Guild Wars 2

Considering that season 3 had some really good quality control, I am expecting the same thing for this expansion. Also please keep up the communication as it is now. I rather have you deliver on something then have a promise that goes on for years without seeing any of it. I know you have issues trying to make any major new UI features without something breaking. So take your time on getting that thing the community is trying to pile drive it’s way into the game. Since I am sure you are aware of it by now.

I am looking forward to the expansion. These demo weekends gave me some interesting view points. Both positive and negative. However I am going to reserve my final judgment until the game fully comes out. I will say I am slightly more optimistic then I was with Heart of Thorns. Probably because this looks like a finished product then what we got with HoT. Now I am slightly worried about where the story is going. I am hoping it’s not a pseudo-retelling of the Nightfall plot (with some minor twists). Furthermore I hope that Rytlock journey to the mists does not involve knowing why Balthazar went rouge. Beyond that the map we got looked interesting. I am really looking forward to going back to The Desolationa and Vabbi. The mount we got was pretty good. However the speed of the raptor did make the map feel a bit small. As for the elite specialization demo is a nice small scale way to get a taste for how they play. However there could be some major/minor balance changes before we get the final release.

I don’t know if you looked at the GW2 wiki for what you have to do for every step. However with that said there is some amount of group play like you described. Either it being world bosses or fractals. Beyond that there is only the gift of battle for WvW which forces you into that game mode. I try to use certain experience boosters and guild hall wvw consumable to make it quick/painless. Even doing the WvW dailies for their rewards helps quite a bit. You can pay those other PvP and WvW currencies through the trading post. Everything else is pretty much solo-able.

I am trying to remember my hurdles for this collection since I did them back in March and April of this year. Perhaps Oola’s Lab which is a RNG wait to get the key to get inside. A bit of silverwaste and dry top for their currencies can feel a bit tedious at times, unless you like farming those areas. Fractals you can do low level, but it’s harder to find people to help you.

So it’s really not that bad overall. I also have a few other tips. Remember you can craft augmented gemstones. Especially having the crystal to orb refinement option in jeweler is pretty nifty (if you have it). If you have multiple (non-free to play) accounts log in every day to save on paying out for mystic coins. Calculate the number of currency you need from each of the Heart of Thorn areas. I try to shoot for 2,050 of each of the first 3 maps currencies. So that way when you get to Dragon Stand you can spend what you have left over on a stack of Machete’s. It’s easier and faster way to get your Crystalline Ore. You probably will not use the full stack of Machete’s, since the rng for the noxious pods can give you 1, 3, 10, 14 Crystalline Ore. Nevertheless the extra insurance against terrible rng is a nice thing to have.

Finally it’s nice your going for this collections because it does not involve Vinetooth Prime. If anything that bugged me more for collection via group play it was that event. Furthermore bugged events can hinder your progress for certain things. It’s the only other major downside to these legendary collections.

So far I am not a huge fan of the map either. Probably because having a mount makes it feel so small and empty (compared to even living world season 3 maps). Which is weird because these maps scaled to be much larger then any previous GW2 maps. I also have to agree It does look like it’s 2/3 of the map in this demo.

However even with that said there are parts where it looks like verticality does comes back. I think the main reason why we don’t see it is because it’s locked out to us. Either by not having the right mount, or we can’t get past certain closed off border sections. I think the other problem is that the main city takes up a good chunk of the map. In the end I need to see the final product and hope there are more things to explore. That was the one thing I liked about Tangle Depths and Verdant Brink it promoted exploration. Even most of the season 3 maps felt the same way. If there are some new Jumping Puzzles and Mini Dungeons in these maps that would be fantastic.

I am sure they do, but it’s a very small team of people. Probably smaller then anyone working on anything else. However if it’s a huge issue does appear they get other people to help them out to fix the problem as soon as possible. The general state of the engine looks like it’s difficult to work with. At least from an observation of every time they add new mechanics or do something with the UI. Something major seems to break. Hence why it probably takes them awhile to put out good quality content.

I know what it is now after this last update. It’s the veteran rank risen abomination that is suppose to be in that cell tank thing (center right of that room). After you kill all the mobs and the bar goes down to nothing; she releases the risen abomination on the players. Unfortunately it never spawns.

A bit of nit picking but Vexa’s voice over is suppose to show up when you first come into the lab. However that never happens, but the text does show up to what she is suppose to say to you. That particular bug has been that way for the last couple of years.

Yep, noticed this has been like this for the last couple of day’s. Just made a video about it.

