Guild Wars 2

Yes! Yes! YES! YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!

Olba.5376:

1. What the hell? If everyone has the same stats, then how do you differentiate a low level area from a high level area? How do you know whether someone is a rookie in a game where you can spend real life money to get your gear?
2. So first you say that you should have all stats, then you say they shouldn’t. Really, that’s very incoherent.
3. Ok, let’s get one thing straight. YOU CANNOT BALANCE AROUND PLAYER SKILL. That’s just not possible. And let me tell you something: Level scaling is one of the best things to ever happen to the genre of MMORPGs, it doesn’t need to go anywhere, it needs to be more common.

The thing is, the guild content was something that the level 80s asked because there was nothing to do as a guild. It was never something that you were supposed to be doing at level 10.

There is already appropriate scaling in dungeons and it’s in place for a reason. If anything, I think that it’s kittening awesome that a level 30 character can do a dungeon with a level 80. The thing is, dungeons are not newbie content. They were never meant to be that and they never should be.

Settle down, dude. I said level 1 characters should have the same “base stats” and hit points as a level 80 character. “Base stats” (power, precision, vitality and toughness) are what’s left over when you remove all items and have 0 in every trait line. So, a level 15 character will have the base stats and hp of a level 80 character, but he can still only equip up to level 15 items. The weapon power statistic of his weapons and the defense statistic of his armor will be set to level 80, but everything else (like the attribute bonuses from items) will be determined by the item level, just as they are in the status quo. I hope that makes things a bit clearer. It should answer most of your concerns expressed in #1 and #2.

I’m not sure why you’re saying that you can’t balance around player skill. Perhaps I misused an expression that had a technical definition I was unaware of. So, let me try again: low-level areas should be crafted with the assumption that new players are playing the content with characters who fall in the level range for the zone. Monster statistics should be chosen accordingly, but monsters should also attack more slowly and telegraph their big attacks to account for players who aren’t highly skilled yet. Playing a level 10 character in a level 10 area should be easier than playing a level 80 in a level 80 zone. Currently, I don’t think that’s the case.

I do agree with you that GW2 is a better game with level scaling than without, but it was designed to address problems that would be solved by implementing my suggestion. In other words, it would become redundant.

Perhaps guild content was never meant for low-level characters, but perhaps this approach needs to be re-thought. After all, it is called “guild content”. Everybody in the guild should be allowed to participate. The alternative is just to encourage the isolation low-level guild members, as is often currently the case.

I share your enthusiasm that a level 30 character can crawl a dungeon with a level 80 (I presume you mean in Ascalon Catacombs—Story Mode), but I don’t understand why the same “kittening awesome”-ness doesn’t apply to the exact same scenario in another dungeon (like Honor of the Waves—Explorable). A newbie will be disadvantaged enough from missing out on a lot of attribute points from traits and items, not to mention lack of familiarity with the controls. I don’t know why so many people advocate making every enemy in the dungeon able to one-shot them on top of this.

Yes, a lot of that was just normal gameplay, minus UI elements, with more dramatic camera angles and a few scripted animations thrown in. It is so doable, and would add so much epicness to the game!

+1!

I think it’s okay that retaliation is as much of a counter against multi-hit skills as blocking/dodging is against huge-damage, single-target skills.

Ronah.2869:

Basically you are asking for no levels at all or instant level 80 for new players.
Remember, that is why they are called “new characters” because they can’t and shouldn’t be able to do what “veteran characters” can.

ASaturnus.4980:

Ehm, you know that technically GW2 falls in the RPG genre, right? And that level progression is a defining characteristic of this genre?

I am not asking for no levels at all or instant level 80. I’m asking for a less-severe vertical progression. “Veteran characters” will still have advantages over “new characters”, including:

• higher attribute bonuses from high-level items
• attribute bonuses from trait allocation
• abilities from minor traits, major traits and item upgrade slots.
• an elite skill
• a second weapon set.

All in all, a veteran character will have 2000+ more attribute points than a new character, which gives a huge advantage to the veteran. Granted, the veteran will not be ten thousand times stronger than the new character, but levels will have enough of an effect to qualify the GW2 depicted in my suggestion as an RPG and satisfy your criteria.

Ronah.2869:

As you see for yourself, A-net has added this Living Story content that boosts up all low levels to lvl 80 so they CAN play the content.

