Guild Wars 2

Spurnshadow.3678:

Farming Flats.5370:

A.net thank you, but it’s too late. the damage is already done.

No joke. I know decorations are crazy, but they’re optional. For us WvWers, scribing and guild hall unlocks for WvW buffs and items are mandatory. We’ve been rushing our butts off trying to get things unlocked as fast as possible. This is why the larger, more richer guilds have advantages over smaller or medium guilds. There are quite a few who’ve unlocked presense of the keep, +5 supply, airship barrage, or whatever it’s called, emergency waypoint, the mining upgrades needed for that stuff, and the scribes needed to craft those things. That’s thousands of gold.

This should have been addressed a week into HoT. Waaaaaaaaaay too late.

Agreed, it cost a lot of time, effort and gold for the two smaller WvW guilds I am in to regain the plus 5 supply we had before HoT. (For me personally it pretty much cleaned out all of my savings of 2+ years playing GW2.) Scribing is brutal for everyone but at least decorations are optional. It once took 150 flax fibers to make a single guild arrow cart and I was trying to get scribe leveled up so I made some, then days later the amount was stealth changed.

HoT caused WvW focused guilds to lose everything, including the ability to claim camps and other structures, and waiting until scribing became more reasonable just wasn’t an option if WvW is the end game and reason for playing GW2. In so many ways this craft is poorly designed, balanced and implemented and truly felt rushed to meet the deadline of the expansion.

Lately I feel like that famous line of Colin’s could be changed to the current reality of an in game experience-
“I chopped down a tree, I chopped a tree down again. Hey! I chopped it again, that’s great!”
Of course it isn’t great, I might be a lumberjack but it’s not okay, I want WvW to be my endgame again.

A few suggestions:

Remove the random sliver amounts for missions- I have done weeks of missions and mostly get 1 or 3 slivers each, regardless of the mission difficulty or my participation level. How about make it a set amount, easy is three, medium is five and difficult is ten. You can also get rid of that resonance token because no one is ever happy to receive one.

Add sand to the desert borderland maps

Increase the chance of pigments from harvesting plant nodes. If the plant being harvested could have some bearing on the pigment dropped such as potatoes = brown, spinach = green, carrots = orange, onions = yellow so much the better!

Increase the chance of flax fibers from flax nodes

Add massive trees, these are like rich ore nodes but in tree form.

Reduce the amount of planks/pulp needed to make paper and the amount of sand needed to make sand paper (Seriously who comes up with these amounts?)

Reduce the amount of time it takes for most decorations to build. Putting all that time and effort into something then to be told wait X hours is just silly. The only case of time gating being needed is with WvW schematics. If it was intended to be a gold sink, that’s a pretty poor excuse for one, you’re only frustrating players.

Consider something, anything at all to give to those players who made scribe before your changes are implemented. Even if it is just a title, any gesture at all that shows you are aware of what those players went through will go a long way.

The war room was the first thing fully restored by the two WvW focused guilds I am a member of. We’ve been working hard to unlock and regain all of the things we enjoyed in WvW before the HoT- claiming structures, +5 and so on. (I’ve chopped so many trees between leveling scribe and donating materials that I feel like there ought to be a title for it- “I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok!”)

Both WvW guilds I’m in unlocked the Portal for no other reason than we needed the gxp to reach +5 aura. The portal is even more useless to us than PvE guilds as almost all of our missions are on WvW maps. This is the same reason we even bothered with arena restoration, market restoration, synthesizers and all manner of things that do not directly relate to WvW. That’s right, we’re pushed into unlocking things we don’t even want and hardly ever use just because they locked +5 supply aura behind guild level 37.

Upgrading the workshop cost a lot and all it has are scribing stations, not other crafting stations. Not very useful for the majority of members.

When my daughter didn’t have the expansion she could donate materials to the treasurer but not interact with any of the merchants or even access her bank via the scribing station because all of that content was locked to her.

I was so excited about guild halls (and auto looting) and I mainly play WvW. As such I really feel like all this expansion did was push me into PvE to farm mats I can’t find in WvW but the hall requires to complete WvW focused upgrades.

If I didn’t enjoy the new elite specs I’d feel justified in asking for a refund as very little of this expansion has anything of value to offer WvW players: Guild Halls are a farm full of things we don’t want and don’t use, auto looting doesn’t work in WvW and WvW is in an awful state of not knowing what GW2 is even doing to the game mode and its future.

I have nearly two stacks of proofs of Heroics and about 100 badges. Most of my badges are spent on siege disablers and other traps or Badges of Tribute for scribing WvW schematics. Also badges are dropping at a much lower rate than the proofs of heroics.
Proofs of Heroics and Badges have to be spent together, plus the proofs are soul bound. Now that I’ve unlocked my elites on the pcs I use for WvW I have no way of spending these. They are piling up and I don’t know whether to just delete them or hope that someday there will be a practical use for them.
I don’t see why they couldn’t be acct bound and have gone right into the wallet.

