Guild Wars 2

One final update: Using the 64-bit client has eliminated my graphical errors, it seems, but not my loading error. The game continues to freeze at the end of a load. The music kicks in, but no progress can be made beyond a frozen loading screen without ctrl+alt+deleting away from the client and then reopening it from the taskbar, just like before.

I’ll leave the thread like this, with all the information I have. I don’t think I can do much more on my end anyway.

EDIT: Putting the game in Windowed Fullscreen mode froze the client, causing me to have to crtl+alt+delete as usual. However, once I returned to the game, now in Windowed Fullscreen, I loaded my character and… the client didn’t freeze upon loading!

I don’t know what impact this will have on my game’s performance moving forward, but for the time being, it’s well and truly behaving itself. I do not, however, consider these circumstances a true “fix,” because they don’t directly address the problem, they just work around it.

As you can see in the picture, my machine actually has two display adapters- both are up to date, I’ve just made sure of that.

The 520 is one of those super energy efficient adapters that can just kind of be relied on for low-strain games, while the 950M is supposed to do the real work for games like GW2- and it tends to! Once I’m actually in the game, I get consistently great framerates, in the 40-60 range, under virtually all circumstances.

This leads me to believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the problem is to do with the client (and perhaps the newest patch) rather than my own machine, which is as updated as it can be, and has managed the game with generally flawless performance thus far. It sure got me through SAB without a hitch, not an error in sight anywhere I went. This load-freezing is totally new, and the texture glitches with it.

I apologize for frequently updating my own thread, by the way. I thought it would be best to get a really comprehensive image of the problem I’m facing and eliminate as many user-end issues as possible before anything else took off.

After running -repair I can confirm that I’m still experiencing the error. Getting through a loading screen only takes a few seconds thanks to my SSD, but it freezes once it’s “complete” and requires exiting the client window and opening it from the taskbar to begin normal play.

In addition, certain textures on spell effects- combo field rings, for example, and the blinding spell that Dust Mites (which I continue to test against for consistency) use feature the green and blue default texture.

I am currently running the -repair argument at this exact moment to see if that improves my game’s performance, and will report back to this thread with results. In the meantime, I’m curious to see if this bug is affecting other users, or if a workaround currently exists to return the game to normal performance.

I’m gonna start by directing you to the attached file, because it demonstrates a common form of the bug I’m encountering. The Dust Mite Twister appears normal, but upon its death, the Dust Mites it spawns appear without their textures, reverting to a default blue-and-green checkerboard.

This problem actually affects the entire environment, if I try to do something like auto-detect my game settings during regular gameplay.

But even that comes with a caveat- I can’t load anything in the game without hitting ctrl+alt+delete to escape the game client, and then opening it back up from the taskbar. Loading maps for the first time, loading within a map such as waypoint respawns, changes to my graphical settings and more all result in these hard freezes which don’t actually crash the game, but leave it frozen until I escape from the window and reopen it from the taskbar.

I am using a laptop, but it is a brand new ASUS, designed for games, and here are its specs:

265GB Solid State Hard Drive
8GB RAM
Intel i7-6500U 2.50GHz CPU
2GB Nvidia GeForce 950M Graphics Card

A small and likely(?) irrelevant detail is that this laptop has a 15.6" display, and is running at 1920×1080 resolution. I play mostly MMOs, including Wildstar and World of Warcraft, and have not experienced any texture loading or freezing problems like this in any of my other games. Given that GW2 runs on a different engine, that’s of course to be expected, but I felt it important to point out that this is the only game in which I’m experiencing these problems, and I only started experiencing these problems following the latest update to the game.

To the best of my knowledge, my graphics driver is up to date. Because I’ve looked at my graphics driver, compared the performance of other games, and done my best to eliminate the usual obvious user-end problems, I decided to bring the issue here in the hopes of finding an answer. I can achieve perfectly normal gameplay within a map as long as I don’t have to load it, and as long as I’m content with weird texture bugs- but I’m not content with weird texture bugs, and I don’t like having to disengage the entire game client every time a loading screen comes up.

If you’re aware of a fix for this problem, please help.

Scratch all that, I guess. I restarted my computer and everything is right as rain. I’d still be interested to know why such a thing happened in the first place, but I’m happy just seeing that my game is running again.

I’m currently repairing my data archive in the hopes that something will work. Ever since the very most recent patch- tonight, like almost an hour ago, on the 29th of October, my game refuses to launch. I can run the launcher, and I can click Login, but as soon as I do, it says something about being “unable to initialize 3D output.”

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to “roll back” my graphics driver, as some troubleshooting threads suggest. I don’t even know if that’s the solution- my game was running on the exact same driver two hours ago, flawlessly.

I’m hoping that repairing the archive will solve the problem, but I don’t know what else to do, or if anyone else is having this problem, or why I’m suddenly having this problem.

GW2 is my favorite game and I’ve invested a lot into it. For it to spontaneously stop working seriously upsets me. Can someone please advise as to what I can do?

Kormir needs new lore, so I’d be down for that. Like, we know a good deal about Kormir as a human, but as far as her feats and accomplishments as a god, it’s kind of a short list, by comparison. I’d love to get back over to Elona to take the fight to Joko and have that narrative be used to show us what she’s really like, acting in her capacity as a god.

I was actually kind of hoping, way back when HoT was announced, that all this havoc Mordremoth was wreaking with the jungle would… you know, make Melandru upset.

I mean, they’ve set up the circumstances to look pretty dire, even now. Pact obliterated, freely arranged guilds acting as the world’s standing army, that kind of thing.

Even though I know it’s unlikely, I still think it’d be pretty amazing of Melandru decided she’s had enough of all this and turns the jungle back on Mordremoth. Tie him up in a big knot of his own vines or something.

I want Dhuum to bust up out of that box Grenth put him in. Give us something that isn’t a dragon to fret about.

Better yet, in a display of his power, have Dhuum straight up murder a dragon in front of us. A whole dragon. Up the ante. That’d get me caring about the Gods again.