Yepers, getting this as well. I wonder if it the DDOS stuff back just in time for the update or it’s an error actually because of the update.

Tangled Depths is my favorite HoT map. Since that map actually comes the closest to feeling like a multi-layered map. It is the best exploration map in this game. The split meta actually is actually worth doing. The pre-meta to the Chak Gerent actually is short and satisfying to do for all four areas. Which leaves you time to explore and do alternative tasks in the map. The Chak Gerent meta is fun to engage in. Unlike Auric Basin’s Octovine event which feels like the developers ran out of time to put together that in the last minute (the poor man’s version of the Vinewrath). Also the reward system in this map does not feel completely out of whack. Key’s are not dropping by the bucket load next to how little chests appear after clearing an area (again looking at you Auric Basin pylon meta events). I absolutely enjoy the Chak and the overall lore for this map. Verdant Brink would come in as a close second. However the beginning of the night time defense meta is too chaotic and drags for a bit by keeping you within one area.

Vanilla map wise: It’s hard to pick just one map. Since they all of have their pros and cons. However none of them feel horrible except maybe one in the back of my mind. Snowden Drifts. Or what I would call the poor man’s Frostgorge Sound. The biggest offender being the majority of the hearts are “kill this many things to progress.” Especially the one to the top left hand side of the map called “Help the Serph outrider camp.” Which need you to kill certain enemies that spawn very little in that area, and have no other events to help it move along faster. Every other map has a good amount of variety in it’s heart quests or skill points. Even Lonar’s Pass and Dredgehaunt Cliffs does not make this mistake all the time. The other thing is most of the maps have some really great overarching theme’s going on. Plus there are certain dynamic events that have some fantastic character development in them. It’s probably why I like when the asura and charr team up reluctantly. They always feel like they are the perfect foil to each other.

Oh the PvP cynic, while badgering the community for not taking the e-sport section seriously is leaving? Don’t get me wrong he was right to be a cynic over how they balanced PvP. However being a jerk to the community is a big fat: No. Also he sent this out on the day of a large PvE patch. I guess everyone has their bias outlook on the game, if your apart of one those “massive pillars” of the game.

The whole e-sport thing for Guild Wars 2 has been a joke. The only way the e-sport system could have worked if Arena Net let the community built it up first. Before Arena Net started to play their hand into it. Instead they had their marketing team try to make a big deal of it way too soon. So now your having the reverse happen. Where the only reason why some of these “pro players” cared about game was for the e-sport scene. Not so much for the game itself.

What Arena Net should have done was work on different game modes, better match making system, and dividing skill balance between all three game modes. They are barley getting this done now, but it’s a little too late into the games life cycle. Nevertheless Arena Net needs to keep working at it. Eventually the community will hit it’s stride again, if you keep up with good quality content.

I’m still not the biggest fan, and HoT really cemented that idea in. In all honesty the writing for them has been very wonky at times. The novels and the pre-launch GW2 background lore stories sometimes showed a very different side of the Sylvari then what we got in game. Once we got to Scarlet and Mordremoth, things even went further down hill. However there might be something down the line that could completely changes my mind. Like there might be even more to the Sylvari race beyond Mordremoth, which could correct some of those issues. We just have to wait and see.

Please don’t bring in that whole “War on Christmas,” political nonsense in here.

It would be nice if they started to use the newfangled tech they have talked about before to separate the three different game modes soon. It’s inevitably going to happen, and procrastinating is not going to fix anything. Your going to have so much work, if you keep using this “tent-pole” balance mentality running. Each expansion is going to make it worse as time goes by. You had the same problem in GW1 and your defiantly going to have the same problem in GW2. The first easiest solution would align WvW with PvP balance. Probably go as far as stick in the same equipment UI for gear from PvP to WvW.

Yeah, also getting the connection error message. Well back to playing Goldeneye: Source.

Dreggon.6598:

We’re actually paying our guild leader gold to AFK in an un-updated guild hall so that nobody can raid, which is working pretty well so far.

My reaction to that premise.

Anyhow I hope that when it does go live that nothing else breaks where they have to take it down again. However there are people at the lion’s arch aerodrome waiting patiently for this thing to re-open…. soonish.

Um, is the servers for wing 3 going live now or something? Since it’s way pass the point where it should have kicked everyone out of the game (post update).

What the status time till everyone is forced to get the update? Is it still 2 hours from the update going live itself?

EDIT: Never mind, got it from someone who is idling in the game. One hour and fifteen minutes.