Adding a merchant who sold Wintersday Drinks for karma that was account bound would be a great option to help with the 10,000 achi. I just don’t see the amount of drinks required being lowered this far into it, but adding another means to the end wouldn’t negate the effort of others. Karma is another forum of currency and very much involved in this year’s Wintersday.

Allowing such a merchant to remain in a Divinity’s Reach bar after Wintersday was over would be a boon to those who are going to need time well beyond the current holiday season to finish out 10,000 spirited drinks.

10,000 drinks isn’t an achievement of skill or ability but mind numbing repetitiveness. The number feels like it was thought up by the same person who did all those ridiculous WvW achievements.
GW2 is my first mmo, is this the standard? Is it usual for mmos to make achievements require that I either turn the game into my full time job, or spend money from a real job to buy the gold to afford this achievement? Or perhaps this a result of expanding the game into China?

I’m not forced to have the skin, but honestly what does it benefit a game to design in this way? To have fewer and fewer options to complete the content and be required to spend tens of hours on things that, even if it was fun, sure isn’t going to be fun by the end of Wintersday.
The tedium of this process is made worse by the issues of the jp activity being full so much of the time or putting the player into a finished bell ringing map. So frustrating!

Please consider having a few Wintersday beverage merchants around Divinity’s Reach who would sell the drinks for karma (account bound of course).

10,000 beverages is a lot, an incredible amount for a time limited achievement. The price of drinks is not going down but up in fact. It is becoming less of an achievement and more a case of who can afford to spend the money (in game coin or real world) or time to farm them out.

It would be a real shame to see people who did all the other achievements for the Winter’s Presence but just couldn’t afford to purchase drinks or farm for the whole holiday for enough drinks. Please consider making this collection more about holiday fun and less about the farm and/or having vast wads of gold.

Please understand I’m not saying you shouldn’t have to do something to earn this achievement, but 5,000 drinks would have been a lot more reasonable and doable for people who are not rich and have a life outside of this game. As it is 10,000 please, please, pretty please do consider this as an alternative that still fits the holiday. By selling drinks for karma, players could go about, do events, have fun, enjoy the holiday and still purchase drinks towards the achievement. Everyone wins!

WvW guilds suffered a serious setback with the expansion’s restructuring of WvW buffs. We had to regain the ability to claim structures and while I do understand that +5 is a very potent buff, gating it behind level 37 feels like added insult to injury.

Before it felt like players who preferred to spend most of their time in WvW were nudged and perhaps even encouraged to do PvE. Now we are forced to if we want to be a WvW guild with the tactical abilities we had and used before the expansion.

The issues relating to WvW guilds is compounded with all of the problems with the scribing craft.

I am very glad to see that flax, and flax fibers were added to the harvesting nodes in WvW. However, why not go that bit further and add shovels, sand and the infamous heavy supply bags to WvW rewards?

This game has three very distinct modes of gameplay, and certain things such as Spvp reward tracks, WvW badges in achievement chests, changing WvW maps to not be required for map completion and WvW rank potions sold for laurels, allow players who do not prefer to play WvW a few alternatives to meet their goals. These are good things, I just wish similar considerations were given to the portion of the player base that prefers to play WvW.

For WvW based guilds, a guild hall isn’t just an optional pretty place or a long term goal with a lot of shiny conveniences, it is a requirement to even continue playing WvW and have the abilities we earned before the expansion.

This is good advice, I found it worth running a few alts (if you have them to spare) through the first part of the story to park them in the Itzel garden for the daily harvest.

Astralporing.1957:

Nate.3927:

While I agree that the upgrades are seriously expensive, they are not meant to be completed in a week.

There are other ways to make sure of that than just a massive mats sink.

Aetherium is just one way they have time gated guild hall upgrades. Even if you have all the materials Aetherium and Favor slow the acquisition of upgrades with a time factor and caps on weekly favor earning. You can upgrade to mine aetherium faster, to hold more capacity, but higher tier upgrades cost more aetherium so it is relative.

I do think these are good ways to slow down the process, especially when compared to slowing them down with requirements of very much in demand materials that have limited means of acquisition.
Time gated guild based missions that add to the progress of certain upgrades and unlocks, in ways other than just favor would also help slow the process down while still allowing guilds to earn a feeling of accomplishment and progression with team effort.

As an example: Your guild just captured a guild hall and the tavern npc appears, rather than asking for empty kegs and glass mugs just to pitch a tent he mentions rumors of a hidden stash of fine whiskey and other spirits somewhere in the hall itself. Wouldn’t it be a fine way to celebrate your victory by finding this cache for him?
Agreeing to find him these items would trigger a guild mission and completing it will create a minimal tavern, just enough to attract the mining npc and give the guild who just captured their own guild hall a small reward and ‘jump start’ on the long process of fixing everything up.