I’m with you, OP. I set myself up with a wild build using Magi’s gear (the Precision is kinda useless, but the Vit and Healing Power are spectacular) and I’ve been having a fantastic time. My healing output is gigantic, so it feels great to get into huge groups (like the Legendary Wyvern fight!) and keep people going for the whole encounter.

My core ranger runs a burst condi build based on fire fields, using axe/torch. Tons of damage, tons of fun. But… I may have to give that up and become a dedicated healer, with as much fun as I’ve been having.

With how many people run glassy builds for maximum damage, it really is super rewarding to watch their backs. One or two hits and they’re on the ground, keeping them in the fight with constant heals means a much smoother encounter, and makes the healer role feel, well… like it really matters, you know?

The only thing I’d wish for is a new stat set to better compliment this playstyle. Right now if you want to prioritize healing power, you either have to go along with Apothecary’s (and have Toughness and Condition Damage), Cleric’s (Power and Toughness) or Magi’s (Vitality and Precision).

In most of those sets, Toughness isn’t your friend. When you’re healing at a distance, all Toughness is going to do for you is draw aggro. So if you go with Apothecary or Cleric, you end up deciding between Condition Damage (which you don’t have a huge amount of access to with a full healing build) or Power, which will just make your raw hits a little harder.

So far, Magi’s feels like the most appropriate one for this role, and it still has unnecessary Precision.

Ideally, I’d love to see an armor set similar to Magi’s, that’s like, Giver’s for a healer. Maybe Healing Power, Vitality, and +4% Boon Duration per piece?

If you ran that theoretical set and put Exquisite Snowflakes in your trinkets, you’d be at a healthy +30% all-around, with no wasted stats.

Anyway, I’m rambling. I’m having a great time with Druid and, long story short, I just wish there was a more “ideal” stat set for them to wear.

Whoa, speak of the devil- my patience paid off. I’m finally back in!

Best of luck to all of you. Waiting’s no fun. Just try to stay positive, okay? See you ingame.

Baristy, without putting too blunt a head on it, I think you’ve expressed well enough to everyone in this thread exactly how upset you are with the current state of affairs.

We get it, is what I’m saying. We get you. The message you’re putting out there has been received.

If you want to hold the employees at Arenanet personally culpable for ruining your Friday evening, that’s fine. Your Friday evening is, it seems, going to continue to be ruined until a fix patch comes out.

But at this time I think you’ve made the same point repeatedly, and it’s starting to get a little tiresome watching the thread update only to find you repeating yourself yet again.

This was bad for WvW. This was bad for Tequatl. This was bad for Raids, because you can’t effectively organize for one without a tag- even if they turned out not to open anyway.

Can you do like everyone else in this thread and just keep us posted on whether you can get in or not? I’d like it if you could go back to having an enjoyable Friday night, even if it is somewhat delayed and soured by this experience.

And on that note, it’s getting closer to two hours since I got knocked out while switching characters, and my most recent attempt to load in was met with the same network error as ever.

I wonder what causes the problem to be more persistent for some users than others?

I appreciate the status updates so much, helps me keep cool instead of getting impatient.

It’s been about an hour and I’m still locked out. I make an attempt every 20 minutes. Nobody was in my squad.

I did my best to wait it out. Watched a long youtube video between this post and my last one. There was nobody in my squad at the time I started getting disconnected. I had just switched off of my druid to go and mess around with my Dragonhunter for a while.

I tried to get in just now, and still nothing. I’m pretty sad about it, my Dragonhunter build has like +84% outgoing damage, I was looking forward to having tons of fun and 2-shotting everything with True Shot.

Relieved to hear that the cavalry has been called in, though. That’s at least a little peace of mind.

Yep! I was tagged up because I thought raids were gonna work. That’s what the patch notes told me.

Now I can’t get ingame at all. This is a pretty rocky way to start a beta weekend!

Thank you, I’ll go check those threads out!

Okay, yeah. Definitely a Charr issue. And what a weird issue to have. I didn’t realize it moved the whole nameplate, that’s interesting.

So this is really goofy. I put on the Royal Guard outfit on my precious Charr Elementalist, and she looks great.

But I’m an RPer, I’ve been on Tarnished Coast since day 0, and I see a LOT of chat bubbles during my normal gameplay.

So you see, it’s really jarring and funny and weird and not great when I put on this beautiful Royal Guard outfit, and my own chat bubbles start coming out of my character’s feet.

A nearby human player in the same outfit wasn’t having the same problem, so I have to assume it’s a Charr-related, or, weirdly, maybe a class-related issue.

So what’s up with that? Can that be fixed?

I don’t understand this question. We haven’t really seen much of the new wallet in action, but from all we’ve been told, it’s just gonna be easier to monitor and have more currencies. These sound like good things to me.

I’m extremely confused about how to build my Guardian in the new system. Then again, I always found Guardian kind of confusing. I’ll probably go for an Unscathed Contender build with a scepter, ’cause I like doing big damage at range. Scepter-Torch, maybe, use that trait that causes Torch 4 to flip over on crit, then go for big crit chance.

But yeah that’s pretty much proof enough that I’ve lost track of what I want to do with the class.

On the other hand, my Static Discharge Burst-Zerk Engi is getting buffed all to heck and I barely have to change anything, so I feel pretty great about that.

I’d call it an even 50/50 on my feelings.

The problem with encouraging everyone to make a responsible consumer decision, in this context, is that you’re providing them with a speech about your own position in the process of doing so.

And I understand that impulse. I’ve done it before, because I had a feeling that I was making the right decision, and I didn’t want anyone to fall into a trap, or make a mistake.

But please understand, when you appeal to everyone and tell them to make their own decisions, but then follow up with, “and this is my decision,” plus an allegory for the sake of describing caveat emptor, it… kind of paints your entire appeal with your position.

Which is unfortunate, if that isn’t what you wanted, but even in text, it provides tone.

