Guild Wars 2

Apparently ANET like moving my threads without letting me know. Joy.

Anyways, added Huntsforge to the mix. Just the two entrants which is pretty disappointing and as things stand its not looking good. Oh well, at least I tried giving away my gold!

Added Huntsforge as an entrant.

Couple more weeks to go and only two entrants! Have to be in it to win it, as they say!

Haha, welcome on board!

Bonus Round!

If this is against the rules of the forum I apologise! I shall remove this post and link to a GW2 Reddit post.

I have played a few MMOs in my time, most small and unheard of, and have nothing to show for my time spent in them and so I figure I can be cheeky and use GW2 Gold to get some more great art out of you talented people! Rules are as above, using the second album link below which has screenshots taken from a couple of other MMOs that I have fond memories of.

Click HERE for the Bonus Round Album

The Prizes

1st Place: 950 Gold.
2nd Place: 125 Gold & TWO extra Raffle entries.
3rd Place: ONE extra Raffle entry.

Note that these raffle entries given as prizes here are valid for all entrants, including those that place 1st-3rd in the main competition. Prizes will be given out providing that there are more than five valid entries.

The competition will end: 21st September 2017 (although I reserve the right to extend)

[Too long, get to the point!: Art competition, rules below, GOLD prizes, bonus competition.]

Prologue

I am Sylvari explorer Thereon Avenrise. I have traversed the highest of mountains, delved into the deepest of caves. I have stood side by side with the greatest fighters in all of Tyria. I have spent my life defending those that cannot defend themselves. But slowly I came to realise that my adventuring days were over. Remembering times of old I asked artists from all over Tyria to recreate my adventuring days of old. I received many masterpieces and after a short time crowed the winners. With the grand event over I left and to find some peace amongst the forest.

One year later, having returned to the dreadful tales of Mordremoth and the worrying discovery of Balthazar walking amongst us, I feel the need to lend my hand in the battle of good against unknown evil. My fighting days are long over, my weapons mounted to the walls of my homestead becoming one with the structure as I have become one with the forest. But a wise Asuran friend once told me “You need insurance, Miss Avenrise…. against the ills that could threaten your ways” and so I put some rare materials into a secure vault for such a catastrophic event. I have a frightful feeling that such ills are about to present themselves and so I hereby declare that I will free up my resources to all those that deem themselves worthy of them.

In the face of extreme danger calmness must take precedence. I see no better way to become one with thyself than with the creation of art and so, with the days counting down until the return to The Crystal Desert, I propose the SECOND Great Art Competition.

The Competition!

I quit playing GW2 a long time ago and realised that I had a lot left on my account. I ran an art competition (original thread HERE) to give away everything I owned and left the game with some amazing artwork for my gold, gems and items. Shortly after that I realised I hadn’t checked my mule guild banks- I found that the mats I kept for future equipment were now worth a lot. So… another competition anyone!?

I have posted a series of screenshots to an Imgur account linked below and it is your task to use what you can see in addition to the added rules to create a visual masterpiece! This could make a great solo project or an even greater guild event in the run up to the next expansion and I encourage everyone to participate no matter how skilled you think you are.

Click HERE for the Imgur Screenshot Album

The Prizes

1st Place: 2000 Gold.
2nd Place: 1000 Gold.
3rd Place: 500 Gold.

Raffle: 225 Gold. (This will go to an entrant chosen at random from all qualifying entries except 1st-3rd places).

I understand that not everyone is convinced of their artistic talent but I encourage all to try, even just for the chance of the raffle prize! Prizes will be given out as promptly as possible at the end of the competition (note the 500g/week mail cap). For proof of Gold see the Imgur album… plus I fully paid the previous competition prizes!

The competition will end: 21st September 2017, one day before the Path of Fire launch. Good luck!

Entrants

1) sithious (via email).
2) Huntsforge (via email).

With less than three weeks left I hoped for some more entrants by this point! Come earn some precious gold before the expansion hits…if you’re currently not in game and are awaiting the new content what have you got to lose?!

(As a reminder, no prizes will be paid out if there are less than five entrants.)

Just the one entrant so far, with a couple of other interested partys sketching away… feel free to join in!

No matter how good or bad you think you are, what have you got to lose? Theoretically, even if it was the worse, most eye-scratchingly terrible picture it’s only me that’s going to see it!