So I noticed there was a fix for wing 3 in the recent patch:

• Fixed an issue in which Scholar Glenna would not place the final bomb at the end of the Siege the Stronghold encounter.

However wing 3 is still not open? Since it still ports you back to LA.

So as someone who has criticized the writing team since GW2 launched. I have to say I was satisfied by the way it turned out. Even though the call out to the next elder dragon felt a little jarring. However it does not mean I don’t get what the DiogoSilva is getting at (in some context).

The problem for me, is that I went through everything. I have experienced Guild Wars 1 and 2 entire narrative. I even have looked through the subtext plot-lines that most people seem to miss. It’s why I could vaguely put together what Scarlet was doing in season 1. For instance did you know that Scarlet alluded to the “drill” way before the Breachmaker made it’s first appearance? There is a few plot points that make season 3 ending feel better in context. Caudecus’s Manor/dungeon, the human personal story sections, Forsaken Thicket/raid (prelude to season 3), and the 3 completed journals found in Bloodstone Fen. You can sort of piece together some of those events by talking to Squad Leader Bennett in Bloodstone Fen, and Canach at the end of the Research in Rata Novus instance.

Now if you just take away all of that “side plot,” before season 3 started then I can see the issue with the ending. It could feel a bit rushed. Where they re-introduced three major antagonist at once. Hopefully the next episode will give more background to what is going on. The biggest hurdle this poolside had to do was answer some narrative pitfalls that were left at the end of HoT. Which was no easy feet. Since even with the answers we got not everything was fully fleshed out. However this is just the beginning.

While I have a sneaking suspicion that AB multi-map will eventually get patched to a daily chest reward system. I’m not too sure what your going on about. Right now the economy is sustaining itself very well. Charged lodestones, Powerful Blood, and Silver Doubloon are still verily expensive to get. True they have gone down a bit, but they are not cheap to get. Plus there are now so many types of new materials flooding the market. Not only that but Mystic Coins in the last year or so has quadrupled in price. Due to people supposedly hoarding them like they are going out of style. Finally let’s talk about the elephant in the room that takes down your entire notation of “everything is falling in price and needs a fix” mantra. Harden Leather (tier six leather) was fixed via it’s drop/salvage rate, and increased it’s crafting cost significantly just before HoT went live. Now look at it. It’s one of the most obnoxious high end material to get.

Yep, been having the same issue as well. This is really annoying especially in pvp. Originally I thought it was something wrong with my keyboard (or lag). However it happens way too often not to be a bug. It basically gets me killed, because it cancels out all the time.

All around it seems the quality really shows this time around.

Quality of Life features and bug fixes: Excellent over all.

Story—— It was pretty good so far. Mechanics was on par with HoT (which is a good thing). Narrative wise was a huge improvement over HoT. Probably could have gone on a bit longer. I am not too sure on the narrative bridge that connects the raid and season 3. Due to the raid being a prologue to these events. Even though it’s recounted what happens in wing 1 & 2 by Bennett. It seems wing 3 was kept in the dark on purpose, since Bennett was not present for that event. Even though our character was there apparently.

Map—— Decent enough. It remind me of Southsun. Only difference it crammed full of events and enemies. I do like the vertical movement over some of the previous HoT maps. Though I have a bias for tangled depths. Interesting drop system with lower tier materials dropping (very impressive idea).

PvP—— Have not touched the new map. Not a huge fan of conquest. Actually play stronghold more.

Fractal —-— I will give this a go probably in the near future. Therefore will edit my post when I do.

Replay Value——— This is where the biggest problem is for this update. Especially for the new map. First it’s nice to see ascended stuff you can buy in this map. So you can get HoT stat for rings, amulet, and a back piece. However an accessory ascended jewelry is missing. Hopefully this gets added down the line. Beyond that: why was there no new weapon set for us to go after here? I can sort of understand why there is no new armor set, because what was stated in the reddit AMA. Nevertheless Balck Lion Weapons are still getting spit out continuously, and that idea kind of seems like a no brainier/missed opportunity. In the end you need something to keep us occupy till the next major episode drops.

Airship oil is just one part of the issue. I still have a problem with bloodstone dust and have all the eaters for it (plus have max material storage space). Not only that but there are other obnoxious materials that I have no use while been piling up in droves. Like Barbed Thorns and Leaf Fossils. Not to mention I have been trying to get rid of all these potent venom sacks. Yeah, I can upgrade them to powerful venom sacks. However as soon as I get rid of one stack, another one takes it place within a week. Luckily Mordrem Slivers can just be transformed to the next highest tier. Without taking up too much space, or being a massive gold sink to get rid of them. I rather have tier 5 and 6 leather, which drops at the rate these things do. Leather at least is always useful.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sindex.9520:

Time gates are there to draw out gameplay for the little content that actually exists.