I understand that a lot of the bells and whistles of a guild hall are purely cosmetic and intended to be a sink, and are meant to be long term goals for a group of players.

However, I wonder if perhaps this would have worked even better with three levels of completion for the structures, instead of two. Getting something up and running with the bare basics shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish, even for smaller guilds. Turning those basic structures into visually impressive places with lots of convenience based amenities, or increased output and capacity, could be where the real sink takes place.

Fellfoot.8156:

For guilds that play WvW the guild hall is critical to their success in WvW. All of the guild “buffs/enhancements” that WvW guilds had before HoT were reset to zero, nada, square one. The tiers were mixed up, new stuff was added. It’s “one” of the reasons there have been so few people in WvW since HoT release. Guilds are grinding and farming their kittens off trying to regain everything that was reset. The costs are immense and daunting! There has even been a possible oversight of removing an area of the game that contained the ONLY place one certain item (required for guild hall upgrades) dropped.

Just to get back +5 buff requires a lot of work and time which is daunting when we had this and more as a smallish WvW guild before the expansion. Due to the structure of the upgrades we have to build things we really wouldn’t want otherwise, such as a tavern, just to get what we need.
While I love the concept of the tavern attracting NPCs for other upgrades the lack of flexibility for guilds to focus on what they want to do first and in what order is disappointing.

The guild I am in has done a great job so far working towards getting back our WvW buffs and the ability to claim structures again. We’ve pulled together as a team to try and get some of our WvW functionality again (which is awesome!) but it feels like WvW players are no longer being nudged to spend time in PvE, we’re being forced to do PvE if we want these WvW based guild benefits again (which is not at all awesome).

My disappointment and frustration isn’t about the fact that guild halls are clearly a long term investment and goal. It is about, once again, a rather obvious disconnect with and disregard for those players who prefer the WvW end game. Such oversights as the heavy supply bags and WvW daily options that use the removed alpine borderland map are just the most recent examples.

Please don’t fix this lovely Bristleback, just think of it as having the potential to inflate like a pufferfish! (really what fun that would be as an enemy critter too, ohh how harmless looking and cute…Run Away!)

My condolences to everyone affected by this tragic loss.
A great suggestion that I am sure many guilds would make use of for various reasons.
I hope the devs consider adding a feature like this to Guild Halls. The ability to make a Guild Hall personal in ways like this would be good for all Guilds and not a misuse of development time and resources.

What I thought was so great about this was how the monocle was visible with the aviator’s cap (as well as some other head slot items).

Which means it might be possible to have a face slot in addition to helm slot and have…top hat with monocle! I’m dreaming of that day.

Random voices, I think they might be from npcs but at other times there’s no one near my pc and the voices are of races other than my pc.

narwhalsbend.7059:

He’s going to pull a Prince Rurik and you have to kill his corrupted form before taking on Mordremoth.

I like this one! A lot!

I think that’s a possibility. Or, If he proves resistant though, and kills his own corrupted troops/friends it might not be enough, if he isn’t corrupted now, many might consider it only a matter of time, or that he’s a spy and led the pact into the attack on Mordremoth’s wishes.

So I think it very likely he wouldn’t be commander any longer, it would probably be considered too risky having a Sylvari leading the pact.

If he becomes Mordremoth’s champion, well I think he’d make a good one, I’ve always thought Trahearne had the capacity to go bad and be very chilling at it. Eloquent, and intelligent villains are a lot more interesting than babbling insane ginger roots or endless swarms of enemies to me.

Imagine what he might say if he became the voice of Mordremoth, became a speaker for the dragon and actually gave some sense of ‘this is how the elder dragon Mordremoth sees things’.

(Gavin was one of the best Nightmare Court Npcs because he didn’t act like a one dimensional villain. He was doing horrible things but he really believed he was helping to free the Sylvari from outside/false influences. So that they might truly be themselves. He had a personal code and sense of honor and even though he did despicable things and was the bad guy, he still had likeable qualities. He was a villain you could sympathize with and understand where he was coming from and his arguments were compelling, even though you disagreed and knew he had to be stopped. One of my favorite stories in all of the personal stories.)

If Trahearne did become corrupted there is no (known) cure, based on the many comments that once a sylvari falls into “Nightmare” they cannot be cured, and it might lead to some very interesting possible resolutions; An attempt to cure, a mercy killing at the hands of the pc, a not so merciful killing at the hands of the pc after a big battle, certain Asuran scholars representing the priory (or maybe even the Inquest if they find him after the crash first) conduct experiments on him that would make Vorpp green with envy for ‘Science and the Greater Good of defeating Mordremoth.’ Maybe before Trahearne has utterly lost himself in corruption, in a brief moment of clarity, he asks to be studied for ‘Science and the Greater Good of defeating Mordremoth.’ The story could go many ways.

