(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Its not about feeling like a special snowflake its about who was that content advertised towards and what it was advertised as if you want to get into it you should get to.the kind set that the gamemode was meant to be played.
If we’re going based on advertisement, then raids and other instanced content would not be the heavy part of the game, which they now are. The stated design goals were to make an MMO unlike others that featured a persistent world driven by cause-and-effect.
Instanced dungeons, by their very nature, violate this principle as they are not part of a persistent world. Consequences of actions performed in them are not persisted and the dungeon treats players returning as if nothing happened at all. The personal story itself also violates this principle as it largely exists separate from the world, and very little of it persists.
Even dynamic events, especially with the introduction of megaservers, are minorly driven by cause-and-effect. Mostly they just operate on timers and are agnostic to player participation.
I don’t say this to imply raids, dungeons, or personal story are wrong for this game, 1 but to point out that design direction changes, and you should take what Arena Net “advertises” with a grain of salt. Ultimately they will do what they see as best for the game. Raid difficulties and scaling based on party size are options on the table (it’s a big table, as they say), and ones I support for my smaller guild of 8-ish active players.
1 – Though I really do hope for an MMO that does stick to these design goals more closely and doesn’t try to be too many things at once. Maybe the one being developed at Amazon by a bunch of ex-Arena Net people will pull through?
I stand corrected on that point thanks. :-)
The logical Conclusion is, that the Bloodstone exploded, what else should explode? Caudecus’s Temper?
For one, that the bloodstone is still intact and merely used to cast the spell. If knowledge of the bloodstones is as common as people are claiming in this thread, and it was so obvious what happened, why did Almora even bother asking what happened?
We know where bloodstone is, we know that white mantle is experimenting with it, we know that bloodstone just turned in to a “crazy magical hot spot”. 5 minutes later we see a nuke going off right where bloodstone is located. I don’t see anything odd here.
Non-raiders do not know of these experiments before reaching the zone. All we get on the White Mantel is that they are in Magumma and Minister Caudecus escaped. As a non-raider I am voicing what I felt and it still feels, from my character’s perspective, that he is not in the loop on what’s going on.
Or it could be that literally 5 minutes ago Taimi showed us where it is located and said that it went apekitten.
Taimi mentions activity. She doesn’t say the bloodstone is going to explode. The line is:
“The northern Bloodstone dot is flaring up. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.”
No urgency, just bemused interest. If Taimi really thought this were a possibility why wouldn’t she warn you against going? At many points in the story we get magic transfers without explosions happening, and again we’ve never seen the bloodstone as characters and if they can explode. To immediately leap to that as the explanation as opposed to the numerous possibilities in a world of magic struck me as odd.
Just as an FYI, things like the Bloodstones and White Mantle are canonically common knowledge, the former especially given what a Bloodstone actually is to Tyria.
The lines regarding Bloodstones I found particularly out of place were:
- “I think…. it’s hard for me to actually say, but I think a Bloodstone just exploded.” I presumed that something like this happened in the raid or was acquired knowledge in the raid, but if not it’s just jarring. I don’t recall anyone witnessing one explode before.
- When encountering members of the pact. “They’ve been consumed by bloodstone magic.” Again, I don’t recall witnessing anyone consumed by it and going mad. Another raid reference?
The lines regarding the White Mantel:
- Upon first encountering the White Mantel. “White Mantel… but they’re different.” Since this is my first time seeing them, they can’t be different.
There are a few others I found odd, but they could be interpreted as your character being really good at everything (including White Mantel history). I don’t particularly like this, but it’s a valid interpretation.
None of that changes the argument people are putting forward in this thread, however. The current story arcs began in the raid. While that experience may not be 100% required to play and understand the game, it is still an important part of the current story experience. There are players left out of that experience that feel disenfranchised and much less enthusiastic about what we are doing now in game because of that exclusion. I know this because I hear from them daily.