Be careful, Truska. I can tell you’re well-intentioned, but how you word these things will shape the kind of responses you get. That’s why I keep getting stuck making essays, because after a decade of messing around on MMO forums, I… am really careful about how I say anything.

If it’s been standing that long without a fix, I’d wager on it being like, an engine problem. Which makes sense, since GW2 runs on a version of GW1’s engine, and this is a Z-axis (you are in midair, after all) problem, when GW1 didn’t even have a Z-axis. But I’m just speculating.

I guess what I can’t see is that specific problem, bad as it is, indicating a broken core game. Like, entirely. To the point that you’d recommend that someone not purchase GW2, or that you wouldn’t pay for it yourself.

There are extensive issues with the core game- as I said, I have my own, specific list of grievances- so we’re totally on the same page as far as that goes.

Buuuuut, I’ve spent so much time in my life playing MMOs, that… I guess I’m well and truly over it? I’ll give you an example:

World of Warcraft (ugh, I know, right?) updated from Wrath of the Lich King to Cataclysm. And when it did, we got +5 levels, five levels of content, and, infamously…

Talent Revamp 1.0.

Remember “Prime” glyphs? Remember how weird builds felt? What was it, like, 31/10/0? Nobody knew how to work it, building was really complicated, and the meta of the moment was an absolute mess.

And that was just Cataclysm! A totally intermediary, arguably unnecessary expansion, which I still think was pushed out to spend time while they worked on MoP, a much bigger and better piece of work, with many more features.

What I’m really trying to say is that I spent money on that expansion, just like I bought HoT, because, well… I’m used to games in my favorite genre having problems.

And I get it, these problems can be a big deal for you. Especially the Immobilize bug. As I said in my big, flagrant essay, I totally understand and sympathize. It’s real bad.

But… my experience with HoT is shaped by my experience as someone who’s been playing MMOs for like a solid decade. I love MMOs. I even bought the collector’s edition of RIFT. Who the hell plays RIFT? I sure did.

And… yeah. Like, your complaints are entirely legitimate, but bugs like that aren’t what stop people (who love the genre) from playing MMOs. They’re not a “genre problem.”

Am I saying you’re barking up the wrong tree? …Probably. A little bit.

But I sympathize with you. And I really do hope those bugs get fixed. I just think your image of Arenanet, and GW2 as a whole, has been… extremely skewed by how these specific bugs have shaped your experience.

Which I guess is reasonable. I just wish it wasn’t that way, because when HoT drops, I wanna play it with lots and lots of people. Including you and people like you.

[Continued from Previous Post]

Look, you spent two posts making a speech about responsible decisions and consumer choices, making insinuations about Arenanet taking money from us.

Over these three things. These three problems you detailed, that I’ve responded to one-by-one, are what illustrate to you that Anet is “milking us.” Two legitimate engine bugs and an exploit that requires a long-term, manual fix.

If these are the collective “straw that breaks the camel’s back” for you, then I mean, fine. That’s your prerogative. It’s a little pointlessly extreme, but it’s your prerogative.

But there are games out there that people consider functionally perfect- Dark Souls, for example, gets an extreme amount of praise- and those games have a laundry list of bugs, exploits, and unusual engine behaviors. And yet it’s never likened to a rusty, 60’s model automobile for them.

I have my own complaints about GW2. Like how the webapp services ingame- Gem Store, Currency Exchange, Trading Post- sometimes lag out and become inaccessible. Or how if you don’t have an SSD, loading screens even on a good computer can be a little long, especially if the player population is high. Or how I can’t dress my characters the way I want a lot of the time, because armors tend to be designed as sets, so they clip with each other a whole lot, all the time.

But even though I have my own, legitimate complaints, shaped by how I choose to play the game, just like yours, I don’t consider the game itself broken, and certainly not to the point that I’d make an impassioned, meandering speech about it, rife with analogy and allegory to explain my (not very complex) position to the reader.

You’re dissatisfied for two very legitimate reasons and one arguably frivolous reason, and anyone who actually bothers to read your posts will understand that. But what I’m asking you to understand is that you’re letting your frustration and dissatisfaction with these two bugs paint your perception of the entire game. And there’s a lot of video game here, beyond those issues, that needs tweaking and tuning and work.

What I’d suggest to you is that you focus on the actual problems you’re experiencing, and talk specifically about them, to the devs, in their appropriate forums. Go to the PvP and WvW forums and bring these issues to the devs’ attention, because these are extremely specific, engine-based problems that they can address.

What I wouldn’t suggest is using these bugs, which have given you so much trouble, as a deterrent to keep people from buying the game. You’re asking people to be dissatisfied for the same reasons you are, “Is this what Anet calls X gameplay,” because rather than go and talk to the people who can fix it, you’re in this position to play the part of an ardently dissatisfied consumer, staging a gem store protest because you’re so passionate about the unfixed state of these bugs.

Engage with your community. Engage with the devs. Your problems can be solved, when they finally have a spotlight shone on them. Why swing these problems around like a big deterrent, demonstrating to people, “these are why I’m not buying HoT, who agrees with me,” when you could instead see the video game you’ve been playing fixed, and go have a good time with your friends?

You’ve made three points here, and in another thread, you referred to these points as “game-breaking”:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Pre-Purchase-Community-Address/page/9#post5193019

I’ll start with the last one, since if we go to Page 3 in the Dev Tracker, we can see Arenanet talking about it:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Kimmes-the-Historian-Disabled-Skin-Unlocks/first#post5136645

“Last I checked, the fix was being tested against everyone’s account that was affected by the issue. The fix isn’t something that we can rush out in a hotfix, it’s really complicated and really risky. Sorry about the inconvenience.”

That’s how Bill Friest, one of the gameplay programmers, put it.

So the third problem you list is under current (and constant) investigation and repair, because it’s got to be done per account, and there are a huge number of accounts.

That aside, not having access to a number of skins you earned is a bummer. I only have 11 HoM points myself, but I know I’d be upset if I hadn’t already unlocked all of my skins to use. However, not having access to them doesn’t break the game or stop me from having fun. It just limits my access to striped pants and a nice set of boots, among other things.