If he still carries Caladbolg will that help him resist corruption or just draw Mordremoth’s attention to him? As a weapon it would seem to be a tasty magic imbued artifact of the sort any dragon would want to consume. Especially a dragon who might be unahppy that the Pale Tree isn’t producing an army for Mordremoth. A dragon who might find corrupting one (or yet another?) of her first born, into a champion wielding Caladbolg against her as a justly deserved service.

Does his ability to cleanse orr help him resist Mordremoth or was his connection to that dragon by being a Sylvari what aided him in defeating another Elder Dragon? Resistant or not I think Trahearne is in for a lot of suspicion if he survives the crash. And I hope he does, he hardly deserves to die in such a cut scene, none of those NPCs do.

Things look like they could get very interesting with the big reveal about Sylvari for both the npcs and pcs and I’m really looking forward to how it plays out.

Are the dailies bugged for new players or are they just not considered in making the achievements? My daughter had only 1 daily in each category not three and WvW and Spvp was still locked content at that time. So, impossible to complete because 3 achievements had to be completed. Other days she has things like view a vista in orr, craft an exotic item, do 4 events in Timberline Falls and her highest pc on her account is level 22. (They are not adjusting for her being a new account as others are posting here say so I sent in a ticket at the time.)

I just don’t understand what is going on. Redo the NPE then add things like this? It is contradictory. ( Also, why do things like remove lemons from the Sylvari Soundless or apples from Eda? New players like to take up chef and these items are used in a lot of the lower recipes.)

It isn’t a well designed system in my humble opinion when you have mega servers full of level 80s with map completion hopping from event to event while new pcs exploring that area with only a handful of wps have very little chance of getting to said event before it ends, or doing enough damage to get credit. Do 4 events in Kryta/Ascalon/Shiverpeaks/Magguma was a much better design because it spread the player base out a bit and made this achievement category doable for pcs of any level.

In regards to other aspects of this, I’d just like to say, no is forced to do any of this but when players do content they don’t exactly enjoy it isn’t accurate to look at that data and call it a success then design more of the same. A success would be players enjoying said content as they do it.
I am not sure what about this game (or any MMO) compels players to slog through content they really don’t enjoy, other than certain rewards where there is no other way. In that case yes, I did the fractal daily when it was two achievements…by paying some one 4 gold for a level 1 fractal end boss. To me it was a bargain. Only two more pristine relics and I can return to forgetting about Fractals.
It isn’t a success that after months and months I returned to fractals, you didn’t tempt me to try something new. I have done fractals and do not care for them and won’t ever enjoy them in their current buggy state. This was just a hoop I had to jump through because I can’t get that item (Mawdrey II) any other way.
So yes, if you want the prize you have to do the content, I hear that a lot. I hear it mainly from people who admit they had to do things they didn’t like to get what they wanted so hop on the sufferbus with us!
My point is; when you look at the raw numbers and see that X players did Y content and that’s up from the last month, that isn’t always what constitutes a success if many of those players didn’t enjoy the process and only did it because you put a carrot component there.

Number 68 please, and thank you!

(This idea is based on the drum capabilities and an interactive page from the Doctor Steel archives.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080309175244/http://worlddominationtoys.com/drsteel/enter.html
Click on “The Dr. Steel Show” up top to be taken to the page in question. Clicking the jukebox button starts him dancing then click through the light bulbs to select from various dance moves. And if you enjoyed that there is much more to discover on the site so please explore and click on all the things!)

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a dance volume that allows you select from various moves and create your own unique dances? Similar to how the drum functions with preset sounds, loop functions and saves but with a series of preset animations and you can invite others to join you in a custom dance.
Choreograph to accompany musicians in game, taunt enemies with sweet, sweet moves from inside their own tower, Tequatl two step on the beach to celebrate your victory over the spoon. All this and more with a How to Dance Volume II that allows dance the same freedom and creativity as the musical instruments.

I look at all the playable race characters as being a bit unique from most of the average joe npcs. I’d love to see Skritt as a playable race and I think that pc Skritt would be a bit different. Perhaps from a group of Skritt who were experimented on by the
Inquest* and have a slightly higher intelligence than the usual Skritt. I think there are a few different ways smarter than the average skritt could be explained that wouldn’t ruin what makes them so much fun.

I do see Tengu and Kodan as perhaps being two of the easier to implement races. Kodan would even be a good choice if introducing a new heavy armor profession at the same time.

Largos would be perfect for an expansion that included some reworking to underwater combat and introduced new underwater maps and cities.