My feelings exactly. I like to play games for their narratives and when I encounter inconsistency in that narrative experience it irks the hell out of me. My main is a Charr male and after the big eventbloodstone explosion opening the new zone happens he has become all of these things, despite never completing a raid wing:
1) An expert on magical thingsblood stones despite rarely encountering them in the narrative . Only mention I recall is in Arah.
2) More than passing familiarity with the big badWhite Mantle
3) Seemingly chummy with Squad Leader Bennett, an NPC I’ve never encountered before.
To me, it definitely feels like my character has done something he hasn’t and missed other things entirely.
Their “profession” were varied and fun and supported good gameplay.
Were they all capable of building for support, damage, and control in interesting combinations or were there specific professions for specific group roles (e.g., healer, DPS, tank)? If the latter that’s not going to come to GW 2, Arena Net wants all professions to have the tools necessary for overcoming encounters. 1 This has been their stated goal since they were marketing the game.
What makes you think CoH professions were more varied and fun? What does “good gameplay” look like to you? And no the videos don’t immediately strike me as good game play, and rather look like a chaotic mess (which is what many MMOs look like when you have more than a handful of players together)
1 – Whether or not they’ve achieved this is another matter.
Instance content was far superior as well.
What made it far superior?
I’m thinking most gamers will get the drift without having to write a novel…
Add me to the list of players who don’t see what the fuss is about.
Hi guys,
does the Mesmer Feedback reflecting the projectiles from Vale Guardian when he has a breakbar?
No.
I saw in PUG group, tank Guardian put his bubble to protect the group from projectiles
That is not why the guard did this. Shield 5 has a knock back component, so it damages the breakbar. It can also be used to heal allies.
Just tried Trilla again(for the 3rd night in a row). Still can’t talk to the npc and it stills spawns and despawns at random spots. Let the timer run out and triggered the bounty again. Got Brekkabek this time and it was bugged too just like the rest.
We eventually got Trilla to be interactable, but don’t know how. She was acting just as you describe, stuck and teleporting.
The three bounties we had were stuck and not intractable. Eventually got one unstuck this evening to do our easy bounty.
I always play the holy knight archetype in fantasy MMOs (or healing martial artist, if available). Guardian fit that theme the most. I also usually tank and guardian seemed like a good fit for that as well. The Dragon hunter provided us with much needed DPS tools, but I can’t say that I wasn’t hoping for a specialization that focused more on the tanking/defending aspect. This is not to say we got no tools to help us in this area, just that most of the tools are clearly focused on DPS.
If it were like a race only awarding victory to the first person across the line, yes. It’s not like that.
But that’s exactly what Raids are -a race against time.
A race against time isn’t a race with one winner though, that’s where you are mistaken. All that matters is you beat the clock, and you can beat it at several points: 1 second left, 2 minutes left, etc. It doesn’t matter when you beat it the outcome is the same, victory. So your claim that those who beat the clock better win, is mistaken. Even the slowest person can win, so long as they beat the clock.
You being the first across the line doesn’t make you a winner over all the other participants that managed to get to the end as well.
You doing it better doesn’t matter for others as long as they are doing it “well enough”.
Wish I saw this before posting. Thanks!
Well the gap is there because different professions do different things.
Agreed, but that doesn’t mean we know the size of it and that the size is large enough that the encounters are impossible with(out) certain professions. It’s actually a very tricky thing to measure given the number of variables in play. So to just assume it is 10x some unspecified metric is not only uninformative, it’s short sighted.
encounters require a variety of tools and the more classes the more tools at your disposal.
They require certain tools, but I’m not so sure they’re vast enough to even go beyond one profession with the right build. Do you have any examples?
For example, even boon stripping can be done by any profession specced for crit chance with the right gear. I don’t think it a coincidence that Superior Sigil of Nullification has a ten second internal cooldown and the Vale Guardian’s buff occurs every ten seconds. This would only be required if you found yourself in the unlikely circumstances of having no one with a necro, revenant, thief, mesmer, or engineer. Yet as unlikely as that is, Arena Net may have even considered it when balancing the boon strip cooldown.
Let’s not forget this game is balanced around PvP not PvE.