How that’s game-breaking, I’ll never know. It sounds like an extremely minor inconvenience.

But let’s talk about your other two points: There’s a bug where you get immobilized in midair, fall to the ground, and you’re still registered as in the air for the duration of the immobilize, so your skills won’t activate.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Immobilized#Notes

That’s a serious bug. However, the way you frame it- “Is this what ANet classifies as a skillbased fair PvP experience?” That’s a ridiculous thing to say. One bug, connected to one condition, under one set of circumstances, is not an accurate portrayal of the “PvP experience.”

The fact that the bug hasn’t been addressed yet is a genuine problem, and nobody in their right mind will deny you that. But at the same time, your willingness to look at a single bug and go “is this what you call balance?” is essentially the same- since you like analogies so much, here’s one you’ll appreciate- as looking at some unwanted relish on your hotdog and saying “is this what you call food?”

The hotdog is still a food product. Functionally, it’s still a hotdog. It will digest like a hotdog. There’s just something nasty on it, that needs to go.

But is that game-breaking? Well, I certainly agree that it needs to be examined and patched, because if players are taking unfair advantage of a bug to turn the tide of fights, that is a legitimate issue with balance. So I’ll give you this one. This bug is a problem if it’s causing whole teamfights to turn around, and Arenanet’s PvP devs need to give it a look.

Moving onto your first point, now- the FPS/Sound bug.

This one’s a doozy. I’m well-acquainted with it. I play on an excellent, modern PC now, but I used to play on a red-hot toaster of a laptop. And I had the FPS/Sound bug ruin some nights for me, when I was just trying to grind out Symbols of Koda. Honor of the Waves is not a very graphically intense place. Lot of wood, lot of ice. Five players, some particle effects. And yet, there I was, stuttering out at 7FPS, with no sound, and the performance steadily getting worse. I remember it taking 35 minutes for my game to close so I could restart it.

However for you, it’s a WvW thing. Which I can only imagine is a really big pain, especially with the queue. But you do that awful, pointless thing again, where you pose an enormously slanted question after dumping out your grievances. To quote, “Is this what ANet classifies as a fun WvW experience?”

Surely they don’t. But they also don’t build their WvW mechanics around anticipating a bug in their game’s engine. You should know that, you seem like a pretty perceptive player.

[Continued in Next Post]

I gotta go grab a shower and install Google Chrome on my grandma’s computer. Look- detractors, I get it. I really do.

You don’t think it’s worth fifty bucks, you don’t feel like you know enough about it, and you want a release date especially. I get that. I’m not gonna EVER tell you that you’re wrong for that. I feel you entirely.

My enormous, flagrant essay serves to illustrate only that we know more than “one class one map.” Because I’m so, so, so so so so tired of hearing it, when they’ve been telling us about Everything Else since it was announced.

I’m sorry if I stepped on anyone’s toes, but I’m saying this now because I won’t be able to keep up with the thread. This conversation is pretty lively, and it’s gonna go way beyond me and what I know in the time that I’m gone.

Best of luck to all of you, whether you buy it or not. Frankly, I hope you do, because I like having more people to play my favorite games with.

Dude, read the news! You want a link “proving” something?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/

Scroll this page for a WHILE.

You want to hear them talk about their new tech, and what the new classes can do?

https://www.youtube.com/user/arenanetofficial

Browse these videos for A WHILE.

Like, seriously. Follow their content updates! They keep telling us all this stuff that’s going to be in HoT, and people keep missing it because they don’t read the articles.

I’m not here to do your homework for you, but you can do all the homework you want, reading the blog posts and watching the videos to get all caught up on the features.

I’ll say again, Arenanet messed up by not giving us like, a rolling summary page or something, that updates with new features as they talk about them. Nobody knows what the heck’s going into this expansion because you have to read the friggin’ Library of Congress just to get it all figured out!

I straight up just read the GW2 twitter feed and all the news posts on the main website. And watch the Points of Interest streams.

I’ve been doing so for months, and that’s where I got aaaaaaaaaall my information.

There’s a communication problem here on Arenanet’s end. I’d love it if they’d put All That Stuff I Mentioned into a single rap sheet of features that we can easily browse, but instead you gotta sift through months of news and videos.

[[I GOT REALLY CARRIED AWAY AND WROTE AN ESSAY, I’M SO SORRY]]

Yo, can I just say that I’m tired of the whole “we don’t know anything?” act?

We don’t know EVERYTHING. And we sure don’t know the release date. But we do know:

That we’re getting three large maps, minimum- Maguuma, Guild Hall 1, Guild Hall 2 (Both were described recently as being very large, needing to be progressed into to fully unlock.)

That we’re getting a new class, which required new tech to create, and that same new tech was used to modify old classes. For example, the tech for some of the Revenant’s skills that relate to enemy placement have been used for a Grandmaster Guardian trait that causes an AoE fire pulse on their target, instead of around the character.

We’re getting an entire new mode of navigation and transportation in the form of the hang glider.

We’re getting new writing, new voice acting, new art assets, new armor and weapons, and those last ones, for once, don’t seem to be via the gem store. Which frankly is a breath of fresh air these days.

We’re getting a new crafting discipline, scribing. The details of that should be coming out, what, TODAY? And from how it sounds so far, it’s like… interior decorating as a profession. Should be rad.

We’re getting Guild vs. Guild back from GW1, along with what basically amounts to Alliance chat. That’s a quality of life feature, but it’s a feature.

We’re getting new legendaries, and the possibility has been discussed here on these forums about a legendary trinket, which would be a pretty neat change of pace. We don’t even know WHAT to expect with those, but oh- while they’re on the table, the entire Legendary mastery track is a pretty big deal of content. Especially when you consider the new precursor scavenger hunt content, which is straight up more game content + a quality of life update, rolled into one.