Actually, time gates on crafting are there to artificially impact the economy. Demand goes up from the impatient, benefiting those willing to take their time.

If you want to believe that go right ahead. It has been stated before that ascended gear was put in the game, to extend out gear goals beyond how easy it was to get exotic tier gear. Fractals AR (agony resistance) system is the embodiment of that idea. Since it was also during the time everyone complained about how little “end game” there actually was. Eventually all these crafted item time gates came along with each crafting discipline that was updated.

Time gates are there to draw out gameplay for the little content that actually exists. However there are two loopholes that leave something like this severely broken. First is the multi-account approach. Not only you can get laurels (tier 6 material galore) and mystic coins by the dozen through the daily log-in (do practically nothing for a….) reward system. You can get max crafting done as well, and ship what you have to your main account. Now you must be thinking “I don’t want to have to craft up 500 on all of the crafting discipline, because it’s really expensive." My advice would be only craft armorsmith and weaponsmith for your alternate accounts. Those two are probably the cheapest crafting disciplines (currently), that you can get time gated ascended material from. The second loophole is close/trusted personal friends who also play GW2. If they have any max crafting discipline ask them if they can make you some of these time gated ascended materials. If they have not crafted certain ones for the day (before the reset). Make sure you send them the proper materials. Of course other would say to do a complete trade for said material with the TP, but that actually costs you gold in the long run.

Yeah, my advice is buy the precursor. It’s been mentioned before how the legendary journey does not feel like one (except maybe for the shortbow that came out recently). It’s more of an alternative way to get something, if you don’t want intimidate results. Also it’s way more expensive and grindy in the long run.

The question about how people felt about the fallen was interesting.

 I’ve heard the cries of anguish of our people in the wake of these losses;

It would be interesting to see if Caudecus takes advantage of this. Twisting the victory we had against Mordremoth; as something that will become more self-destructive with future endeavors against the other dragons. Basically focusing on what happened with the Pact Fleet and Sylvari link to Mordremoth (even though it’s dead).

Yeah, this is something that happens periodically from time to time, with having voice actors in certain major roles. I’m actually surprised it did not happen sooner. Though I have noticed when certain voice actors do come back and don’t have the same tempo they had when they first delivered their lines. Faolain voice actress had this problem. However I originally dismiss it in season 2 because it was suppose to be a younger version.

Mike O Brien.4613:

Some of you may look back nostalgically at 2013 when we shipped updates every two weeks. That year we shipped a wide variety of things: nine or ten releases that we’d today call a Living World episode, plus updates to systems and content for other parts of the game, plus festivals. So it was the extreme unbundled version of this. It was nice that there was always something new, but I’m personally not wistful of that cadence, because we sacrificed so much to be able to ship that frequently. With Season 3 our goal is to deliver content sustainably, at quality, establishing a pattern we don’t have to take breaks from.

If the quality shows like the first raid has then I have no problems with this. Especially if there is great replay-ability versus some of the original grind we got when HoT first launched. Just to have us kill time next to how little content there actually was. I brought up the returning festivals in the another thread, because that dead time can be soaked up by it. I still believe that.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Really? You think there are less than ~20 people working on Living Story Season 3? That’s how many worked on Season 2. I suppose it could be, but I was thinking more out of the 120+ assigned to the live game.

I actually have a long winded answer for that, but it was on the semantics of the issue. So I am skipping that for now. However suffice to say it would not surprise me if that was the case. Even though we probably have no clear way of seeing those numbers at all. Right now the people not working the expansion 2 are really divided up between PvP, WvW, and PvE (and their respected sub-divisions). Therefore I am for them bringing back these festivals. Furthermore I predict that there will be more dead time after we get the first chapter of season 3.

Actually it’s something I have suggested for a long time. Even before SAB had returned. A long time ago (during living world season 1) Colin brought up the idea that they were bringing this type of content back. Saying it allowed them to bring back this temporary festival content when their was dead time. So they could focus on other newer content. Dragon Bash, Bazaar of the Four Winds, and Queen’s Jubilee were originally designed to come back on a seasonal basis. Yes, I am aware of what it took to bring SAB as an annual seasonal festival. However to me that is a sacrifice you are going to have to make, in order to put these festivals back into a yearly rotation. These small-ish current events just pales in comparison to those festivals types I mentioned above. The problem we are facing right now is HoT is not tiding everyone over until the next major release.