That’s a nice start, but it doesn’t help for guild missions or dungeons. It also doesn’t fix the problem of the game’s difficulty peaking in the 6 – 17 level range, nor does it solve the situation in which a level 80 character can gather a huge pack of low-level monsters and auto-attack them to death without worrying about mitigating damage. I think a cleaner, more systemic solution is called for, rather than a system of a thousand exceptions.

Zahld.4956:

Solution(s): Layer 2 leveling to accommodate for above stated problems and to gain core game content access. Parts of layer 1 leveling could be moved to layer 2 if needed. Both level layers are independent and transparent of each other. Layer 1 uses experience points to level and is used as a personal progress metric and requires a lengthier time frame to progress in while layer 2 is based on a tutorial type, step-by-step, quick level progressing system…more to this later.

I didn’t understand anything that you just said. Maybe you could expand this idea?

ASaturnus.4980:

I don’t know any MMORPG that has faster leveling than GW2 and besides, your guild could easily go to low level areas and play there with your new members.

90+ hours to level a character from start to max is very fast considering other MMOs, but when you look at it in terms of “90 hours of solo grinding before I can play with my friends” it doesn’t look so good anymore.

My guild is full of nice people, but it’s unreasonable to ask them to drop all progress towards their own acheivements whenever somebody starts GW2 or makes a new alt. It sounds like a solution on paper, but it doesn’t work in practice.

Ideally, people should be able to join their friends with minimum disruption when their friends are on. If a player is going to go through content, the player should be allowed to participate and contribute – he or she should never be useless. When a player follows his or her own story, the challenges faced should be easy at first and smoothly become more difficult as the game progresses – new players should not face the highest difficulty in the living world.

TL;DR
See “Suggestion” below

Problems

I have two level 80 characters, and I am a member in an active guild. I really like GW2, so I’ve been introducing friends to it. However, I found that GW2 isn’t friendly to new players.

Problem #1: My friend (who is new to the game) only has access to low-level characters and is restricted to low-level activities. This prevents (or at least heavily penalizes) him from participating in many guild and dungeon activities that are the bread-and-butter of established players. I’m more than happy to set some time aside to play with him, but he is effectively locked out of the guild experiences I most want to share. The core experience of GW2 is a social, cooperative one. Isolating a new player until he grinds up to L80 is not an ideal introduction to the game.

Problem #2: I recently made an alt and found out that playing a new character (level 6 to 17-ish) is even more difficult than playing a level 80 at end-game. Even with my knowledge of the game and familiarity with the controls, I died a lot. Generally, the difficulty progression of a game should go easiest to most difficult, not the other way around. A new player shouldn’t be faced with peak difficulty while he is still learning the game.

Analysis

Problem #1 is a deliberate design decision to gate content using vertical progression. You are gently reminded that you shouldn’t be in a higher-level area by getting one- or two-shotted. However, there is no reason why a new player shouldn’t be able to travel with more experienced friends and actually do some good besides giving companions revive XP. All this gating mechanic does is make it more difficult for people to play with their friends.

Problem #2 has to do with lack of survival resources that new players have. Difficulty peaks roughly between levels 6 and 17 because characters don’t have enough weapon/utility skills, armor, et cetera to deal with the significant increase in monster power that happens around that time. The idea to start a character off with scarce resources was put in place, as far as I can tell, as sort of a tutorial that allows players to learn skills and traits one at a time. However, the inclusion of a level 0 tutorial zone later in 2013 will remove the need for this feature.

Suggestion

You can eliminate these two problems by making the vertical progression component less drastic and by trusting the level 0 tutorial enough to give characters a bigger skill bar early on.

All characters should have level 80 base stats and hit points. All weapons should have level 80 weapon power and all armor should have level 80 defense. A character should start with all armor pieces. None of these statistics increase with level.

Weapons and armor still have stat bonuses (+10 vitality, etc.) that increase with item level, and their weapon power and defense vary with quality (masterwork, ascended, etc.). The player can spend trait points and skill points normally and still unlocks an elite skill at level 30.

When the player skips or ends the soon-to-be-added level 0 tutorial for the first time, he or she may choose a profession-appropriate weapon set (main and offhand or a single two-handed weapon), for which he or she knows all weapon skills for. The character should also be able to choose three utility skills.

The level 0 tutorial should be accessible from various NPCs in the living world at any time a player can interact with one. If the player needs time to learn how to use a weapon or utility skill, the level 0 tutorial should be considered the place to do it. When the player enters the living world, the tutorial is over until the player returns. No part of the living world should be a tutorial.