And that’s just PvE and crafting and some minor PvP elements. We also get an entire new sPvP gamemode, which seems pretty technical and has been sorely needed after so long with a few different flavors of Conquest.

Oh, and the entire new WvW borderlands, with some seriously interesting mechanics. Take the red castle, gain immunity to lava? And there are SHORTCUT PATHS in the lava? It’s a smarter map design, and clearly a lot went into it.

And beyond that? How about a new weapon, set of spells, and general playstyle available for every single class? That not significant at all to you? Because it’s pretty significant to me. My Engineer will finally have a melee option that feels really heavy and impactful, instead of a crowbar and a box of nails.

What we don’t have is a bulleted list of every feature announced so far in the expansion. Anet’s also been uncomfortably hush-hush about what they mean by “Challenging Group Content,” and I hope to god they get on that soon, because even I have been getting pretty antsy about it. I’ll be real with you, I hope it’s a dungeon.

No, no I don’t. I hope it’s a raid. We’re in the right area for it, and the theories are going around, people digging deep into GW1 geography and lore to pinpoint where big PvE content might be. And since Anet’s so focused on bringing back their own old lore, I’d say those theorycrafters are on the right track.

So I’ll repeat. We don’t know everything. We don’t know enough. But we’re starting to know a whole hell of a lot, and it’s getting really tiresome to hear the same, “oh just one map one class” thing, day in and day out, when it isn’t true at all anymore.

Hooh. And having concluded all that, I agree with the OP. Partially.

The price point is a little high, if you would rather know everything right away. I can appreciate that frame of mind. Sometimes not knowing everything can make you feel like you’re on the receiving end of some caveat emptor stuff.

But at the same time, this is a box sale. Because GW2 makes money from box sales. Their box sale income is important, because they can’t keep the lights on just from the gem store. Not forever. So, we end up paying box price for a box sale. And people who aren’t us, who aren’t here talking about it because they don’t have the game yet, see a box- a digital one, but a Single Unit- on sale. It’s a new game they can play.

They don’t have to buy a bunch of extra crap. They don’t have to go back and buy Guild Wars 2 Vanilla, and Guild Wars 2: Mists of Pandaria, just to play Guild Wars 2: Heartlords of Draethorn. That’s not taking anything away from us. It’s just giving something to them. It’s not unfair, because we aren’t losing anything.

I know this thread called for us to chill, so I’m sorry for writing an essay. But at the same time, these past couple days have made me so, so tired.

I’m just in awe of how gracefully Irenio swoops in here and goes, “yeah, don’t sweat it, have your Swiftness back.”

Streamlined Kits wasn’t gonna be a BIG problem for me, I mean, quality of life might have gone down if I couldn’t go fast everywhere, but knowing that the Swiftness is staying? That’s super. Thank you.

I’m curious about something that’s gonna be important for my build come tuesday.

And I’m gonna start with what we don’t know:

How much damage does the Aim-Assisted Rocket (from the trait of the same name) do?

Because if it hits as hard (or harder) as say, Surprise Shot, then that will heavily affect my position on the following issue:

I have a full set of Ascended gear, Zerk in every slot. I run a build that prioritizes burst damage by way of Surprise Shot and Static Discharge, because I find that more fun than grenades.

I need to choose between two traits on the Master tier of Explosions:

Aim Assisted Rocket: 10s ICD, 33% chance to fire a ???-damage rocket
-or-
Shaped Charge: Deal 5% more damage to Vulnerable targets

Now, the benefits of Shaped Charge are pretty obvious. That’s a sizable damage increase that you can guarantee you have, since you yourself can automatically apply Vuln with the right traits.

But AAR, that’s another story. I wish I knew how much damage I could expect it to do. I mean, I already do A LOT of damage with Surprise Shot + Static. Is it comparable to that?

Because if so, I mean… that’s awesome. That’s another source of burst for me, and I’m already running with traits enough that under the right circumstances I’m doing +30-50% damage.

Do you think the burst damage from AAR is going to be good enough that it’s a worthy choice over Shaped Charges? Especially in situations where high burst damage in PvE is preferable, at least?

I’d love it if a dev could weigh in on AAR’s damage. That would really… help this thread along.

Anyway, this is what I think, and now I’d love to know what you think! Please, experienced Engineers, lend me your opinions.

About these two traits.

Specifically.

I’m looking for insight into my build, not changing the way I play altogether.

Didn’t buy because of hype, bought because GW2 is my favorite game. I’ve said it elsewhere, but I’ve been a part of this game since before its launch, starting with the closed beta you had to mail in a physical, signed NDA for. I’ve watched it grow so much over the years, and I mean, even next week, a huge update is coming to make it fresh and fun and improved yet again.

I have the Collector’s Edition tin and my gigantic Rytlock statue up on my shelf. I bought the biggest thing once, it made sense to me to do it again. I haven’t begun to regret the first purchase, and I don’t expect to regret the second.

Honestly, the whole concept of a “veteran” player is so bizarre to me. I got my Birthday Blaster for being around for 2 years. They don’t need to cut me a deal just to “make things fair” when they’re making it so my friends can buy the expansion and get the whole game all at once.

You guys remember that? Friends? The kind that take a lot of poking and prodding to convince that something is good? I’ve got a few lined up to buy HoT now that they know they’ll be getting the new and old content at the same time.

Long story short, I feel great about my purchase, and it’s got everything to do with GW2 being my favorite game. If you feel like you’ve been shafted because new players get the core game with the expansion, well…

…I’m just sorry you feel that way. I don’t feel like I’m owed more than what I got, and I’m glad more new players can join me.

Absolutely happy! Bought the Ultimate version, used some of those gems to get myself some really nice Glint’s dyes that were running pretty expensive. (The blue one and the yellow one, specifically.)

Honestly, I feel like I bought peace of mind. ‘Cause like, I’m a pretty bad impulse buyer, but dropping 100 bucks on HoT was like, turbocharged retail therapy. My materialistic urge has been totally sated. When it comes out, I’ll have it. I don’t want anything else, so I can save my money for adult things, like food and clothes and bills.

