinging the map and doodling is more confusing and annoying than helpful.Very few items are account bound and a nicer touch than having these items soulbound. Bugged skill points being fixed as we type. I assume you can use the language you buy the game in? I’ve seen a myriad of languages in overflow servers.