Faizu.8125:

you’re back! raise hand i wanna join again~!!

“I hereby proclaim that you should enter again!”- King Zibbidy, Lord of the Zods.

Gentleman.9637:

So what I’ve gathered is that we just create whatever comes to mind from seeing these screenshots, or do you have a particular theme in mind?
This is too tempting to not try

Apologies for not replying sooner- the submission must be showing my character. Everything else- the location/setting, the pose, the type of artwork is up to you providing they don’t show anything that is part of the expansions. I quit before Thorns came out.

I have made some clarifications to the rules in the Imgur screenshot folder.

Feel free to discuss here or ask any questions, i’ll try to answer ASAP.

Bonus Round!

If this is against the rules of the forum I apologise! I shall remove this post and link to a GW2 Reddit post.

I have played a few MMOs in my time, most small and unheard of, and have nothing to show for my time spent in them and so I figure I can be cheeky and use GW2 Gold to get some more great art out of you talented people! Rules are as above, using the second album link below which has screenshots taken from a couple of other MMOs that I have fond memories of.

Click HERE for the Bonus Round Album

The Prizes

1st Place: 950 Gold.
2nd Place: 125 Gold & TWO extra Raffle entries.
3rd Place: ONE extra Raffle entry.

Note that these raffle entries given as prizes here are valid for all entrants, including those that place 1st-3rd in the main competition. Prizes will be given out providing that there are more than five valid entries.

The competition will end: 21st September 2017 (although I reserve the right to extend)

[Too long, get to the point!: Art competition, rules below, GOLD prizes, bonus competition.]

Prologue

I am Sylvari explorer Thereon Avenrise. I have traversed the highest of mountains, delved into the deepest of caves. I have stood side by side with the greatest fighters in all of Tyria. I have spent my life defending those that cannot defend themselves. But slowly I came to realise that my adventuring days were over. Remembering times of old I asked artists from all over Tyria to recreate my adventuring days of old. I received many masterpieces and after a short time crowed the winners. With the grand event over I left and to find some peace amongst the forest.

One year later, having returned to the dreadful tales of Mordremoth and the worrying discovery of Balthazar walking amongst us, I feel the need to lend my hand in the battle of good against unknown evil. My fighting days are long over, my weapons mounted to the walls of my homestead becoming one with the structure as I have become one with the forest. But a wise Asuran friend once told me “You need insurance, Miss Avenrise…. against the ills that could threaten your ways” and so I put some rare materials into a secure vault for such a catastrophic event. I have a frightful feeling that such ills are about to present themselves and so I hereby declare that I will free up my resources to all those that deem themselves worthy of them.

In the face of extreme danger calmness must take precedence. I see no better way to become one with thyself than with the creation of art and so, with the days counting down until the return to The Crystal Desert, I propose the SECOND Great Art Competition.

The Competition!

I quit playing GW2 a long time ago and realised that I had a lot left on my account. I ran an art competition (original thread HERE) to give away everything I owned and left the game with some amazing artwork for my gold, gems and items. Shortly after that I realised I hadn’t checked my mule guild banks- I found that the mats I kept for future equipment were now worth a lot. So… another competition anyone!?

I have posted a series of screenshots to an Imgur account linked below and it is your task to use what you can see in addition to the added rules to create a visual masterpiece! This could make a great solo project or an even greater guild event in the run up to the next expansion and I encourage everyone to participate no matter how skilled you think you are.

Click HERE for the Imgur Screenshot Album

The Prizes

1st Place: 2000 Gold.
2nd Place: 1000 Gold.
3rd Place: 500 Gold.

Raffle: 225 Gold. (This will go to an entrant chosen at random from all qualifying entries except 1st-3rd places).

I understand that not everyone is convinced of their artistic talent but I encourage all to try, even just for the chance of the raffle prize! Prizes will be given out as promptly as possible at the end of the competition (note the 500g/week mail cap). For proof of Gold see the Imgur album… plus I fully paid the previous competition prizes!

The competition will end: 21st September 2017, one day before the Path of Fire launch. Good luck!

Entrants

1) sithious (via email).
2) Huntsforge (via email).

Apologies for the hold-up. Had a few family matters to deal with. Prizes will re-commence shortly.