This oft stated claim is not Arena Net’s actual position, nor how they practice their stated position. Their stated position is they balance for all game modes and would prefer they not have to have different versions of skills/traits among them. You need only look at the history of the confusion debuff to see they balance for both game modes. The small DoT effect was not added to please PvP players but to make it a viable damaging condition in PvE, where mobs can attack at variable rates.
Yes and no to that – they want you to bring specific things. Like CCs – regardless of how skilled you are you’re not going to skill your way through a break bar – you will need CCs.
Right, that’s why I included both build and skill, and didn’t say “skill alone”.
If everyone can do everything then the one who does it better wins.
If it were like a race only awarding victory to the first person across the line, yes. It’s not like that.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Because if you balance around the weakest possible team( warrior x 10 might not even be that) then people using the strongest possible team or more optimized variants will just blow through the content with little trouble.
This assumes the gaps are wide between the weakest and the greatest profession comps 1 and that they need to remain this way. It also assumes that Arena Net cannot create scaleable content so even the weakest profession comps can do the content, a suggestion made up thread. It’s Arena Net’s stated goal, and one I agree with, so if it is actually the case that the professions are so far apart that some are undesired something has to give. Either Arena Net’s goals for professions and the raid content, or the current raid implementation; presuming the current implementation is actually is in a state where some professions can’t simply contribute to a successful raid run.
Raids weren’t meant to be played “how you want”-
Right, no one is saying that any build or gear should suffice, but well thought out builds and players with sufficient skill for a particular encounter should succeed.
The problem here is that if they address this by giving more tools to each profession then profession identities become blurred in the extreme.
Funny, I don’t recall these lines being so blurred before the introduction of alacrity. So many professions have access to the same buffs and debuffs yet nary a peep was made about the lines being blurred between professions. I for one don’t identify mesmers by their ability to grant a cooldown reducing buff, but by their illusion crafting. If warriors are someday granted a shout that reduces the cooldowns of their party I’m not going to suddenly confuse them for mesmers or think they aren’t unique enough. Regardless, what makes us think of a class as distinctive is fairly subjective. I think Arena Net can make a variety of skills and still make the professions good enough to complete the content in many unique combinations; and that appears to be the case from some of the Vale Guardian fights I’ve seen.
1 – Where strongest profession comp would be a min-maxed gear/build with the best professions in each role, and weakest comp would be some combination of professions using min-maxed gear/builds for their chosen roles.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
No, that’s a lack of flexibility.
Being exclusionary and how flexible something allows a player to be are not mutually exclusive, in fact, I’d say they are related. How flexible the content is will naturally determine how exclusive it is. So to charge someone with being inflexible doesn’t mean the encounter isn’t exclusionary because of the very nature of the relationship between flexibility and exclusivity.
If you refuse to only play one profession, that is not exclusion. That’s on you.
Composition is as much knowledge based as the actual raid itself. That’s what’s so great about these raids, it checks how much you REALLY know about Guild Wars 2. Not just the raid itself.
This type of demand on flexibility has been unseen before in GW2 (and I contend is still unseen with the current raid). Regardless, your view on what people should be willing to do to enjoy the game’s content is contrary to Arena Net’s stated goals with professions and raids. Pre-release Arena Net published an article called Healing and Death, that described their goals with professions and roles as follows:
[A]ll professions have ways to build their characters differently to make them more versatile for group play. […] You could say instead of DPS/heal/tank, we have our own trinity of damage, support, and control, but we prefer to think of them as the variety of elements that create a diverse and dynamic combat system that gives each player a toolbox to work with to solve any encounter we might throw their way.
This article set the tone for an MMO that wouldn’t require specific professions comps so no one was waiting around for a particular profession, only players willing to try different builds to bring the right tools to an encounter to conquer it. This design philosophy behind professions has continued on with the Revenant:
So far we’ve discussed a legend and weapon set that are focused on defense and survivability, as well as a more condition-focused setup. Now we’ll be going over the healing-focused setup for the revenant. The new legend will offer a supportive playstyle and push the boundaries of healing through skillful play.