Centaur sounds like it would be fun but when I see some of the issues Charr have with their armor and clipping…I think centaurs would have it a lot worse. To some degree any playable race should have some fun armor options but perhaps centaurs could have their own unique caparisons and battle armor. Still, it sounds like a lot of work that might not be practical when Carr need more love and engis still have hobosacks.

My vote still goes to Skritt though, I love those little shiny collectors.

*Like the brain transfer at the end of Young Frankenstein where there was an exchange between two subjects. Doctor Frankenstein gave some of his intelligence to the monster but also got something from the monster in exchange.) This would likely be an unacceptable result to any Asura and would go on the failed experiment pile, but the skritt escaped before they could be shredded along with the lab notes.

Harbinger.8637:

I’d love for Kraitkin to be a staff!

Agreed! I’ve always thought it would make a great staff.

Chests in the Silverwastes drop Bandit weapons on occasion, including the underwater weapons.

They would have been great to sell during Halloween but alas that door has slammed shut and has chains on it.
I think anytime they are put up for sale at this point they will be well received. Anticipation has mounted for some time now. Spring might seem more theme appropriate. But please, I beg, don’t hold out for year of the rabbit!

Frostfang.5109:

Whatabout – bagpipes!!!

What if the bagpipes are made by charr and shoot jets of flame!

I would like an invite to the EU guild. Thanks so much!

The Marionette had a good balance. There was incentive to succeed with the event but players were still rewarded with materials from lane mobs which could be made into keys. Those keys were used on chests at a different location which didn’t conflict/compete with completion of the event.

Partial success was still rewarded but killing the Marionette resulted in the big chest. With SW the rewards for killing all but Indigo’s Silver and Gold bosses is really not so bad. The incentive to kill all the bosses is a bit lacking.

Why wait until Easter.? Halloween is about dressing up so it’s a fine time to have bunny ears for sale!

People want bunny ears, Evon wants to make sales and everyone wins!

Fighting Tequatl/Triple headed wurm/Karka Queen and everything is going great but right before the collect your loot for a job well done phase the game crashes and a ‘send report to anet window’ pops up. I’m not even off the map for 30 seconds but I come back to an empty map of sad times.

CMM.6712:

Glad someone got a refund, I sure didn’t.

I didn’t either, and I’d never contacted support before the issue. I can’t help wondering how it works that people with the same issues, some are helped and others aren’t. A year later and it seems people still make this mistake so perhaps the info should be put in game rather than only being found on the wiki and outside sources.

This doesn’t seem to trigger for me. I can right click on a wine that counts towards this collection, such as Bottle of Rice Wine, and bring up the collection window using Item Collection Achievement but I can’t seem to activate it. Drinking wines does not register and I cannot see this achievement unless I right click on a wine to bring it up

I have tried drinking bottles of rice, vintage and red wines but none of them go towards the achievement, nor do they activate the achievement.

The only square filled in when I look at the Fine Wining collections window is for Courage, which I have.

I have really grown to love this look combined with fossilized weapons for my Sylvari Ranger.

Ohoni.6057:

“The first several characters I made, I would ALWAYS die during the boss fights. I didn’t know how to dodge, I didn’t know their telegraphs by heart, I would just get downed at some point and sit there figuring out my moves until someone else killed the boss. It didn’t bother me at all. "

It didn’t bother you, and it didn’t bother me. In a game death is a learning experience, one of many. That being said, I do not see anything wrong with a game giving the occasional hint so that more can enjoy it. I would have appreciated an in game means to read about the downed skills for example. It didn’t bother me that one was lacking but it might help new players to add one in.

I found the downed state to be a bit overwhelming at first. Some things that would have helped me grasp the mechanics of it a lot sooner at level 1 would have been;

1. The downed state was part of the initial character creation story instance. If at one point during the final battle the character was downed and an npc gave some directions verbally on what to do, that would have helped. The recent LS end boss battle where the npcs shout up to you what the boss is going to do at the beginning was helpful. It gave me a little heads up for what was about to happen.

Something similar for a character’s first downed state might be helpful with the downed state skills. It might even be an entertaining experience as well as educational if introduced in this manner. (‘Grab a rock and throw it!’ ‘Even near to death’s door you have that power, to leech the very life force of your enemies… so drain them and heal yourself while I create a diversion, ideally composed of their broken and scattered teeth mixed with blood and regret for having messed with us!’ ‘I can’t reach you but call to your pet, you have a strong bond between you.’

The hints arrow could even point to which skill is being suggested by the npc to help make it very clear what they are talking about. It could even lead the player through a
battle that ‘unlocks’ each downed skill and gives an opportunity to rally by killing an enemy. By the end of that battle the player will have gone through a downed state, tried the various skills and rallied by killing an enemy.

2. There are lists of weapon skills for each character, particular to their profession, for terrestrial and aquatic weapons. Adding the downed state and its particular skills and what they do to this list would have been helpful for me. I could have read about these abilities in game before a downed state happened and had some idea how to rally.