Also I have speculated on why it’s taking this long for Season 3 to come out. Beyond the 2nd expansion team and them going back to fix post HoT problems. They are probably doing the same thing they did with season 2, but with a way smaller team. Which is making new maps to coincide with the new story. Unfortunately that is the problem right there. Making these new maps is what is slowing progress down to a grind. Especially if it’s a pseudo multiple layer one, akin to what we got in HoT. What they should do is what they did for season 1. Using what they already have in game and expand upon it. Minus the temporary content bit. You can still deliver good quality content by building on-top of your older content. It was one the major things that season 1 did right.

I love the Chak believe it or not. They test your survivability limits against a horde of enemies (scenario). My reaper, tempest, and scrapper makes short work of them. It’s is so fun taking them all on at once. Especially in the SCAR section of the map with their events. As a whole I actually prefer Tangled Depth to any of the heart of thorn maps. Especially over Auric Basin which I find to be a bore and poorly designed (gated progress and Octovine half-baked meta boss design). Only redeeming thing is the Skritt and their events.

I wonder how many black lion weapons skin sets they have lost? I know tribal armor as well as some other old exclusive PvP skins seem to be lost in development hell. Even though they already exist in game.

Palador.2170:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

This drought may be unwanted, exceptionally long and also unexpected by ANet. If you recall with the announcement about suspending Legendary weapons they said that they spread themselves too thin and let the content pipeline empty out. Obviously they have problems pacing themselves and setting up reasonable goals and had to retrench. Hopefully they’ve learned a lesson with all this and in the future the content droughts will be shorter.

Mike O Brien.4613:

Thanks for all the comments. I know there’s nothing I’m going to say that will make you feel better, but I’ll share some final thoughts for the night.

I said three weeks ago I’d focus on sustainability and quality. I want to reiterate the part about sustainability. Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but how about the recent drought of content? That kind of thing happens when we spread ourselves too thin, and when we let the content development pipeline empty out so we can fight fires. What I think we actually owe you is sustainable, predictable, high-quality content. I’m making a decision that’s painful in the short-term so we can position ourselves to deliver that.

(Snip)
Mo

You may have a point. Okay, I’m worried, but I’ll wait and see what we get.

You know they will probably say: that they will continue to drip feed us intermission living world content, through the Current Event system. Saying they know it’s not a full replacement for living world but it’s better then nothing. Which to them is a big deal.

Ayrilana.1396:

At E3 we got to visit the exhibition corner dedicated to the title for a brief chat with the developers about the next update, trying to capture as much information as possible.

Wait a tick. Why does an Italian gaming site get this exclusive interview at E3 (which is in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.). Either this was leaked earlier, because we all know A-net loves to play the “NDA interviews until embargo is lifted” game. So they can increase the media coverage. Or no one else in the gaming press (that went to E3) took a fleeting interest in what A-net had to say. Beyond this one Italian gaming press site.

Anyhow as for the quality over quantity bit, when it comes to the next living world chapter. I will believe it, when I see it. As far as I can tell (this is my pent of cynicism talking) the only reason why this might take longer is because they are splitting of the teams between the expansion and the core game. So if this does work out then sure I will be ecstatic. However if it’s a load of garbage excuse then it will be treated as such. Same thing goes with their whole we improve sPvP. Some of us still loathe capture point objectives. As matter of fact I prefer Stronghold and Courtyard (only team death match map) over that drab style of PvP.

Pompeia.5483:

Is the time delay in part due to you making it possible for us to select runes in addition to stats and thus make it completely worth getting?

Doubt it. I think it’s more of an uphill struggle by working with the UI for these new collections. It’s probably the same reason why we got legendaries put on hold, and ad infinitum took a long time to get the final version out. If they did something like rune/sigil swap then it would be a major quality of life update that would work with all legendary gear.

So I am going to get this out of the way now. The story structure for this entire Raid has been fantastic. I’ve finally got to see the entirety of wing 3 now. So it pretty much wraps up my worries that things would fall apart in the final act. The raid has surpassed my expectations, and it has been better then core GW2 personal story all the way to HoT rushed narrative. It’s up there with season 1 introductions to the Molten Alliance and the Aetherblades. Before we found out who Scarlet was and what her involvement was. It has a good beginning, middle, and end. Even Slothasor “B” plot line made sense in some way and did not feel too jarring/forced.