Back from vacation and will start distributing the remaining prizes shortly!

All but two submissions have been posted to the Imgur album including all the prize winners. The link is in the post above this and at the top of the thread.

Many thanks all.

Click HERE to view the submissions for the Great GW2 Art Competition.

I have included all entrants that have so far given me permission to post. I’ll update as I get more confirmations.

Prize schedule(remaining):
Week 5: 1st prize 500g
Week 6: 1st prize 100g

Paid:
Week 1: 1st place instalment #1, Raffle 1+2 fully paid.
Week 2: 1st place instalment #2, 2nd place gem items sent, 3rd place fully paid.
Week 3: 2nd place fully paid.
Week 4: 1st place instalment #3

Edit: Week 4 complete.

Ladies and Gentlemen. The time is upon us where we announce the winners and not-so-winners of the Great GW2 Art Competition. The results have been decided and the emails/messages have been sent. So that leaves just two more things to do:

First off I wish to thank everyone who took part. Going was slow to start off with and I did worry at one point that we wouldn’t get enough submissions to make this a fair competition. But in the end I have seen many great pieces of artwork from so many talented people. I know, ultimately, most of you did this for the gold but at the end of the day whether you have won something or not you should all be proud of yourselves and carry on showing that talent.

So with the thanks out of the way I am pleased to announce the winners!:

1st Place: winning 2000 Gold: Correllis!
2nd Place: winning 6000 Gems worth of gold or the Skin Pack: Heliotrope!
3rd Place: winning Gem Gold/Skin Pack: NefyFeiri!

Raffle 1: winning ‘a cool 350g’: Gendo!
Raffle 2: winning Dragons Jade, Cavalier Skin & 100g: SunnyVisions!

I have messaged and emailed everyone that entered with instructions on how to proceed along with asking permission to post their entries on an Imgur album. I will post the link when I start getting replies!

So thank you everyone, it has been a pleasure (if a little exhausting this afternoon/evening). Any questions feel free to message/email me or post here.

Dan.

Entries received from(in no particular order):

Teaniel (via email)
Toshinyan (via email)
NefyFeiri (via email)
LareaKei (via email)
Correllis (via email)
Gendo (via email)
Munchywheats (via email)
Chunq (via Reddit PM)
Sunnyvisions (via GW2 PM)
Heliotrope (via Reddit PM)
Faizu (via email)
Faux (via email)
HuntsForge (via email – sorry!)

If you think I have missed any entries please let me know via PM.

The competition is officially over! Many thanks to everyone that has made submissions. I shall be meeting with ‘the panel’ (couple of non-gaming mates) this afternoon with the aim of posting the result this evening (CET).

What I will say is that because this is a competition there will be some that have put in a huge amount of effort but ultimately walk away disappointed. I thank you all for your submissions- there are some extremely talented people out there and you should not take this result as a reflection on your skill. There have to be winners, there have to be those that do not win.

All I can say is good luck to all those that took part and many thanks for your contributions. Thereon would be pleased to hang any of these pieces of art in her little forest homestead!

The end of today I shall throw a message to all of the winners asking them what they would rather me do. It’s completely up to them if they would like to wait for the gold, accept gem store items or mats/items they can then sell themselves. Having checked the prices of ascended crafting mats this would probably be much easier as they are high cost and can stack but as I say, their choice.

Okay so the last day is upon us! There’s some info you all need to know:

1) Competition closes at midnight tomorrow CET time, give or take an hour or so.
2) Judging will take place Sunday afternoon (CET), results posted on here and on the Reddit page.
3) I shall message all of the winners in game and via the platform you used to submit your entry(Reddit PM, GW2 PM, Email) to make sure I can send with no issues. No need to be online, it will just be a test message. I will also ask permission to post your entry.

Prizes
Now this is the REALLY tricky part. ANET have a 500g cap on sending gold so this means the prizes may take their time to get to you. I have submitted a support ticket asking if there is any way ANET can help but in the likely event that they cannot this will be the plan:

Week 1: 1st prize 400g, 3rd prize skins, Raffle2 skins+100g
Week 2: 1st prize 500g
Week 4: 2nd prize 500g
Week 5: 1st prize 150g, Raffle1 350g
Week 6: 1st prize 500g
Week 7: 2nd prize remaining gold
Week 8: 1st prize 450g

Week 1 will commence 27th June. I am on holiday Week 3, hence the missing number. I know two months is crazy but it’s the best I can do unless you would be willing to accept items (ascended crafting mats?) to the value of your prize, assuming you can send these through the mail.