I’m excited about my permanent beta access, and this feels amazing to me. To finally have HoT, I mean. I’ve been waiting so long to lock in my purchase.

And before anyone asks, I’ve been with GW2 since BEFORE launch. You wanna talk about “veterans,” well, this is a quote-unquote veteran who doesn’t feel shafted just because new players get to join me in playing my favorite game with only one purchase. I signed a paper NDA that I had to mail in, long before the game shipped. I’ve watched this game grow and change over nearly three years now, and it makes me so happy to think that my friends who still don’t have it can buy HoT and have everything, and be playing the new content with me.

Now that this is done, and there’s nothing I want in the Steam Summer Sale, I’m free. I don’t want to buy any more video games, I can just relax and play what I have.

So we all draw our own conclusions about Kormir. But let’s put all those conclusions aside and just talk about her clothes. I’ve attached a picture of her usual stuff.

I’d like to put forward that if you ever put a Kormir-themed outfit or armor set in the gem store, it would be an extremely good idea to base it on what she actually wore in Nightfall.

After all, it’s the clothing she wore when she became a god. But beyond that, it’d be a great throwback to GW1 to let players enjoy the aesthetic of the Paragon class. I mean, as far as I know, that’s the uniform of the Sunspear Marshal! That’s pretty special, and if you wanna get a little “high-concept” about it, I think the frankness of a uniform better embodies the Goddess of Truth than, say, an extra-flashy getup that’s just blunt visual metaphors for honesty all over.

But here’s another thing to consider- Sunspear armor is medium armor. Or at least, it usually is. Polished white leather, fringed with gold accents, plenty of layering. What I’m getting at is this: Players who enjoy medium armor classes might not always enjoy Enormous Coats that obscure their legs. But what do we see with Kormir’s outfit? The traditional Sunspear skirt, and nice, sturdy boots. Nothing flapping around her ankles.

But of course, that becomes more or less relevant depending on whether you release it as a universal armor set (unprecedented!), a medium armor set (hasn’t happened in a while…) or an outfit, which I consider the most likely (and maybe best) option.

After all, there are going to be plenty of Revenants (and there are already plenty of Guardians!) out there who would love to feel closer to Kormir, or even just this centuries-old Order from Elona.

I know, I know. You don’t like to call back to Elona or Cantha often, because you hear enough out of players, clamoring to go back to their favorite continents. I understand, Arenanet. But… you feel me on this? In your last game, you made Paragons look really, really interesting. They have a cool image that’s really hard to replicate with the skins and outfits you’ve got now. (And especially without spears! But… that’s another thread altogether.)

But this would be a good chance to at least throw the Nightfall-lovers (like me!) a bone. Kormir’s a good angle, and you’ve got this trend of god-outfits going. I say capitalize on that and bring back one of the prettiest looks from the first game.

But that’s just me, I guess. I hope someone else can agree!

The point is to create a new Gathering ability, not a new Activity.

If I wanted to create a new Activity, then a Fishing activity would be based on the current infrastructure of costume brawls and minigames.

However, this is a form of gameplay intended to introduce a steady flow of new items to the game’s economy, in a similar fashion as Mining, Harvesting, and Logging. I appreciate your enthusiasm for Activities, but it was never my intention to design one.

My intention, to reiterate, was to create- as the topic’s title suggests- an approach to fishing which aligns with current ingame conventions for gathering.

If you wanted to add tiered materials like a standard crafting discipline, that’d be about six or seven items. But because the discipline we’re most likely to work with is Chef, more than a dozen items wouldn’t be a stretch.

The system as it’s currently imagined allows for a thematically appropriate approach to Fishing as a means of gathering resources. More complicated than Mining or Logging, but less complicated than a Costume Brawl. The idea is to reach a sweet spot where it’s interesting enough to enjoy, but not many times more complex than the other Gathering systems it would work alongside.

I appreciate your insights and your description of what kind of fishing system you’d like, but I feel like it’s worth saying again that the design detailed in this thread isn’t meant to be a minigame. Just a slightly more nuanced form of Gathering, to make the act of Fishing not seem like a chore, if it were to become a Gathering skill.

I was talking with a friend about that yesterday, and came up with an idea for that “chance to fish up treasure” -or at least something special/more rare than the typical bait.

In the spirit of fishing skills being able to sway the odds toward one kind of loot or another, we came up with this layout for the Tackle Box Bundle:

1. Rod and Reel – Channeled (3 sec) – Standard Fishing Equipment [Loot: Standard Fish Types]
2. Hooked Net – Channeled (3 sec) – Area Fishing Equipment [Loot: Multiple Small Fish/Crustaceans]
3. Rope Spear – Channeled (3 sec- Throw is 1 sec, Retrieve is 2) – Powerful Fishing Equipment [Loot: Nonstandard/Large Fish Types]
4. Crab Pot – Channeled (3 sec) – Special Fishing Equipment [Loot: Large Crustaceans]
5. Glowing Bait – Charges: 10 – Buff (Duration: 5 Min) [Effect- Improve chances of catching rare fish with other Fishing skills]

You’ll notice that Glowing Bait has “charges.” Currently, my friend and I settled on them resetting at the same time everything else resets. Pretty unique for a skill, which is definitely something I’d worry about. The alternative is a five minute cooldown, or having it shave multiple stacks of durability off of the Tackle Box gathering tool. Which are both ideas to consider.

So in the example skill provided, the “charges” would allow for a combined 50 minutes of rare catches every day, not including the time it takes to travel from one spent node to the next. Goodness knows the system wouldn’t ask for anybody to stand in the same place for five whole minutes. That would be tedious.

Currently, I’m puzzling over the distribution of rare drops. Would it be more appropriate to receive a rare fish like getting a Malachite Pebble when mining Copper, for example, or should getting a rare fish replace the standard drop?