Monsters should be balanced by expected player skill and resources per area. Additional effects of level disparity (likliehood of glancing blows and critical hits) should be removed. Since the level scaling system won’t do anything anymore, it should also be removed.

The crafting system might also need to be revamped.

Benefits

• New players don’t need to grind to play with their established friends.
• Established players don’t need to isolate themselves from guild activities to play with new players.
• Ensures a smooth increase in difficulty from early to late game.
• Maintains some aspect of vertical character growth; levels still have benefits.
• Growth in power can be more easily be understood because damage numbers are no longer relative to area.
• Monsters can be better balanced to provide appropriate challenge for all characters.
• Allows players to better regulate difficulty.

I would like to see a non-shiny version of the radiant gauntlets. “Dimmed gauntlets”, maybe?

I think elites need to be more powerful. I like the “ace in the sleeve” idea that was being tossed around early in the development of GW2, but they turned out kind of underwhelming, especially considering their recharge.

I would also like the option to put a utility skill in the elite slot, because most utilities are better than elites atm.

The current crafting system is acceptable, but I think it could be much better. My idea is that you start by crafting an item skin, which is just a basic level 1 weapon/armor/accessory, and then you are able to craft upgrades separately, which you can double-click to apply to the item. In more detail:
———————————————————
Item (skin):

• Each time you learn how to craft with a new material, you gain a new basic item skin.
• You can learn to make new item skins from recipes.
• Even at crafting level 400, the item skin that you create will still be a basic quality (white), level 1 item.

Attribute (consumable upgrade):

• You can craft major attribute bonuses, minor attribute bonuses and upgrade slot items (runes, sigils, jewels) that you can add to your item. You learn the major attribute bonuses (power, precision, vitality, toughness) within 100 crafting levels, but the minor attributes (critical bonus, healing power, etc) much more slowly.
• You can craft an item that adds a major attribute slot to an item, another item that adds a minor attribute slot to a level 21+ item and another item that adds a second minor attribute to a level 55+ item.
• Attribute bonuses are level-less; they are always the same level as the item they are put into.
• There is no change from the status quo in crafting upgrade slot items (runes, sigils, jewels).

Quality (consumable upgrade):
*Every 25 crafting levels, you can craft an upgrade that changes the level of any given item to a certain level (crafting level of upgrade item divided by 5, so at CL 100 you can craft an upgrade that changes an existing item’s level to 20).

• Five crafting levels after you learn the level upgrade, you learn the level plus upgrade, which that increases the level of any item by one as long as it falls within a certain range (a “level 20 plus” upgrade would affect items level 20 or higher, and could not increase an item’s level past 29).
• Every 100 crafting levels, you can craft an item that will upgrade the quality of an item (to masterwork, rare, exotic, ascended, and precursor).
  ———————————————————
  Benefits:
• Give the crafter more control over what is crafted.
• Make a more flexible crafting system
• Have a cleaner crafting interface
• Produce less crafting junk
• Allow the player to continuously improve a favorite weapon
• Makes the crafting system expandable without needing to raise the crafting level cap (new item skins!)

Anyway, hope you like my suggestion.

I am happy that ArenaNet is doing so well with GW2 that they are able to put out a content patch every two weeks, but personally, I think this pace is exhausting. I would like to earn living story achievements, but I would also like to work on alts, play with friends and take time to just enjoy the GW2 experience.

I would like to see content patches spread out to a content patch per three weeks to a month. I would like to see the extra time used to perfect the core game and expanding or polishing the content updates.

This would be cool as a very slow, controllable fall. I love the idea, but I’m not sure if it would be wise to put it in the game because of the advantage it would give in jumping puzzles.

tl;dr
TA explorable spider final boss needs some dev love.

Background
I think there are too many adds in the final boss fight of Twilight Arbor (explorable). We tried several strategies, but the spider’s attacks were constant, overwhelming and so numerous as to render kiting a lost cause. Despite having a full dps warrior and two elementalists, we could not kill them fast enough to catch a break. Combined with the nightmare tree’s attacks, our party inevitably wiped in seconds.

Currently, there are only two commonly-used methods of beating this boss. First, roll a very specific build and beat the boss on your first try. If you roll another build or wipe once, you generally can’t win. Second, DPS the boss using long range single-target skills, without hitting any spiders at all. Again, if you mess up, restart the dungeon.

