Guild Wars 2

Rukia.4802:

Lack of Depth doesn’t even begin to touch the surface with what is wrong in this game. It’s the lack of intelligence coming from the dev team imo.

I would agree.

To me there’s such a radical shift in how this game was described and developed and how it’s being executed post launch, that it’s like night and day or like 2 different design/development teams.

It’s like the WoW live team took over and is saying, now, how can we flush THIS game down the toilet too…

I’m more disappointed by the replies to this thread, really.

To my the replies are symptomatic of the lower quality of players in MMORPGs these days.

Most players these days just don’t get it.

Here’s what “win” is. Win is playing the game – actually playing it, and earning the cool stuff that’s within the game. Earning. Not shortcutting. Not buying with game gold. Not buying with cash. Play the game – or go away.

If you can just buy your way thru the game – that’s basically cheating. Having the games themselves facilitate cheating doesn’t make it any less of cheating.

And actually, ANet did bill this game as not being pay2win. Of course, ANet has blown off lots of things they said when developing the game and has shifted to catering scrubs trying to generate big numbers of players and doesn’t seem to care about the quality of their game anymore. Philosophical quality, not production quality. ANet puts out (buggy as hell and requiring daily patches) good new content but philosophically they’re ditching key/core ideals they proclaimed during development and pre-sales.

The fact that ANet doesn’t care that people can buy legendaries speaks volumes. What it says is, hey, maybe someone will buy a bunch of gems to sell via currency exchange and we’ll make a few dollars -that’s what REALLY matters.

Legendaries in the trading post is just wrong. This is one of the most idiotic things I’ve seen over a history of MMORPGs filled with plenty of idiocy.

The supposedly ultimate gear should be earned, not bought.

More and more I question ANet’s integrity and feel like I’ve been had because I bought in on this game due to some serious shifts in design philosophy that are seemingly increasingly being abandoned.

There is no way the original manifesto would’ve included a line like “and hey, if you’re a complete loser you can just buy a legendary with cash!”

ANet has become Jeckyl and Hyde. Say one thing during developoment, do entirely different things once the game is live. Very, very lame.

Blizzard has a lot of what I would call blind and/or ignorant players in their game and I’d say this game is getting to be the same way. ANet is shifting the game away from what they sold it as and doing other lame stuff like this and they aren’t being held accountable. Players just act like it’s no big deal that the developer can’t stick to it’s word or have principles.

Bots were all but gone for a while but they’re starting to creep back to the same spots as before. More and more every day it seems. Whatever you did before (which wsa pretty amazing) need to be done again before we get to 100’s of bots per server again.

It’s really irritating to see naked bots lvl 30 or so getting powerleveled in groups of other bots, like by king’s passage POI in malchor’s. I’ve watched a bot I’ve reported every day for days on end go from 30’s to 50’s and today when I pass thru there (ori node next to the bot group on my server) it’ll probably be in the 60’s.

Considering there are fewer bots around for now (increasing very day it seems though) you might think that reporting blatantly obvious bots would get handled quicker than days. But no, nothing has changed there. Report bots and they go unhandled for days, as usual. :/

I won’t ever create a legendary. The grinding/farming required doesn’t fit into my concept of fun. Some people can tolerate it though.

The spider that guards the skill point challenge in Ural’s Delve, Timberline, shows up as a veteran but the thing has more health than most champs and instance bosses and hits like a truck (or champ/instance boss).

I’ve killed it on characters by kiting the heck out of it for 20 minutes or so, which is about zero fun.

Either flag the mob correctly as a champ (or boss) or maybe tone it down to actually being a veteran since it’s a WEEE bit excessive to have a skill point challenge guarded by a champ.

This is a side note but why does this game use subcombines in crafting when they are completely pointless and add nothing? I got a tailoring recipe for shadow gear that just uses an insignia and wool and that’s how all recipes should be – skip the unnecessary BS. Even the insignia/inscription pieces are a waste of time and add nothing. If you smelt 100 ore into 50 ingots it goes super fast due to game/UI conveniences….but subcombines are a messy unfun timesink…this makes no sense.

Anyways.