3. Having the opportunity, either as part of the personal story or elsewhere, to practice rallying from the downed state a few times in a more tutorial (thus forgiving) setting could have helped me get a feel for how the skills worked before embarking upon the regular PvE adventures of not being completely dead, and you might get better!

I don’t think the being downed was a bit overwhelming at level 1 because my pc was level 1, rather it was having little understanding of the skills and being unused to the experience. Some in game information, a bit of tutorialish guidance, and even a way to practice rallying a few times as part of the introductory story for new characters would have gone far in helping me get used to the system a lot faster and I’d have been fairly familiar with it by the time my pc left that first personal story after creation.

1) What do you like best about WvW? What keeps making you come back for more? What keeps you interested or keeps it fun?

I enjoy the variety of combat opportunities that WvW offers. from roaming to zerging, huge fights and small ones and the great feeling of meeting the enemy and beating them when outnumbered. I primarily play during off peak hours and it can be a lot of fun to see what small groups can accomplish. I like the utter freedom it allows.

Want to run about on your own and do your own thing? You can have fun and help your team at the same time. Maybe you’d prefer to defend and upgrade, you can help to build something and defend/scout it. Want to run with the zerg and see large scale battles, or maybe be part of a smaller group that tries to do big things with smaller numbers. Epic feeling battles await you either way.

2) What do you like least about WvW? What makes you frustrated about it or makes you want to stop WvW in favor of something else like PvE, PvP or even EotM? (I consider EotM play separate).

EotM- some great ideas and a lovely map but it is nothing like the rest of WvW and has really become just a big train where the primary enemy is NPCs. After the first weeks it was introduced I never saw any real effort to defend and hold any objective.

The last time I was there the commanders didn’t even want to engage enemy pcs in battle and avoided them After the first week it was introduced I never saw any real effort to defend and hold any objective.

WvW
Situations such as being severely outnumbered are frustrating when the bottom line is, not much you can do but retake when they are busy and lose it again when they come back to flip until you get better numbers. Just being outnumbered in general isn’t a bad thing but sometimes you’re so outnumbered, a map ends up one color and you really couldn’t prevent it.

Gates that can be destroyed by pc attacks. (You destroyed their rams, then their catapults, you even took out that omega golem in your defense efforts but now they are going to finish the gate off and power it down without any seige at all because you drained their supply with a treb. They don’t pull off for a bit to resupply but instead ‘manmode’ down what is left of the gate—because they can)

I see WvW as a great part of the end game that is often ignored or misunderstood when it comes to developing.

3) What tier are you in?

EU Silver, currently 11

4) Have you switched servers for WvW? Why?

I’ve not switched servers (for any reason) and wouldn’t even consider it until guild influence is across home worlds (for my bank guild is tiny and I like my tiny bank)

If geodes as a vendor currency are permanent perhaps they could be added to the wallet and become account bound. Little quality of life details that keep permanent crafting materials and currency from taking up inventory space go a long way. (If such things were collectible deposit or wallet currency at the release of new content I’d be mightily impressed and appreciative by the depth of consideration.)

Alternative choices that allow players to do the content that they enjoy more than others. I see that as a good thing. For example; Spvp now has reward tracks that allow players to earn dungeon armor, weapons and tokens without setting foot in a dungeon. Tokens that can even be used to buy the various dungeon gifts for Legendary weapons. Someday they might even add in a FotM dungeon path. It’s been requested by players that they please consider it.

I can understand how some PvE players loathe entering WvW to get that map completion done and I think having an alternative would be a great way to give those players something else to do that they might enjoy more. Such as complete the WvW maps OR Dry Top and Southsun to qualify for a gift of exploration. I realize WvW isn’t for everyone (though no one can boot you from the WvW map if they think you aren’t skilled enough and rage quitters only affect themselves there) and I can empathize with those who truly do not enjoy it.

So I’d love to see another way for those working on a Legendary to obtain a gift of exploration without setting foot in WvW if they really dislike it that much by exploring other areas they would enjoy more but still present a challenge. This isn’t about hand outs or sense of entitlement or I want it now mentality, it is the suggestion for a greater variety of still challenging alternatives that expand variety for all. The whole ‘suck it up and do it if you want the reward’ mentality sounds an awful lot like ‘I had to do things I can’t stand, so you should have to do things you can’t stand’. Not the best philosophy for content design imo.

Also, if 1 pristine fractal relic can be double clicked to make 15 fractal relics …why couldn’t 1 pristine fractal relic be purchased for 15 fractal relics or the stone be purchased for 75 fractal relics?

Regarding Gift of Battle requiring WvW ranks, you can still obtain this by barely setting foot into WvW. Badges are in achievement chests and ranks can be purchased via badges + laurels from the WvW laurel vendors.