So last day everyone! Thanks for taking part, there are some creative people out there!

That’s correct, this Saturday at midnight(+1 hour or so- I’m not going to slam the door shut if you submit something a few minutes past the hour!)

We have news everyone! After a couple of submissions last night we now have enough submissions to ‘unlock’….yeh, I can’t carry on with this ’I’m the almighty gift-giver’ thing any longer. You lot are awesome and deserve more things so the second Raffle prize is now available to a randomly picked submission that hasn’t placed 1st-3rd or claimed the other Raffle prize:

ONE Dragons Jade skin of your choice, ONE Cavalier Skin of your choice & 100g

I’ll also bump the other raffle prize up to 350g.

Thanks everyone!

Wow okay so with four days to go I’ve had a look and we’re ONE ENTRY AWAY from the second, secret raffle prize! To refresh your memory the raffle prize will go to a random entry from all the submissions except 1st-3rd place. Well, who would like a second random chance at a prize?!

Four days to give me an answer with a single more submission :p

Four more days ladies and gentlemen!

Haha the more entries the better! Looking forward to the submissions in the final week!

Sounds good, looking forward to seeing it!

So everyone….THE FINAL WEEK! I am ‘indisposed’ this weekend so many not be around to answer questions but Sunday evening i’ll check on my messages and next week I shall be doing a countdown until the deadline!

Just ten more days to go! Looking forward to some late submissions!

Couple more entries this week but still below the second raffle prize! Come on people..its like you’re allergic to Gold or something! :p

So at this moment in time, being that 1st-3rd places cannot win the raffle (which is a completely random draw BTW), if you submit an entry by the deadline you have a huge chance of winning something!

What’s the worst that can happen? Submit your entries by the deadline for your chance to win!

Okay so my mind cannot switch off this evening so lets just post now!

Update 1
We have had a couple more submissions and two who have said that they will enter. So I am happy to say that, as it stands, I’m happy to announce that the prizes are locked in. There is still the matter of the second raffle prize so I would still encourage all those who are still pondering to submit before the deadline!

Update 2
Speaking of which, it seems as though I’m going to have to go back on my word. The weekend of the 18th June has been chosen as the farewell party for a work colleague of mine. As a result I cannot guarantee I’m going to be in any fit state to get together with ‘The Panel’ and make some logical judgements! Apologies all but the new deadline will therefore be one week later on 25th June, the usual time.

Update 3
I have had a couple of people ask me for close up shots of Thereon so I have posted new screenshots into the Imgur album, below the ‘proof’ screenies. Please be aware that this will not give new entries ANY advantage over those already submitted. If I were looking for a perfect reproduction I’d just stick with the screenshots!

Extras
A reminder that you may submit more than one piece so long as it is unique and unlike your original submission(s). I shall also be advertising a little more this weekend.

My apologies again for the lack of updates this week- things have got a little crazy in my new job/role. Any questions feel free to ask and I shall try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!

I shall make a proper post tomorrow when I’m a little more lucid (loooong week) but thanks all for your submissions and with just over two weeks to go I think we may just have a competition on out hands! (good job as I really didnt want to start handing out measly ‘compensation’ gold).

Still, more tomorrow. Happy hunting (and creating!) Tyrians!

I’ve decided to extend the competition until Saturday 18th June at 11:59pm CET with the final decision made on the Sunday. After this point if we do not have enough entries (five) I will look to compensate those that have already entered with some form of in game payment.

Please note you are welcome to enter multiple times and each piece of art will be judged separately. However please make each piece somewhat different…just recolouring a piece you’ve already submitted doesn’t exactly qualify!

That would be great, thanks NefyFeiri. I’m may extend the competition by a week or so as we’ve currently not got enough entrants for this to be any kind of competition. Obviously dont want to seem like I’m changing the rules….but it would make it a little easier for those to get their entries in on time. I’ll have a think about it in the next week.

Thanks for showing interest though, much appreciated. As far as size is concerned…the larger the better? Ideally looking for something I can maybe get printed on canvas and put on my wall one day!