Torsailr, I intentionally looked at currently existing designs (bundles, gathering nodes, simple loot tables) when designing this. There is no “new UI” or “new mechanics” involved. The only new object is a model for a dock, which could just as easily be a little flag, or some repurposed weapon model like a spear, marking the location where you can fish.

If you’re asking what the point is, the point is that I like fishing, I like GW2, and I thought it would be fun to play by GW2’s design rules and see if I could make a version of “fishing in MMOs” appropriate for the game.

I can see where you’re coming from, but at the same time, “the fish are already there” really doesn’t feel right to me. They’re white mobs, or neutral mobs at most. Low in population. And unlike crafting nodes, which every player gets their own copy of, people would fight over living NPCs if they were treated like crafting nodes.

I was having fun, thinking of a way to integrate a totally new form of gathering into the 1-80 player experience. That’s what I was doing. Just… having fun. I’ve got six or seven level 80 characters, and at this point I just blaze through zones so that I don’t have to travel slowly for Living Story stuff. So I wanted to think, “if I’m a player who has reasons to explore, be it map completion or PvE leveling, can a form of gathering bring something enjoyable to my gameplay?”

I tried to make a system that would make the answer to that question “yes,” because it wouldn’t be worthy of announcement- imagine, for a moment, a world where ArenaNet would adopt an idea like mine, and announce it as part of a patch- if it was Just Another Form of Gathering. If it was “approach node and just press F,” nobody would feel very strongly about it as something new added to the game. It would just be the vehicle for getting from 400-500 Chef. I just figured players would enjoy something that was a little more than that.

You know, you’re right, Plankton. And you gave me a super good idea: What if instead of a “fishing rod”/etcetera item, like I detailed in the OP, what if the “Fishing Gathering Tool” is a Tackle Box?

You could take all the different bundle skills I described, and put them on one bundle.

I’m with you on the “determined by location” thing, but I also want to make fishing seem less… random?

Like, okay- I fished a lot in WoW, like I said, and the worst part was being like at Fishing 45 and Cooking 50 and getting a bunch of fish that were either too high-level to cook, or too low-level to grant experience. You know what I mean? That wasn’t fun.

By having different ways to fish, with the Tackle Box, you can sort of… weigh the odds in favor of the kind of catch you want. Within that zone’s available catches, I mean.

What do you think? A [Tackle Box] takes a lot of the bloat out of my original idea for multiple tools, I’d be pretty happy with it.

Also, I say “zone’s available catches” because… well, maybe I’m overthinking it, but it seems like it would be easier (from a development perspective) to assign a loot table per zone instead of per node. Hence the call (within what I’m imagining) for different methods of fishing if you want to get a more specific variety at a node.

My reason would be that at some point, it becomes too granular. The reason I chose to focus on fishing in particular is because we already have sources of fabric and butter, but fish are more or less missing. I took that as an opportunity to slot in something interesting that I think would be suitable for GW2, rather than… well, try to make underwater combat more rewarding and enjoyable (that’s its own problem that I’m not prepared to approach) or simply lift an idea from Jagex.

I was concerned about “sit and fish” myself, which is why I wanted the bundle concept. I mean, you are sitting on the dock, in my idea, but pressing buttons and having a different outcome based on your bundle struck me as more active than just pressing a button and receiving loot. I like your idea about spear fishing- maybe you have a small AoE ring, and that’d be the gathering tool bundle for that style of fishing, where you throw your spear and rope it back in to catch those big fish you see passive in the water.

There’s a lot that can be done. Bare minimum, I just hope I’ve come up with an interesting framework for it.

But… what do you guys think of my idea, is why I made this thread. :\

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound so quickly discouraged, I just kinda… poured a fair amount of effort into organizing this whole thing in my post, and it seems like everyone’s hung up on the idea that I enjoyed WoW fishing.

Honestly? It was relaxing for me. I didn’t have to be fully engaged, but I could watch the water, get some loot- and sometimes it was fun loot, like an X-pounds trout I could hold in my off-hand slot. I just liked it. I play MMOs to relax, primarily.

However, I do urge you to get past that. What I described in my post is actually nothing at all like Warcraft’s design, because I am specifically interested in the way it could be done that would best suit GW2.

I did a little searching, and while I suspect that the topic already exists somewhere, I couldn’t find it. So I apologize for any redundancy between this topic and a topic I couldn’t find, that you might have already read.

Let me start by saying I adore fishing mechanics in MMOs. It was my #1 pastime in World of Warcraft before I quit. Having said that, it would be wrong of me to ask GW2 to be like any other game. I do think that fishing as a gathering skill has its place, however. And I’d like to share with you my vision for it.

My idea for Fishing as a gathering profession is pretty simple, but… hopefully different enough that you’ll enjoy it. You know how we have gathering nodes we can see on the map: rocks for ore, leaves for plants, and logs for wood. Imagine little fish on that map, marking docks.

Docks could be placed along rivers and shorelines all over the world with… well, not what I’d call serious difficulty. You model it, you set up points for it in any map that has major bodies of water (so, virtually every map), you place it, and you assign it to be a fishing node.

From there, you make it “minable” like any other node. You go to the place, you press your activation key, and you Begin Fishing. That’s your basic interaction. What comes next is where things get a little hairier.

My idea is, what if interacting with a fishing node put a bundle in your hand, based on a piece of equipment? A [Fishing Net] or [Crab Pot] or [Flyfishing Rod] or [Hand Harpoon], that slots in next to your other gathering equipment. Based on that piece of equipment, the bundle in your hand would have different functions, and maybe enable you to catch different fish at a node.

For example, you could cast your net in Bloodtide Coast and catch shrimp. (I’ll get into how it could tie into the Cooking profession shortly, don’t worry.) Let’s say that these Shrimp function like some special food, in that you can eat them basically right away, and get a tiny buff. Like +3% Magic Find or “Gain Health on Kill.”

What this would mean is, let’s say you’re level 45, and you’re down in Bloodtide. You don’t have any food on you, you’re not even a Chef, but you stop and fish, and you can buff yourself a little. It’s something extra to do in the zone, that rewards you for participating in its function.