My first thought was that a mists infused clay pot would have something to do with WvW and the mist wars. I agree with all the above that this would make sense and provide an alternative for those who do not enjoy FotM one bit. I dread the thought of having to spend time in the generally unfriendly and unfun dungeon experience of FotM to make an ascended vine.

I’ve spent most of my badges on siege and have under 1k, but I’d be far more willing to spend hours/days/weeks in WvW/EotM to get more badges over spending any amount of time in FotM. I would like to pursue the ascended version. (I even went ahead and got the heat stone made, partly because my cultivated seed is bugged to pet seed now, but it seems until a fix I won’t be able to make either version.)

My suggestion was for an alternative to rng or gold grind for a precursor, not the Legendary itself. Plenty of t6 mats are still involved in the Legendary crafting process along with the map completion, clovers, gifts and so on. I’ve been playing for almost two years now (have not made any Legendary weapons), and anyone who has been playing a similar amount of time with precursor woes is not some one who expects instant gratification by any means.

Rather it is the desire for an additional option to obtain a precursor that is not dependent upon rng or buying it for (ever increasing amounts of) gold on the tp.

I would not expect a quest option to be easy, but much like the achievement portion of the LS replay, what is easy to some is hard for others. That will always be a quality of any game design, players have various skill levels and experience content differently.

At a point in the game when some players have multiple Legendary weapons, and others make them to sell on the tp I don’t think it is going to break the game for there to be an option for players to gain an account bound precursor.

The story could be time gated or it might not, and thus how long it takes be up to player motivation/skill. I don’t think how long it takes is relevant as there are plenty of other aspects to the construction of a Legendary weapon besides just the precursor, many of which take some time.

(This would also be for an account bound precursor, and I would expect the weapon made from such a precursor to be account bound as well.)

Now that Legendary weapons have stats that can be changed when out of combat there really should be some way to change sigils as well so that players can effectively use their Legendary with different build concepts.
One idea that comes to mind is sigil unlocks.
When a player puts a sigil into a Legendary it becomes unlocked for that weapon.
Swapping would be as simple as selecting the one(s) you want to use from that weapon’s list of unlocked sigils. This could be done out of combat at any time, like changing stats.

I think it is fair to conclude that the current set of Legendary weapons are not the most well designed;

1. it takes as much in materials to make a one handed legendary as a two handed
2. a legendary can be sold on the tp (but ascended items cannot)
3. a precursor is reliant upon luck or grind/gold (or direct purchase gold with real world currency via gems)
4. there is no reasonable way to swap out sigils in a Legendary* (key word reasonable, the TP extractor is not a reasonable option)

With the new season of the LS format perhaps there can one day be a personal LSish quest for a precursor. It wouldn’t be crafted, and so would not take up already demanded t6 items. The experience could have elements of skill and personal story telling involved and might feel more like a personal quest for the character and less of a grind for the player. Like the current LS it could be started and then worked on at the player’s own pace.

It could even have options for getting from point A to objective B as part of the process. For example, you could fight your way to a location/objective OR puzzle jump to bypass the fighting OR puzzle solve a ‘secret path’ to get there. All are challenging but the player is able to choose which challenge they would personally find the more fun/best suited to their skills option.

A Legendary made via this process would have tied to it a series of experiences and challenges overcome, some story and adventure that personally relates to the pc. I can only think that would make a Legendary feel more like a true reward and accomplishment. These would be welcome additions imo to a game that purports to want to set itself apart from the grind grind grind model of most MMO end game content.

I’m the kind of player who would love such an option as a personal precursor quest. The current reliance on luck/grind for a precursor is why I have not pursued one after nearly two years. I have not been blessed with a drop by luck and my gold grinding does not keep pace with the price of precursors on the tp. I’m still trying to keep hope alive that one day there will be a new batch of Legendary weapons and that some of the issues with the current Legendary weapons will also be addressed.

*Now that Legendary weapons have stats that can be changed when out of combat there should be some way to change sigils as well so that players can actually use their Legendary with different build concepts.
One idea that comes to mind is sigil unlocks.
When a player puts a sigil into their Legendary it becomes unlocked for that weapon and changing from one sigil to another would be as simple as selecting the one(s) you want to use from a list of unlocked sigils. This could be done out of combat at any time, like changing stats.

I like Trahearne. I enjoyed the voice acting and his credit taking didn’t bother me.

That being said…

I think he has a lot of potential to be a very personal nemesis and an interesting villain in ways that relates personally to the pc’s story. Scarlet wasn’t personal, Scarlet didn’t know the pc, and the current LS that involves her is learning more about who Scarlet was. I am enjoying that, it is interesting to learn about her history but there is nothing personal to the pc about it.