Apologies for the late reply- been a busy week! Honestly feel free to be creative. I have no preferences at all so long as my character Thereon is there somewhere! Thanks for the kind words as well but truth is I left a long time ago. Fooled myself into thinking I could play two MMOs at once….now I play none!

Any more questions from yourself or anyone else feel free to ask…19 more days to go!

Some more interest this week but if anyone would like to do a little advertising within their servers/guild that would certainly help us reach that second ‘raffle tier’.

Hey Hahnchen, thanks for the input! There is already a Reddit thread up (address below) and I’ve had some interest on there as well. If I’m honest I’ve never used Tumblr…will check it out during the week to see if it will help. Certainly won’t hurt, I guess!

Reddit Thread

Well this just got moved to a less prominent forum….not sure I agree but what can I do?

If you have any questions feel free to ask them here or PM me and I will reply ASAP. Please avoid all unnecessary spam or hurtful comments and please note that I reserve the right to make changes to the rules or stop the competition completely if I see any abuses occurring.

The Rules.

Only entries meeting the following criteria will be accepted:

1) Submit your work either by sending me a private message with a link or sending directly to thepandacollective@gmail.com (If you want to check my credentials as a veteran player I ran an awful Youtube channel with the same name back in the day). Please include your GW2 account name with your submission.

2) Please do not post your entry in this thread as this may deter others from entering but of course feel free to discuss the competition and ask any questions. I will do my best to respond promptly. With permission from the entrant I will post the winning entries when the results are known.

3) Please submit the final image that you wish to be judged without watermarks please. When submitting you agree that you may not be one of the lucky winners and therefore may receive nothing for your submission. If you are including a signature please make it non-intrusive.

4) The larger the size the better but a minimum of A4 sized if drawn by hand. Any art form accepted so long as my character is clearly seen .

5) You may choose to use the background information from the screenshots, remove the background altogether or input a background of your choosing. If you are using your imagination please do not include any items/locations that appear in the latest expansion as I have never played the content.

The competition will end: Saturday 25th June at 11:59pm CET. ‘Judging’ will take place the day after with the winner announced Sunday evening on this thread and Reddit. Good luck!

The Prizes

1st Place: 2000 Gold.
2nd Place: 6000 Gems worth of gold or the Skin Pack listed below.
3rd Place: Whichever prize hasn’t been claimed from 2nd Place.

Raffle 1: A cool 350g. This will go to an entrant chosen at random from all qualifying entries except 1st-3rd places). If I get 10+ entrants I will add a second raffle prize which will be announced if it happens!

Raffle 2: ONE Dragons Jade skin of your choice, ONE Cavalier Skin of your choice & 100g.

Skin Pack: One Desert Rose backpack, three Super Short Bow(blue), one Super Greatsword(blue), one Super Shield(blue), one Super Sword(blue), one Tormented Greatsword and one Tormented Axe. Worth at time of writing: 760g(b) to 1000g(s)

Judging the entries will be myself and two of my non-gamer friends. We shall be primarily looking at effort above all else. I understand that not everyone is convinced of their artistic talent but I encourage all to try.

Prizes will be given out promptly at the end of the competition (note the 500g/week mail cap). Being that there are large sums involved I have been in contact with an ANET representative and they have given a thumbs-up.

For all proof please see final two screenshots of the Imgur Album!

[THIS COMPETITION IS OFFICIALLY OVER]

Click HERE to view the submissions for the Great GW2 Art Competition.

Prologue
I am Sylvari explorer Thereon Avenrise. I have traversed the highest of mountains, delved into the deepest of caves. I have fought dragons from the deepest, darkest depths of depravity. A mighty Frostfang was forged with my blood, sweat and tears. More tears were shed when I let her go. But slowly I came to realise that my adventuring days were over.

I retired to a quaint little homestead in the forest, away from the hustle and danger that I used to actively seek. Life is good except…every now and then. Not often, just now and again….I remember times of old. The questing, the battling, the friendships and the constant and yet strangely alluring danger.

This is an open invitation to all citizens of Tyria. I invite anyone who is willing to take up the challenge to sit down with me, hear my stories of old and create works of art like no other that will evoke passion and excitement, and enable my memories to live on long after I am gone. In exchange you shall have my undying gratitude…and my hard earned riches!