Suggestion #1
A simple fix would be slow the respawning of spiders to a trickle, then have numerous amounts of spiders spawn as an effect of a special Nightmare tree attack. The spiders should de-spawn to their starting number if the boss is reset. This would make the spiders a major threat occasionally and a distraction throughout.

Suggestion #2
A more elaborate fix might be to spawn an environmental weapon shield from Leurent to help you deal with the adds. This shield would have special mechanics to make the boss more accessible and interesting to fight. The shield offers special skills:

• (1) Bash: Standard melee attack using the shield.
• (2) Absorb: block projectiles with the shield. You’re mobile while you’re blocking. This chains to another skill, which stops you from blocking and does an arcing AoE in front of you that damages and knocks back foes and starts a short recharge. Every time you block a projectile, you gain a stack of corruption, which works like the hammer in the cliffside fractal (30 stacks = stun, 40 stacks = down). Using this skill will draw aggro from the tree, which has a skill to knock you down, end this ability, and reset Meteor Dash if you don’t avoid it. The corruption stacks go away at a rate of about one per second.
• (3) Meteor Dash (Level 1): charge forward, damaging enemies you move through. If you reach target enemy, slam into them with enough force for AoE damage. This charges up to Meteor Dash (Level 3) depending on how many attacks you blocked.
• (4) Ensorcelling Glimmer: a decent recharge ability that grants 2-3 second stealth to nearby allies – but not you. The idea is you can take the pressure off allies and get spiders to shoot at you.
• (5) Pass: throw the shield with a ground target ability. If you hit an ally, that ally equips the shield and maintains the meteor dash level that you had. If you miss, the shield sits on the ground where the ground target was placed and the Meteor Dash ability resets. In either case, the ground target area damages and knocks back enemies. If the shield lands on the ground a certain radius away from the nightmare tree, it returns to the thrower (to avoid the shield becoming unreachable).

In either case, I think this encounter needs some dev love. Let me know if you like this suggestion!

Server: Northern Shiverpeaks
Map/location: Kessex Hills/“Bramble Walls” level 22 story mode mission
Character info: Level 23 Sylvari Mesmer
How to reproduce issue: play story mode mission

My sylvari appears in place of a destroyed munitions golem before the game returns me to the munition golem launcher. This is usually in the middle of a pack of undead, and they can usually get one or two hits off.

I’ve lost my cursor in combat more times than I’d care to admit.

Semi-permanence in character stats is a design decision made by the developers that I don’t think they’ll change any time soon. This is also why I suggested that build changes only happen at restricted locations – I don’t think the devs want people swapping builds every other encounter. I ask for what I think I can get

I like your “blank slot” idea, but it could pose a problem if you have more than one build box. You might get armor mixed up and then have to untangle it by opening build boxes in a specific order, sort of like a rubix cube. You could also take everything out of every affected build box and re-do everything from scratch to set things right. Either way is just more trouble than it’s worth. A possible solution would be to always return to your original set before activating another build box. This would also lessen the demand for new items. I think it’s best to have a complete build in a box.

GW2 needs to brew a little while before a large content patch comes out. They’re mastering and refining the system while they keep us entertained with small patches and frequent events, and I think this is the right thing to do.

When and if they finally come out with an expansion or large content patch, it will be all the more amazing because of the experience they’re getting and system tweaking they’re doing now.

I did, but I’m not sure if it’s sufficient – or even a good idea. The hard-core farmers will do dungeon tours, of course, but they will be especially reluctant to go back and help someone joining in to a dungeon that they’ve already been to. Need help? Too bad, I’m on a roll can’t afford to lose the bonus gold for the day.

I also think that the the order in which dungeons are completed will also be the same each day. Farmers will start with CoF p1, then CoF p2, then HotW p1, et cetera. They will go from shortest and easiest to longest and most difficult – and they’ll probably log off before they get to the very unpopular dungeons, like TA.

Check out proteininja.5891’s post. I think he has a really good idea.

I think sinzer is right. If devs are going to balance it, the simplest solution would be to restrict where it can go.

You become more effective with a weapon over time as you (the player) learn how the skills work together or the various ways each individual skill can be used. Players also develop muscle memory, so they are more likely to activate the right skill at the right time. Your goal of more effectiveness with a specific weapon over time is met without adding a single game mechanic.

Increasing the damage of weapons through use will make the end-game easier (by increasing damage without increasing monster power) or the early game harder (by increasing both), and I already think the end game is too easy and the early game is too difficult. Weapon Professionalism is just power creep.