But Trahearne could develop into something that really has depth and meaning to the character. Because villains are not made overnight this could be an interesting journey as a friend and brother in arms changes and eventually turns against those who are closest to him. He knows the pc well, strengths and weaknesses, what choices were made along the way to defeating Zhaitan. All possible material for little touches that make the story truly feel personal to the pc.

Also…The pc might have their own dark journey ahead. Viewing the Eternal Alchemy might have an effect that has yet to be revealed. The vine backpiece might also be a source of corrupting or maddening influences as it grows over time. For example what if it began whispering to the player character messages from Modremoth at random as they run about the world wearing it. (especially if those messages took into consideration elements of the pc’s race, profession, choices upon creation and the personal story.) To me, that would feel very creepy and personal. Maybe the pc has a dark period as a result of this, sees the other (dark) side of things for a bit. Trahearne tries to help/stop them and is slain by the pc while they are themselves being a villain or having a bout of insanity. (thus giving those players who don’t always want to be on the side of good some time on the side of evil to enjoy in the process)

Perhaps Trahearne doesn’t totally succumb to evil because the pc helps him. Maybe he can’t be saved and it is a mercy killing. Trahearne begging the pc to end his torment would certainly elicit some kind of feeling, be it sadness or delight. If he is going to die I just hope it isn’t sudden or without some build up and thus, meaning to the pc. Just having him reappear to die soon after wouldn’t feel like a good story in my opinion.

Regardless of what happens I’d just love to see Trahearne develop into something beyond being a hero of plot device necessity.

The eternal Jack-a-lop

The appearance of Ley Line weapons is very magical over practical, a selling point to some and a turn off for others.

It’s great that sounds are being used more often in weapon skin designs, one of my favorites is the SAB warhorn because of its unique sounds. Hope to see even more weapon skins with sounds in the future. Sound is a good addition to any weapon design that can often push something from ’that’s nice’ to ’that’s awesome!’

Clockwork Alchemy

They look a little like Audrey II, maybe later you get to feed them…

M*A*S*H was a great show, a comedy set in a war. Sometimes one has to hold onto a sense of humor to keep going and remain sane in the face of huge adversity.

For Taimi I don’t see her being comic so much as very narrowly focused, obsessed even, about Scarlet and her works. Yes there’s some humor ( I love how she says “I know” in a soft voice when replying to Brahm at one point, and “A cave” to Kas) but I wouldn’t call her a comedienne. She’s a very excitable, arrogant and enthused Asura who was willing to enter the machine that made Scarlet insane, for science!

People have different coping mechanisms and I think we’re seeing a bit of that with how the others react after the PC sees the Eternal Alchemy. I took that to be nervous joking at what might have been a much worse situation, humor borne of the giddy relief that “the boss” didn’t die or go (visibly) insane as a result and strangle every last one of them.

I’ve opened maybe 30ish with no fossil but, would it have been a bad thing if upon completion of the living story part two the pc received one fossil in that Taimi gift bag at the end? The fossils are acct bound, the weapons are as well I am assuming. A player could replay it on alts and get a fossil for each time but I still don’t see that being a problem if they are account bound.

Since the fossils can’t be traded it’s up to the rng gods to be graced with a fossil. As some one who seems to be spurned by these gods I would have loved the opportunity to at least know I could make a few weapons. I would still have to collect my geodes and get the recipe for each one but at least that is an achievable goal, not one left to chance.

Sometimes nothing resolves this but logging off and back on again, even taking a wp results in being stuck at the wp. Very annoying in Spvp and WvW, particularly at those times when it means you have to wait in a queue to get back into WvW.

KarateKid thanks for the advice on a good location with enough density of spawn to make this worthwhile. While I still seem to get more claws, eggs and hides than meat, raptors are better than moas by far. This allows me to more reliably procure what I need to make pot feasts for WvW because I’d rather gather what I need than pay for it on the tp. Focused farming puts me to sleep after about 20 minutes so this is an excellent place to do some daily categories and get materials I need in the process.

I’m still certain I could likely make more gold in that half hour I spend each day by doing some other activity but this works for me and allows me more time in WvW (where I don’t really make gold so much as spend it).

A character’s profession is a part of defining that character to me. When I saw that Aerin is obviously an engineer and one of the clues is a lot of stabbed bodies, the first thing that came to my mind was , some one else stabbed them. That could be considered thinking in terms of game mechanics (continuity), or simply that an engineer would have other preferred methods of killing.
The stabbings don’t seem to fall under ‘improvised with a weapon not of my first choice’ but do appear to be more planned and calculated. If he wanted to escape and be stealthy about it before the bombs went off (such as not engaging in stabby combat while making his sneaky getaway), engineers have that ability. Might be I’m totally wrong about it but I think some one else was involved. I don’t think that some one was Caithe.

I also wonder why they were stabbed at all, if they were specific targets for some reason or had to be eliminated for the sabotage to happen without complications.