The Competition!
So let’s get to the point! I quit playing GW2 a long time ago and recently realised that I had a lot of gold, gems and items left on my account. So without further ado… I propose an artistic competition! I have posted a series of screenshots to an Imgur account linked below and it is your task to use what you can see in addition to the added rules listed below to create a masterpiece! This could make a great solo project or a great guild event and I encourage everyone to participate no matter how skilled you are at being artistic!

Click here for the Imgur Screenshot Album!

FenrirSlakt.3692:

So far all I can see are assumptions, conjectures and suppositions.

Im giving my opinions based on nearly two years of playing GW2. While I would never call myself an expert I can at least form a semi-accurate prediction of whats to come based on what has already occurred.

The point of my post is to highlight the fact that ive realised that complaining is futile. ANET have a plan and are doing what they see as best. Whether we think differently or agree with them really does not matter one iota. Do I think this is the right way to run a MMO? Definitely not but me coming onto these forums and moaning will not change things. They are solid in their convictions and will either succeed and make GW2 the most solid MMO of this generation or they will run it into the ground. I truly believe its the latter but talk is meaningless.

*tl;dr:’ Moaning about issues within GW2 will accomplish very little if it goes against ANETs master plan. Theyre not horrible people, just men/women with a plan. How about we all stop complaining and realise that if the game isnt right for us we should maybe stop playing.

Ive been very vocal about GW2 on these forums over the past week or so. I have reached the point where I can see so much wrong with the game that I can barely log in without feeling sadness of what the game has become. These include, but are not limited to, lack of immersion, the pandering to farmers, the shallow and mindless zerg-gameplay, the poor implementation of skins within the game (‘give everyone all of the things’ rule), the lack of challenging content and the farce that is world bosses and the megaserver.

But its taken me a full week of writing on various forum threads to realise something and I feel its important enough to warrant a separate post. Whether or not this will stay open for long I dont know but I hope that you can react to this post and give your thoughts.

ANET have a plan. They have had this plan all along and that is to cater to those that will bring them the most profit. That does not make them monsters. This is a business and their job is to get people playing so that money can be made. The devs have creative input and we can disagree with them as long and hard as we want but it comes down to the fact that they are doing what they see is best for the game based on profit and sustainability.

Now these decisions may or may not be wrong and the game could last a decade, or die within the next year based on the decisions they make. As a result the devs have to be firm in what they believe is right for the game. They have to know 100% it will no harm the game in the long run. It is for this reason that 95% of the suggestions we make will never be implemented within GW2. There may be too much risk to changing from the master plan. Of course the devs would never say this- to give the player population the idea that they have very little say in the future of the game is MMO-suicide.

In my opinion a lot of the decisions the devs are making will, in the long run, kill the game off. My main gripe is, and will forever will be, the fact that the game has no immersion and has very little focus on lore and as a result the Living Story is a very shallow representation of what could have been in GW2. But the devs believe that what they are doing is right and so my voice goes unheard. The lack of true challenge within the game (skill-based, not zerg-based) is also something that, in my opinion, needs addressing but again ANET feel they are doing whats best.

My ‘tl;dr’ at the top sums this post up. So lets stop moaning shall we? I’ll be the first to say i’ll try not to post a moan on these forums again. I’ll also state that my wallet is well and truly closed until I feel the game is right for me again.

I personally would love to see additional missions that give a unique reward (skin only) and based entirely on lore and story. I dont think ANET are capable of producing that content though.

ANETs focus is clearly on players who spend the most in the gem store and its my belief that these players arent too interested in lore or immersion. Sure it helps but when you can mindlessly zerg all events and objectives, farm to your hearts content and generally steamroll through most content pretty easily these players surely dont care about things like why the mobs are in these locations and the background on each map theyre farming in.

Its my dream that one day a developer of a AAA MMO realises the value of immersion and lore within a game. ANET wont be that developer.

maha.7902:

When you’ve done everything worth doing and you want to solo encounters which 99.9% of players can’t do, why should you basically be locked out of doing so because the boss is just that stupidly strong that you need someone else?

You should be able, with adequate preparation to solo every single fight in the game. If this means using endurance regen food, energy sigils, weapons with blocks/reflects/evades, vigour, etc. then so be it – you shouldn’t just be flat out locked from being able to kill a boss (player requirement bosses like the legendary shoggroth just annoy the hell out of me).