In recent articles on raids they’ve stressed that this is their goal with roles in raids with statements like:
Raids in Guild Wars 2 are not about waiting to have fun. You don’t need to wait for your healer to get online. Our build-customization and weapon-swapping systems allow anyone to change their build to meet a particular challenge. And while a warrior might support a group differently than an elementalist would in terms of playstyle, our systems allow you to adjust your team’s composition and strategy to overcome any challenge.
Arena Net continues to advocate for an MMO where all professions have the tools to overcome any encounter. I agree that some professions are better at certain roles, but better does not mean required. If it becomes the case that certain professions are required I feel Arena Net needs to address that situation in the balance patches or with future specializations. For balance patches they can look at the tools the professions already bring to the table for a role and improve them. With specializations they can introduce more tools for the profession so it can do better in a particular role.
Telling players to reroll a much beloved profession isn’t a good answer. It’s in my opinion, needlessly restrictive given how many tools the professions actually have and the number of variables in play; which make an analysis of what is viable tremendously difficult. It’s also not very fun, for me. I have always role played a holy knight archetype character or monk (if they can heal). To suddenly be told by a game after all this time that I can’t play my beloved Charr guardian is a huge slap in the face.
Thankfully Arena Net doesn’t seem to agree with your dismally restrictive idea for raids. While they may or may not have achieved their stated goals, I’m hopeful that they will investigate improving profession viability in the future.
[L]evel up alts that are more effective than others.
I find this to be not only a burden, but against the spirit of a role playing game. Many players choose their profession carefully based on the archetype they like to play (e.g., assassin in the shadows, holy defender, rampaging warrior, etc.), so telling them to reroll a much beloved character they’ve spent time and energy building just to play the new content is pretty excluding.
Thankfully some of the raid fights appear to be forgiving and many comps that some would call “unusual” have completed the first encounter at the very least. I’d rather Arena Net side on more leeway in composition, than essentially forcing people to reroll a character they’ve put so much effort into building, learning, and in some cases, role playing their entire GW 2 lifetime.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Just watch videos of other people doing it if you want the story that badly.
We could do the same for the whole game, yet people don’t. Some people like experiencing the game in character, almost as if taking on the role of a character in the story. There is a whole genre of games about this sort of thing… what were they again? Oh right, RPGs. This is an RPG, so you shouldn’t be surprised people want to see the story first hand with their character.
I’d like a story mode as well.
Congrats! The 1st time in the GW Franchise
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: SirMoogie.9263
And judging from what’s in the game with legendary weapons and ascended weapons, it’s logical to conclude you can have multiple sets of ascended for the price of a legendary. You’re not going to need every single stat set in the game, even with raids.
At least you switched from defending stat swapping to “you can have bags full of alternate gear, like the good ol’ days of mmo raiding”. That’s certainly progress.
You’re correct this will be cheaper under around three-sets (by my rough mental estimate, and considering we don’t know the cost of legendary armor). Still would be nicer and more valuable if we didn’t have to devote a bag to all our alternative clothes.
A nice clean UI like PvP would be great.
Congrats! The 1st time in the GW Franchise
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: SirMoogie.9263
Ascended has the same stats. Ergo its’ one of the end game gears.
Well in most MMOs you’d be right, but Arena Net has added extra value to this particular item with statistic swapping. If you recall, way back when Arena Net was discussing the concept of healing in MMOs they said things like this:
[A]ll professions have ways to build their characters differently to make them more versatile for group play. […] You could say instead of DPS/heal/tank, we have our own trinity of damage, support, and control, but we prefer to think of them as the variety of elements that create a diverse and dynamic combat system that gives each player a toolbox to work with to solve any encounter we might throw their way.
They continue to support this message with statements like:
Raids in Guild Wars 2 are not about waiting to have fun. You don’t need to wait for your healer to get online. Our build-customization and weapon-swapping systems allow anyone to change their build to meet a particular challenge. And while a warrior might support a group differently than an elementalist would in terms of playstyle, our systems allow you to adjust your team’s composition and strategy to overcome any challenge.