Basically the writers ran with bandit connection to white mantle story arch in very well intermingled (rescue/mystery) way. Most of the questions presented at the beginning to the end are pretty much answered. Even if the “real” antagonist never shows up, but it’s still heavily hinted at. It’s kind of like Captain Mai Trin narrative in many ways, but this is far more superior.

First we start with a rescue as it’s branched off from the conclusion of HoT. Then we learn it’s not going to be a simple rescue, and there is something far more sinister is happening. However we don’t have all the answers until we succeed in the rescue. Plus there is enough narrative breadcrumbs to have us figure out what is really going on. We then have our motivation to stop this twisted and bleak legacy from continuing. The main antagonist of the raid get introduced, where we get the final piece of the puzzle. The story wraps up with us knowing just enough information without being overloaded by it.

One of the problems that GW2 has always had is pacing issues. Where the writing kept all of the answers of the story till the very end. The problem was when the end did come around, A-net was approaching a rushed deadline. Thus some of those structured narrative answers would get severely skewed. This raid story answers these questions gradually as the story progress. Instead of cramming it until the very end. Or leaving it on unsatisfying/anticlimactic cliffhanger at the narrative conclusion. Even if we still don’t have answers about either a certain Mursaat or Saul D’Alessio it still works. There is really no overuse of ambiguity in this narrative, which many main plot points in GW2 suffer from.

Now with all that said it brings me back to Bobby’s points. Since I am going to be really constructive as much as I can. First you proved me wrong. As you can see from most of what I have said above, the raid to me is a major step up from your previous endeavors. Second of all if this narrative continues only within the raid environment then is not a major problems. What I mean by that is this does not reconnect back into the main narrative in any shape or form. If any of the major plot points (minus the ley-line energy windstorm) in this raid does still intercept with the living world narrative then there might be an issue.

I still stand behind my original argument if this does connect with living world season 3. There has to be a clean narrative bridge between the raid and the living story. If it buckles then it could degrade all of the work done up to this point. Yes, there will be people who never touch this raid so they have to brought up to speed. Nevertheless it cannot be through a broad video recap of the events that happen in the raid. The raid itself was a major catalyst to reintroduce these story concepts to people who have or have not played GW1. Both Caudecus’s Manor and human personal story pale in comparison to what was done with the raid. So I beg you don’t torch that bridge if has to be made.

If this next hinted antagonist does come into the main narrative. Please don’t make them too bland like Kudu (Albert Wesker archetype) or Swiss Army Knife evil like Scarlet (British Harley Quinn archetype) was. One tip I can give is make this antagonist clever and manipulative. Just don’t go overboard and keep it grounded with actual rules. So they can be powerful but they have clear faults.

Furthermore the playable character and this antagonist must not jump to illogical conclusions. For instance both Elder Dragon “Achilles Heel” kills came out of nowhere in the end. Scarlet’s undoing was okay up till Braham stopped her from telling us why she did it abruptly. You might have not wanted a cliché of a villain using a monologue. However that writing transitions could have been handled bit better. Lastly please learn from your past mistakes. Especially rushing something out the door before it finished and polished to a shine.

On a side note I am still amazed this came from a small team of people (like SAB did). This has been probably one of the few high points for me; that Arena Net has been on for almost 4 years since GW2 launch. Just need to see if season 3 can carry this momentum from the beginning to it’s end. This is a bit shocking for me. I am actually being optimistic again about Guild Wars main narrative.

oshilator.4681:

Not once it’s implemented, no.

DragonflyDusk.6582:

That doesn’t even remotely make sense. To even get to that conclusion would mean that they are either not reading the feedback they were given about the bundles, or were incapable of understanding it. Especially as this brings us BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED with untradeable BLT skins, and they knew that method was hated because they CHANGED IT. It came “full circle” because someone somewhere along the line got greedy, and maybe also can’t seem to grasp how the BLT skin situation is completely different from the Immortal skin situation, despite it being spelled out clearly for them. Though I don’t think the latter has anything to do with this, honestly. That logic is reaching.

Where did I get so faulty logic from? So let’s wind the clock back to one of the previous Halloweens when we had the gem conversion rate UI changed. It came down to one person who leads the micro-store. Remember it was the “new players find it too confusing” excuse that help shape the “new player experience" system. They used that same logic in order to change the gem conversion system.

(Scroll up to Gaile’s post. Since for some apparent reason it does not put you there when clicking this link)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Lets-talk-about-the-new-Gem-conversion-Merged/page/4#post4503369

However they did eventually change it back. Due to the team lead making that choice in first place.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Lets-talk-about-the-new-Gem-conversion-Merged/page/34#post4507962

So take it as will. However this is not the first time something like this has happened, and won’t be the last. As I previously stated the account bound only black lion weapons are not surprising to me at all.

oshilator.4681:

Sindex.9520:

oshilator.4681:

Anet… or, more specifically, Mike -

You haven’t learned anything from past mistakes, have you?