The fact of the matter is, it’s an extremely minor elite who are going to be able to pull this off, it doesn’t reflect badly on a game at all if only a small crack group of hardcores can solo boss fights, it only reflects badly if any random idiot can, which luckily isn’t the case for a lot of bosses.

You claim that ‘99.9% of players cannot solo a boss like Lupi’ (paraphrasing here). I’ll wager that a large percentage could if they learnt how to and spent time practicing. Lupi has set stages and skills he cycles through. The same is true for every mob in the game as far as I am aware. Learn what he is going to do, when he’s going to do it and how to counter it and thats it. There is no random element that takes skill, cunning and a smart mind to counter.

I applaud the OP for having the dedication to spend time to learn how to solo Lupi so dont think that im trying to take that away. Im merely saying that in the grand scheme of things GW2 boss encounters arent designed at all well.

EDIT: For those that think id like bosses to not be solo’able youre reading between the lines. Im saying that boss AI in GW2 makes it a hell of a lot easier than if the encounters were designed to truly challenge the most skillful of players. Unpredictability, changing environments, added minions, bosses that react to what the player is doing and where the player is positioned…. even just a subset of these would create a situation where the player has to think and react on a second-by-second basis. This would be a true test of player skill.

maha.7902:

The reason it’s possible is because players put the time in to it and have the skill to do so, it’s nothing to do with badly designed AI before you open up that hornet’s nest.

You can solo bosses in every single MMO ever.

So because in ‘every’ MMO (im guessing youve played them all to know this) you can solo bosses that means every MMO going forward has to be the same? How are games meant to evolve if you keep giving excuses based on what other games have done in the past?

Dynamic AI is, I presume, a complicated, time consuming and expensive thing to introduce to a game. But companies can do better than mobs that just cycle through attacks based on conditions such as time and HP remaining. Surely it cant be hard to introduce some random factors into the fights? Random boss attacks that mean you have to think on your feet and be quick about it, random environmental changes causing the playable area to change size and shape….both together! That would surely not break the bank and would create exciting encounters that you would be proud to tell others about.

Its great for you that you have the knowledge on how to solo a boss such as Lupi. But its not exactly showing the game in a good light.

A lot of people have mentioned quitting on these forums but please define quitting!

I dont consider myself to have quit. I still log in daily but for all of ten minutes to do the daily craft and daily home node gather, I join the guild for about an hour over the weekend for the guild missions and im usually around for the first 1-2 days of the LS.

I dont feel anything for the game, I hate the direction ANET are taking it in, I think its mindless and one-dimentional and hasnt achieved anywhere near its potential and never will. But its free to log in and play so I exercise that right. I wont be giving any financial help to ANET until major changes are made to the AI, the reward structure and a huge improvement in immersion. But im still logging in.

Why bother I hear you ask? Why not just quit? Well ive been waiting 12+ months for the game to live up to its potential so I guess you could say im still hoping.

First off congrats. It isnt easy to do so thats a big achievement.

However… the fact that its possible on multiple different classes does open the debate on WHY its possible. Predictable mobs are the bain of any game and for a boss such as Lupi to be solo’d does tell you a lot about the state on enemy AI in GW2.

Youre allowed to pick a max of three reasons. Keep it short and try not to insult ANET/anyone else. I can see this becoming a target for deletion if anyone posts something bad.

My three reasons…and im being brutally honest here not to provoke a reaction but to show my thoughts. Apologies if any offense is caused- you may be having a great time. Feel free to post the three most fun things about GW2. But I have to be honest here:

1) In the hope that the game improves I want to keep up with the story. I have huge issues with the direction that ANET are taking the game (mindless, give everyone everything, no immersion) but hope to be proven wrong some day.

2) The daily craft+gather, and sometimes daily achievements. Its something that takes very little time and can only be done once daily so why not?

3) Its free to do so. Ive made up my mind long ago that in its current state I wouldnt be supporting GW2 financially. In that respect its great that the game doesnt have a sub otherwise id have quit long ago. But its great that I can just pick up and play when I want. I just wish that was more often.

Ok so im not a great person to make a thread such as this. As I said feel free to speak your mind….whether that be negative or positive. Freedom of speech and all that!