Use it if you think it should be nerfed. The devs will nerf if it becomes too popular.

There are certain dungeons that are run much more frequently than others (CoF p1, p2; HotW p1) because they are shorter and easier, but they give the same rewards. It’s also extremely difficult to find anybody who wants to do a story mode dungeon, because these don’t give enough reward based on their length and difficulty. For anybody who is trying to find help to get an achievement or weapons and armor from a specific dungeon, this can be problematic.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Make dungeon paths give rewards based on their length and difficulty.
2. Give story mode dungeons rewards that are on par with explorable mode dungeons.
3. For daily achievements, replace the “story mode dungeon” and the “explorable mode dungeon” achievement with two or three specific dungeon paths per day.
4. CaptainFabulous.8410’s suggestion

At every player’s home instance (in the living world) and the server’s borderlands (in WvW), there will be a chest that, when opened, will act as a bank tab for a new kind of unlimited-use item. This item can be purchased at the gem store, but cannot be put into the character’s inventory. When you activate the item, it exchanges your armor, weapon-sets, accessories, skill selections and trait selections with whatever is stored in the box.

Initially, this will leave your character naked, but if you re-equip yourself, you can swap back and forth between two builds, or more if you buy more boxes at the gem store. A PvP version of the build box would also be convenient, but it should cost less because it’s free to make new builds in PvP.

This has several benefits:

1. Increased demand for gems.
2. Creates unlimited character progression.
3. Creates a better economy through more demand for items.
4. Compliments the existing trainer/refund system.
5. Keeps a feel of semi-permanence in character stats.
6. Makes the character’s home instance more relevant.
7. Allows easy switching between PvE and WvW setups.
8. Increased convenience in PvP when switching between a few standard builds.

I loved the runic sword – it kind of looks like the sword the harpies wield, but with an actual solid blade. I’ve been envious since I noticed.

“Search rubble for Deldrimor artifacts to give to Scholar Alil Rodez” (L31, Lornar’s Pass) event.

I was playing my L80 Human guardian solo when I encountered this bug. The quest is a gathering quest, but an escort quest icon (wagon wheel) appears instead. The icon appears in the sidebar only, and does not mark the position of Scholar Rodez. The quest description appears in the sidebar, and the event boundaries appear in the minimap. The piles of rubble also spawn, so you can gather deldrimor artifacts. I found Scholar Rodez, but she was a merchant and would not accept deldrimor artifacts like she is supposed to.

I have attached a screen shot.

The “Invite to Party” and “Join Party” should not be separate options. There should be one command that invites a player to your party, requests to be admitted into an already-formed party and allows for groups to merge, depending on context.

This command should be available whenever you right-click on a player’s name in the targeting display, in chat, on a guild roster, or on a friends list.

If adding the player or group would bring the party size over 5, then this command should be replaced with the notification “Not enough space in party.”

GW2 should have mounts, but they should be done in an entirely GW2 way – in other words, they should be environmental weapons that change your skill-bar and persist in the world when not being used, just like siege golems.

“Pocket mounts”, or those mounts that can be taken in and out of your inventory for a simple speed boost, should never be part of GW2.

Hi folks! I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that when playing GW2, sometimes you need to run away. Running becomes much easier when I don’t have a target selected and I’m not auto-attacking everything that comes into range. Of course, there is the “Esc” key, but this key simply does too much and it does it in the wrong order. Escape closes windows, stops movement, cancels auto-attack, deselects your target and then opens the game menu. When I’m trying to frantically run away, I definitely don’t want to stop moving before I deselect my target, and I generally don’t want to see the game’s menu.

Solution 1
I would like to see a unbound-by-default keybind option under the targeting group that allows a player to cancel target and cancel the skill queue (auto-attack included) with a single keypress, and nothing else.

“Cancel movement” can already be easily and conveniently accomplished tapping forward or reverse, so adding this functionality to the new keybind would be both unnecessary and detrimental.

Solution 2
Another solution would be to simply change the order in which the escape key does things. Here is the order in which the context-sensitive functions of the Escape key should have priority:

1st: cancel skill/auto-attack if skill is queued.
2nd: deselect target if target is selected.
3rd: close topmost child window if window is open.
4th: cancel movement if moving.
5th: drop bundle if you are carrying one.
6th: open or close game menu.

Anyway, thanks for your time!