Due to the versatility of professions to take on one or more of these roles to different degrees, and the need of stat sets to be better at some of them, it’s natural to conclude a versatile set of armor that can switch stats to match the role you’re taking on would be more valuable than one that is only conducive to one role and not the others (e.g., condi damage vs direct damage).
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Congrats! The 1st time in the GW Franchise
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: SirMoogie.9263
I said it’s the same stats.
You act like this is in question, it is not. A lot of people perceive stat swapping as valuable, and even more so now that certain roles are required in specific encounters.
It’s cheap enough to convert ascended armor now.
Depending on runes and sigils it can be quite costly (or grindy) without an even more costly upgrade extractor. Regardless, it ranges anywhere from inconvenient to near impossible depending on circumstances. If you want to switch your build mid-raid, for example, you cannot just hop on over to the mystic toilet and get new stats. You have to have two sets of armor on you or a very patient group.
Any reason given for this yet?
I’m sure they’re fixing the fact that, even after completing it, subsequent bacon tastings continued to reward 10k+ experience.
You’re not allowed to have your experience. No sir. That goes against the ToS.
Except if it’s central Tyria, which they no longer care about.
Does condi transfer work on it? Oh my!
Not too sure why youre defending this.
I am not defending it. I want the kitten glider. I’m explaining it.
This method is just silly and really just split up bundles – it benefits no one
The risks are small. Few (if any) will quit the game over this tactic. Many will buy the bundle out of fear the individual components won’t hit the store eventually. From a business perspective all I see is lots to gain with little risk.
and why would a company want to again like what skullfaerie said – annoy its player/customers.
They don’t, but if they can keep them on, while squeezing a few extra bucks out of them here or there with a sales tactic with little risk, they will..
Great way to lose customers.
I have seen no one threaten to quit over this, let alone evidence that they have actually stopped playing. I have only seen complaints of what they want, which I fully support and have stated myself.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Nobody is disputing how this works or the reasoning applied in the decision to implement it…..
Great! Then please be a holdout and not an early adopter ;-)
I just don’t think it’s a good tactic to annoy customers through marketing tricks forcing them to purchase things that are unwanted in order to obtain the things they do want,
It is your perception that this is forced they are counting on.
when they could instead be attracting custom by offering quality items users would be willing to purchase without being coerced into it by a sales tactic.
They can get those people who refuse to be “coerced” later (if they prove sizable enough). Right now let them get those who want everything in the bundle or those who want that one thing and are willing to spend more money on it than similar products on the store. After netting most of the population they can move onto those who will spend 700 gems for a glider. And after that those who will spend 350-ish gems on a glider on sale.
I dont know – i mean have they released bundled items before separately?
The style bundles are a relatively new addition to the store and previous bundles have been smaller in their offerings. We’ll have to wait and see, but if you want these separate I recommend voicing displeasure with the sales tactic, voicing the item you want, and not buying the bundle.
I cant recall them doing anything of the sort (i could be wrong) but releasing it now or later doesnt really make much difference
Of course it does. They nab the kids who take the marshmallow.
Feels smarter business-wise to give people options from the get go.
That would depend on the what they anticipate the player base to do. If they know there is a market of holdouts who will refuse to buy the bundle, but would buy a comparatively priced glider or costume skin separately, they can nab those customers after they nab those who must have the item now and are willing to get it as part of a bundle. They could release it now, but then they chance losing money on those customers who only want an individual component, but also want that component so much they will splurge on the bundle. Risks to this approach include:
- The holdouts leaving the game before the individual component comes to the market.
- The holdouts finding another skin they like more and not buying the component when it comes to market
- Players eventually accruing enough in game currency to buy the bundle without paying real world cash (unlikely as bundles leave the store fairly quickly)
- Players being so upset by this tactic they quit the game (I don’t find this likely either)
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
These will probably become separate items later.
I hope so, because that’s the only way my wallet will want to get them.