Neural.1824:

Starting to see where Mike intends to take the company.

New’s Flash: It’s not Mike who allows this to happen. It’s more of a decision made by Crystin Cox who is the microtransactions and masteries team lead.

News Flash – Mike oversees every decision that happens. On some level, he approved this.

Your right, a paid professional in that field has no input at all over what happens to any section of the company. It does not matter where that idea came from. Right?

oshilator.4681:

Anet… or, more specifically, Mike -

You haven’t learned anything from past mistakes, have you?

Neural.1824:

Starting to see where Mike intends to take the company.

New’s Flash: It’s not Mike who allows this to happen. It’s more of a decision made by Crystin Cox who is the microtransactions and masteries team lead.

DragonflyDusk.6582:

Malediktus.9250:

Sindex.9520:

You really find this surprising? Most people did not get upset about the immortal weapons being tied to those package bundles. So this was bound to happen. Once again the lead of the micro-store wins.

I did not get upset about immortal weapon set because they did not give a collection achievement. This privateer weapon set gives a weapon collection.

Also, you didn’t have to GAMBLE for them. If I bought that bundle, I knew for certain I was getting to pick an immortal skin.

Cause and effect. You still bought those bundles which had account bound weapons tied to them. People got upset at the bundles (being over priced). Eventually getting them to separate items out. They probably were not getting enough revenue on bundles. So they decided you were okay with account bound tickets/weapons. Which eventually brought us to this fantastic idea. It comes full circle.

You really find this surprising? Most people did not get upset about the immortal weapons being tied to those package bundles. So this was bound to happen. Once again the lead of the micro-store wins.

Still not convinced by these points, until I see what happens in wing 3 and during season 3. So far the story seems to be straddling a very thin line. As if the connective tissue of these two separate story lines wants to converge. Especially with the current event system directly referencing the connection between the Bandits and the White Mantle. I am not limited to my short term memory (like some people are); when it comes to past GW2 main narrative blunders (even in HoT).

I am worried that if the raid and season 3 do connect then it will be done through a very awkward/jarring manner. In the same way that Caithe’s reasoning for stealing the egg made me cringe at the end of HoT. Which was another conveniently ham-fisted “wild hunt” explanation; that even the Pale Tree was not ever aware of. On top of the convoluted mind game solution that had us kill Mordremoth at the end of HoT. So until this content is here, I will take your words with a grain of slat.

Ever since the old PvP system was removed A-net has “talked the talk” about bring these items back someway. Just like the old Revenant beta weapons that were featured in HoT beta. However the word “procrastination” is a rule of thumb for the company. So probably not anytime soon. At least we can look forward to a plethora of black lion weapons, outfits, and gliders enter the game before that happens. Especially when one of the new outfits (sentinel) starts to mysteriously appear on Charr NPC characters in Blazeridge Steppes for no apparent reason. Conveniently as we get new events in that local area.

Eh, I have said it once before. As long as the multiple account loophole exists then there should be an alternative way to get Mystic Coins. It’s also funny how both John and Chris don’t even mention this in their “analysis” posts whatsoever. Furthermore they don’t mention that F2P players can purchase Mystic Coins off the TP. Which creates a large sink for Mystic Coins. Due to F2P players not able to earn mystic coins through it’s main source: daily log in reward system. However at least they want people to purchase more accounts to get this rare commodity and just sit on it. As they usually promote this type of behavior till things really start to get out of hand. The company itself has this whole obsession for analytics, instead of doing actual work.

Honestly I would say the daily log-in reward system yields you more rewards over a month for not playing compared to the regular dailies. Plus with multiple premium accounts you can double/triple/quadruple that for not doing a dam thing in game. As the others have stated many of the dailies offer a large variety then they ever did before. Not only that but they can be completed under half an hour.

The mastery system is so boring. The only thing it really felt that massively changed anything was the glider. The rest of abilities feel like QoL (quality of life) gated mechanics that feel rather pointless. The problem is that it defiantly hits a wall at the end when there is no more masteries to obtain. No matter how you look at it. It’s obviously left in a broken state. Yeah, the visual representation of XP you earn feels like a waste. In all honesty I believe in a reward system like infinite bonus map rewards loop should be there. There should be more rewards for playing the game. Instead of logging in and out for the daily log-in reward system.