Similarly, let’s say your gathering tool is a crab trap. What if when you recovered a crab with it, it was a living, hostile NPC? So you fight it, and your reward, along with the gray item [Crab Meat], is a nice blue [Crab Claw], which you can use in a Cooking recipe. (Along with some nice butter, garlic, and salt.)

Everyone can gather, and I know how Arenanet likes to gamify their video game, for obvious reasons. In my mind, this would be a really fun way to do it. You choose how you want to fish, and on some level, that lets you determine the kind of loot you receive from fishing. It gives the player a level of agency and choice, which is always nice.

Now, on to cooking. I’m sure we’ve all had an interest at one time or another of how to get Cooking from 400 to 500. Fish, to some, seemed like a great option. And I absolutely agree! However, I don’t think “you start using fish at 401” is very fun for new players, especially the kind that’ll be traveling all over Tyria to explore maps and enjoy the different fishing nodes. For that reason, I present the following idea:

The Surf and Turf Update!

Imagine a patch in which Fishing and the update to Cooking is introduced. Heck, imagine it comes out with HoT or it’s part of a mastery track if that helps you imagine. Distributed throughout your typical Cookbook are new recipes at all levels, making use of different fish that can be found at different places all over the world. (Further encouraging the continued exploration and interaction with Tyria in HoT, of course).

But then you get to 400. As you do. And you see that [Cup of Potato Fries] has been relabeled an Ingredient. In addition, you have a recipe for [Tempura Batter] and some [Trout Filets] you’ve been saving up. Suddenly you can make a [Plate of Fish & Chips]!

And it goes on like that. Turn your [Boiled Shrimp] into a [Plate of Avocado Shrimp Tartare] with the appropriate ingredients. Make yourself a big protein-rich [Platter of Steak & Lobster] for the whole dungeon-running squad. You get the idea.

I really, honestly adore the creativity of the Cooking profession, and of course Fishing seems like the most reasonable way to carry it forward, but the point I want to make most of all is that Fishing can (and I think should!) be a lot of fun for everyone, even the non-Chefs. To me, this whole process would be a pretty cool way of achieving that.

Let me know what you think, if you could! And if any devs are watching, you’re welcome.

I’m a zillion years late to this topic, and I really don’t wanna participate in the current point it’s revolving around, but I definitely have to agree with the OP.

What gets me is how gross things get, and how quickly. Like, you can’t call something a “sticky situation” without some nerd in chat talking about, uh, something else sticky. And god forbid you make the mistake of calling something hard.

It’s exhausting at this point. I didn’t express that I was having difficulty with the content so that some stranger could tell me about their genitals or bodily functions.

I mean, I get it. Some people just have, let’s say, an “explicit” sense of humor. But do I log in to listen to that? I think of it like being outdoors. If I’m walking to the store, just going about my day as I please, and- I don’t know, let’s say I trip and split my lip on the sidewalk.

For those keeping the pace, this is the figurative language I’m using to describe “playing the game normally and encountering difficulty.”

You know what I don’t wanna hear, while I’m having that kind of trouble? Imagine someone sees me with a hurt lip, picking myself up off the sidewalk, and makes a gross remark about what my lips can or can’t do in that state.

That’s what it feels like to call a piece of content “hard” in map chat and hear, you know, “hard as my-” etcetera. It’s gross, it’s unpleasant, it makes me uncomfortable, and goodness knows it doesn’t help me.

But things like that don’t really violate the TOS, do they? They’re not hate speech, they’re not technically discriminatory, but they make me extremely uncomfortable. If I report that person, it might be written off as frivolous. If I block that person, I spare myself the trouble of listening to them, but they might be a good player when they aren’t being gross for no reason. I might end up missing out on someone I’d otherwise have liked to work with.

The answer to my problem that I’ve been told is to grin and bear it. That some people are just like that. But… that really isn’t a solution. The more uncomfortable I get, the more I have to isolate myself, as if I’m the one responsible for the problem- rather than the person making me uncomfortable.

It feels pretty bad to have a problem and be told it’s my own fault for being, y’know, “too sensitive” or “letting it get to me,” when I wouldn’t be seen as either if the person making me uncomfortable hadn’t done so in the first place.

Maybe I’m off-base, I dunno. Hopefully someone gets where I’m coming from on this one.

Juuuust went down for me again. Can’t log in, different error message from before. Pretty abrupt, too, and my connection is behaving just fine.

Oh thank god it’s not just me. I logged out before the disconnects started, and now I’m getting an error code upon trying to log in.

That’s a huge bummer, but thanks. I didn’t know that about the PVP server itself. Guess that answers my question, at least. Here’s hoping for games with friends in the future. Seems like a waste to have such fun content that can’t be enjoyed with people you know unless the stars align.

How the heck can I get into a Dragon Ball game with people I know and like to play with?

So I run a little guild for my friends, nothing spectacular, but I missed Dragon Ball the last time it came around and most of them finally bought the game when the price dropped to fifteen dollars.

And now today’s update hits, and we find out that we can play dodgeball.

Naturally, the guild wants to start a dodgeball team and go to war.

Unfortunately, I can see no way to get anyone in my guild or party into the same Dragon Ball game that I’m in.

Does it have to be random selection? Is there really no way for five of us to form a party and play with each other? Dragon Ball’s a lot of fun, but I feel like we’re missing out when we all hop in a Skype call to play with each other and then the game scatters us to the wind, know what I’m saying?

If there’s a workaround, or some option I’m missing, I’d very much like to know about it. Thanks for reading, and whatever help you got for me.

Same issue here. Made my Mysterious Vine pretty early on, had the Cultivated Seed riding along in my inventory right up ‘til the patch. Logged in, and in the same inventory slot was a Pet Seed. I’ve since done the new Living Story content, but can’t go forward with making anything new (since I really don’t want the pet) because my Cultivated Seed has had this mysterious bug replace it.