Good. That attitude will only ensure they do this to finally net the market of holdouts.
These will probably become separate items later. This is a sales tactic to get people to spend more money earlier to get that cool item they want in the bundle. They will eventually separate them to get the hold outs who would have spent money on the item outside the bundle. However, we should still voice our displeasure and intent to hold out as it may make them separate them sooner, rather than later.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Regrettably, this event has a high chance of bugging. I have reported it several times since launch and have never seen it fixed.
Why do you say Tangled Depths has horrid map design?
It isn’t clear if they were talking about the meta or the literal labyrinthine design to the map. Personally, I enjoy a good exploration puzzle and love that they added an underwater cavern to the map that can get to to all corners of it unhindered by the maze (could use some events down there, but alas underwater combat seems to be on the back burner). The map has all the tools for players to get it done once they reach the way points and solve the exploration puzzle.
I think the meta is almost well designed on this map. It follows a pattern much like Verdant Brink. Each outpost tells a story that eventually culminates in protecting a weapon that will blow kitten into Dragon’s Stand. The problem for me is the outpost events usually finish a long time before the follow up Chak Gerent, because everything must run on a schedule instead of a natural flow events. My second problem is there is no natural back and forth, only going forward. Once we complete an escort and claim territory we can never lose it, only stop progressing forward.
My favorite meta-event from central Tyria is in Straits of Devastation. It follows a similar design to Dragon’s Stand, except that it doesn’t force a schedule and has a natural back and forth feeling to the conflict. There isn’t a hard-reset to the encounter if you win or lose.
I remember when they said player action would matter:
Colin Johanson: “Cause and effect: A single decision made by a player cascades out in a chain of events.”
Nope. Everything now just trudges forward toward the goal. If it makes it there in time and succeeds, it resets to the beginning. If it doesn’t, it resets to the beginning too. It’s been this way for a while now. Silverwastes operates this way. Dry Top is, logistically, an incoherent mess, just disconnected events happening all the time on a schedule. The Megaservers introduced a boss schedule and added timers to many of the world bosses.
At release for the original game there were several events that operated as a chain of cause in effect and had events that if failed, would push the event back a step (e.g., Straights of devastation). Now this idea of cause and effect seems to be yet another promise of the manifesto trampled upon.
The enrage mechanic is very important. Without it a group of ten tanky healers can tear down the boss in an hour by hitting 1 while watching a tv series. ;-)
That is not the kind of skillful play which is wanted in raids.
You haven’t watched a video of the raids or played them as this is simply not the case with all the insta-wipe mechanics and need for DPS to prevent many of them.
Really?
Because most hardcore players don’t care about that – some of them do and some of them went to the challenge of doing AC p1 naked – but most didn’t. Because for most this type of “make pretend” hard mode isn’t actually what they were looking for.
And again, no one is saying they should just be satisfied with this. Should I have someone skywrite it above your house for you?
I’m not inventing anything – I’m illustrating how people – a lot of people I know feel.
You feel they are confused individuals who cannot understand a concept such as difficulty levels? You either associate with people who don’t play many games or you don’t think very highly of those you associate with.
Hell – I would feel better if there was one thing I could do and nobody else could.
And let us assume you were such a special snowflake and raid content was tuned such that your awesome skills could only complete it. Many players would acknowledge you for such a feat, but they would also have their easier mode that they’d recognize as being easier. And you being a, presumably, intelligent individual would recognize theirs was the easier mode. Conversations in this world would not go as you phrased because gamers are not the idiots you paint them to be and understand things like difficulty levels.
Regardless of the fact that they were missing content. It’s an ego trip – it makes you feel proud that you can do something someone else can’t.
And you are still. You are doing the more difficult version of the content.
Difficulty levels -that’s one thing – but from what I understand Raids are imagined as having ONE difficulty level where you can either complete or you can’t.
Yes. that is how they are imagined now, but they can change. Feedback could make that happen, just as feedback during the CDIs led to the creation of raids.