I’m thrilled about the blood and wine expansion that is coming out for the Witcher 3. Not so much for Season 3 in GW2. So far Season 2 of the living world was somewhat a diamond in the ruff, when it came to narrative direction in this game. However it still had flaws that autocratically put up red flags for me that the storyline for Heart of Thorns was going to dreadful. Of course they proved me right. Especially when they pivoted back to the shoddy main plot writing they have been known for since GW2 launched.

All because it went around their agenda. By rushing another semi-finished product out the door. Don’t kid yourself. When it came to the HoT story there was a lot of cut narrative content. Afterwards we were treated like it was intentional, so they could make a “summer blockbuster movie,” structured narrative. I take that excuse with a grain of salt. I bet you if they had more time allocated Act 3 & 4 would have been much better. Finally I want iterate I am talking about story structure over game-play. Since HoT and some of Season 1 (minus the temporary content bit) did structure that better then anything else.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Makai.3429:

Vyrulisse.1246:

PvE/PvP balance was split eventually in GW1. What’s their reasoning for not continuing that idea?

As far as we’re aware there isn’t one, which is a huge part of the problem.

As I recall, the reason given a long time ago was that it was too confusing to the players to have a PvP and a PvE set of skills, or words to that effect.

No, the new excuse is that it just creates more overhead on their work load. According to Izzy. It’s inevitable that the split will happen though.

I mean if you really think about it Guild Wars 2 suppose to surpass the skill balance issues of GW1. Due the simplicity of it all. Or in my opinion being funneled into a corner with less choice. Yet those same issues crept back up from the grave. All due to the stat rotation in all of the different game modes. PvE still goes in one direction (damage over support and tank). With the only exception being raids (to a point). While WvW and PvP provide substance to all the other ignored stats. Since your not dealing with crackbrained AI. While the AI compensates to make other stat builds absolutely useless. It will only get worse with each expansion. It’s the same problem that we had in GW1.

I think Ms. Shirley Bassey sums it up in her song just as well. You hear that Izzy? It’s only a matter of time before history starts repeating. Fun times ahead.

DeceiverX.8361:

Sartharina.3542:

You get killed by confusion damage when you try to cleanse.

This. This is what absolutely irks me about confusion.

If it didn’t damage on dodge or cleanse activation, it wouldn’t be so bad. The fact that you literally will die and get punished from trying to counter an effect directly because it also counters the counter is absurd.

Really, it’s just perplexity runes that are the biggest offender (passive proc 3 stacks from being hit, passive CC reflection/CC, AoE CC and CC overload from elite specs makes it VERY easy to stack huge confusion just from runes). Get rid of those runes and most of the issues vanish. Get rid of these and dire gear together and all WvW-related condition issues for the most part vanish, too.

These sets aren’t even useful in PvE and aren’t accessible in sPvP because they’ve been labeled as too objectively OP since their release, so I see little reason to object.

I would still say the right condition cleanse and redistribution builds can still be hard counters to these two types of conditions. Nevertheless I would somewhat agree with the sentiment that both of you are trying to get across. Only if we did not get some of these new “easy to manage,” support builds we have from HoT. Everyone talks about how easy it is to play the Reaper in order to rack up damage. However the abilities that the Druid and Tempest have at their disposal makes it harder to see this line of logic. Furthermore we have a new boon called Resistance as well. Not to mention that Sigil of Generosity is so dirt cheap after last Wintersday. Even somewhat advance players know how to utilize light fields properly in order to wipe out their conditions.

In my opinion Confusion and Torment conditions are no where near as powerful as their GW1 counterparts (Hex’s Backfire and Empathy). Due to them being having a smaller amount of ways to counter them as hex spells. Even the daze condition felt drastically more powerful in GW1 then it does in GW2 (in a pure CC form). Especially when it used to paired with GW1 epidemic skill. I digress though.

Finally if they did nerf these two conditions, by removing their passive damage over time function. Then they will have to increase it’s base damage function overall. Which in turn would make things worse, then what you believe they are now.

I took out my special A-net magic eight ball and it say’s: “Don’t Count on it.” All joking aside in order to fix this problem it needs to go through Smith and his team. Which according to that one reddit post about a month ago states that “they are looking into it.” However I have my sneaking suspicion this is not high on their priority list. Like re-enabling the hero chest in the HoT maps. So maybe a year or two. Unless people start bringing out their pitchforks and torches sooner then latter on the issue. Which means the issue is going to have to become extremely dreadful first.