Raids are hardcore content. I’d rather ANet not spend time and effort on making a story mode but rather focus on new content.
The raid wing in this game is hardcore content at the moment, but that could change, hence the request. I would rather Arena Net develop a system that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of MMOs whose stories I followed, but quickly became locked out of. Those MMOs have now switched it so that there are difficulty levels, but I’m well past interested in them now. If Arena Net gets it right now, they have the framework to build upon it in the future content, rather than bleeding customers who actually care about experiencing the story, but can’t. Again, presuming there is story to be had here.
If what you’re saying would be true then the truly hardcore would have been satisfied with running dungeons ( content everyone can complete) in “hard mode” – doing solos, duos, trios or naked runs.
And they were, as evidenced by the list of youtube videos demonstrating many of these exact feats for people to adulate over.
For a small part of the hardcore crowd this was enough – but for most it isn’t.
And the point you keep missing is no one here is asking them to be satisfied with just that.
Look at the example:
“I did AC with no gear on”
“So what – I did AC too”Compare it to this:
“I did the Raid”
“….” – because this person didn’t do the raid.
In this fictitious universe where people are limited to two phrases in any discussion, I agree this would be very irritating. Thankfully, we aren’t limited by the confines of your imagination. The conversation could have easily gone like this:
Player A: My awesome guild just completed the first raid wing on hard mode.
Player B Wow, that’s impressive, we’ve only been able to get through story mode, but we’re still trying hard mode.
Player A: That’s good too, just keep practicing. You’re a person I respect and it pleases me that you get to enjoy this awesome new content in your own way.
Player B: Gee swell thanks, you aren’t like those other elitist kitten that just called us newbs and spit on our corpses.
Player A: Yeah the Guild Wars community has gotten a bit toxic lately. It’s almost as if people have an innate desire to separate themselves into groups and primitively insult each other for petty differences between them.
Okay, I embellished a little bit. It’s so easy to get out of hand when you’re literally inventing what people say ;-)
This more definitive – it’s clear, it’s cut and dry – there are no ifs and buts. You did it or you didn’t. And this is what they’re going for with Raids atm.
You are literally suggesting that gamers would be confused by the concept of difficulty levels. Most gamers would understand the distinction between someone playing through something on normal, hard, nightmare, and “bucket of tears” levels. These options are so pervasive in games that, well… I can’t even.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Bad players and those with entitlement issues are.
Nonsense. You can also be a good player who actually cares about the experiences of others in your community. I’m part of the lore community, so I enjoy talking about the lore with others. I would like all my chums to experience the story, regardless of skill level. A difficulty level would be great.
Considering other games with multiple raid tiers have a tiny raid population compared to the whole its not worth it here for a raid.
The vast majority of WoW players disagree. That game is basically built around eventually funneling people into raids. They even have a PUG raid finder now. It is the most successful MMO out there and routinely makes #1 on MMO lists. Hardly a tiny raid population.
“No one loses” How about the dev time required to build and balance the new tiers. And they still wont be inclusive to the majority of the player base.
This is a fair point, but doesn’t have a lot of substance backing it. No one here knows the time it would take them to balance a lower difficulty mode and how that time could be better spent. I imagine balancing it wouldn’t be as difficult as you make it seem if they removed the #1 stumbling block, enrage timers and limited the awards.
If this is to be the ground work for future content, best they start now than walking down this path and realizing they made the same mistakes other top selling MMOs have made and have since undone.
and before someone complains about paying customers….you got EXACTLY what they said they had in store for you.
This is irrelevant. The OP and others didn’t want this and are asking for a different mode. They are asking for a change, which is fair. If people didn’t ask for changes you wouldn’t have got raids to being with. Arena Net encourages people to give feedback. Recall the CDIs? Raids are one such result of those.
Because ANET decided not to. Also rumor has it the beta raid was harder.
So your reason for wanting to not have this mode is because Arena Net decided not to. Great. So you’d be for it they decided to add it. Great. So you really have no reasonable objections, you just like what Arena Net decides to do it seems.
Becasue everything in this game is already geared towards casuals. What else do you want. Hardcore players have nothing.
You’re just willfully ignoring the points put forward to you at this point. We’ve retread this ground up thread.
WoW has four different difficulties of raids and finally killing a difficult boss in Mythic feels much less exciting because you’ve already done it three other times by that point. It’s also exhausting. Often times you feel forced to clear multiple raids on multiple characters to maximize your rewards.
The original poster is not proposing that players have to complete Story mode to do Hard Mode. Any players that spoil themselves in the story mode have themselves to blame.
They specifically said at one point that they would not include a hard mode/normal mode structure in the game.
I believe they were probably referring to something like they had in Guild Wars. Regardless, they also said at one point they wouldn’t have raids, that there would be content releases every two weeks, and there would be no gear tiers beyond exotics. These things all changed due to community feedback.
I mean – where’s the point of doing a raid if the rewards aren’t special and if it’s as easy as the old dungeons?
That you don’t appreciate the story, role playing a character through story steps, or fighting new encounters with different, but less challenging, mechanics doesn’t mean others don’t.
People do something for the challenge once or twice – after that they farm it.
If they went with this Raids would become a farmfest – it would be a PR disaster and the community uproar would be huge.
Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria would surely ensue… ahem
Then they could not allow that. The biggest draw to raids reward wise is likely the legendary gear. They could just not allow that to be acquired by story mode raiders.
I agree with the original poster. I don’t really care about loot, but I do care about experiencing the story and bosses. If there was a story mode available to ensure I could witness these things in character, I would love it in case my guild cannot do these encounters as they are currently balanced. I do like that there is such challenging content for my guild to try, but a back up plan would be great.
The issue that comes with this are that the normal mode spoils the hard mode’s experience. FFXIV’s latest raid for example has a story mode and a hard mode. Once people did story mode, hard mode is just meh since yes there are more mechanics but the gist is there already.
I fail to see the issue here, if it is a choice. If one is required to unlock the other, then that makes sense. The OP is suggesting a choice hard or easy mode. If players think easy mode will ruin their hardmode experience they have the option of not doing it.
Second thing from what I recall is that the casuals are never really satisfied, people have argued mechanics are new things and having unique and harder mechanics in hard mode raid is unfair blah blah blah and there are a lot of whining.
Come off your high horse. This other player identifying as casual (not a bad thing), is telling you what would satisfy them. To tell them they won’t be satisfied after this is a bit much.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Somehow I’d like to make condi work since I’m really bored with berserker’s meta. Just I’m less and less convinced that mesmer is proper class to go condi. AlphatheWhite have you ran the raid with any of hybrid/condi build you have posted before on forums?
I’m not sure about proper, but it is viable:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3tcwav/killed_vale_gaurdian_as_a_pug_may_be_helpful/
The build was not posted.
That’s called power creep my friend and no rogue stacks agility because it was going to make their dodge chance go up, it was to make bigger yellow numbers splat on their screens.
Your challenge wasn’t to name another game given these restrictions. :-P
Can anyone tell me of another game were you have defense stats as a DPS? Because I can’t think of one.s
WoW and Old Replublic have armor sets for their DPS classes that increase their lifepools, their resistances to certain effects, and some of their attributes serve both offense and defense (e.g., agility increases a rogue’s attack damage and their ability to dodge). AFAIK, there actually isn’t something equivalent to berserker’s in those games (i.e., sacrificing all defensive stats for offense).
However, these are different games with different systems. Since there is no concept of active dodging/blocking the defensive stats have to be there whenever enemies are made stronger, less DPS fall to the floor every time the boss sneezes.
(edited by SirMoogie.9263)
Yeah a AMA would be nice. Pre-HoT the lack of communication was understandable, they were busy making HoT. Now that HoT is over there’d hopefully be sometime for this.
That “understanding” only leads to them saying they are too busy to talk about HoT because they are busy working on LS 3 (or the next big thing). Perhaps more community managers are needed? One who interacts specifically with the writing team and knows the lore would be nice.