1. - This game suffers from recipe bloat as do many games and while it does have a search feature and filters, it would be nice if the crafting UI would retain the state of the UI in regards to collapse and expand of sections in the recipe list. If I collapse my greatsword section on my weaponsmith, I want that to stay collapsed forever until I expand it again – that kind of thing. There’s little point to having collapsable sections if they revert every time you close the window.

As a side note on recipe bloat…another of ANet’s fantasy BS statements (like legendaries only having different appearances or no gear tiers and grind) was that crafted gear would be useful – could be used or sold to players and that you wouldn’t just do combines for skill.

8 lvl 400 crafts later and I can assure you that 95% of the things I made were for skill only and got vendored or broken for crap returns because nobody wants to buy the crap, you can’t sell it for more than vendor cost most of the time, and/or the stuff is useless because you can buy better for next to nothing in the TP.

So, most of the garbage bloating up the recipe list is utterly useless trash recipes that could just not be there. Maybe give us the option to hide recipes forever? I could cut my recipe list by 80% if I removed all the blues I made for skill that I will NEVER make again (hiding all blues kinda works here but there are a scant few I might make for an alt before 14 when greens are dirt cheap every 6 levels).

Or maybe actually design and impliment the system you envisioned and talked about where we wouldn’t just make a bunch of useless garbage for skill only.

1. - Material summaries on tooltips. I have all crafts at 400 and lead a guild. I make stuff for guildies. It is ALWAYS a hassle when they ask me “what are the mats for X” because I have to drill down thru every subcomponent involved and summarize the mats manually, painfully, and slowly.

What I would like is for the tooltip for the recipe or the recipe itself to summarize this stuff for me – you know, I’d like my UI and computer to actually COMPUTE and be useful, shocking as that may seem. So when I hover over or look at my exotic axe berserker’s recipe, it shows me that I need 5 ectos, 5 bloods, 36 ori, and 36 ancient wood (instead of me having to drill down thru the inscription, the axe head, the handle, the ingots, the planks).

Yeah, you do end up memorizing some of this eventually and I have a phenominal memory but most people who don’t craft all the time do not, and every time they want something made you have to go thru the process again.

I tell some people to just use guildhead to look up the mats they need to send me, because at least there you can pop links for subcomponents into new windows/tabs and add it up that way rather than keeping a running mental total of various mats while skipping thru it all.

The problem is, most MMORPG players have ADD, zero patience, and/or instant gratification syndrome, and they don’t want to look up this stuff, they want you to just tell them, and when you start babbling/writing off all of this crap their eyes glaze even without monumental delays due to having to look up all the subcombine mats. So, they end up wasting money buying stuff instead of having it made since the whole process is a hassle.

Not all bad for me, I sell a lot of exotic weapons for pitiful profits in this games pathetic economy…it’s something I’ve relied on for years (players being too lazy to use crafters and buying finished products instead).

1. - Since we do have subcomponents and huge recipe lists – link between the stuff. If I’m looking at the recipe for an axe and it involves an inscription, I should be able to click on the inscription somehow and get to the recipe for the inscription immediately instead of having to scroll up down all over incessantly to look up every freaking component. And I should be able to get back to where I just was without playing hide and seek with a monster recipe list.

There’s a good reason why so many information packed media use linked navigation – it works well. Make it so! (or better yet, ditch uselss subcombines and give us the summary tooltips mentioned in #2 so this isn’t necessary)

I agree 100% and have suggested this before. I would be all over this.

I wouldn’t bother suggesting prices and think trivial crap like this shouldn’t be overpriced, but I would agree that this would probably be a lot more popular than a lot of the garbage in the gem store. Like how many people really care about town clothing?

My ranger’s butt is too big. It didn’t matter until I got her the duelist armor and you could actually SEE her butt. When 99.9% of medium armor has long coats you couldn’t tell.

My elementalist and thief are too short and then I overcompensated when making my mesmer and she’s too tall (they’re all human females and IMO the scaling during character generation isn’t properly reflected in game).

A couple of faces on my characters didn’t turn out quite as expected and could use minor tweaks. It’s something that wasn’t a big deal but over time, and yeah, now that they’re 80, it’s bothering me.

I somehow managed to pick the same exact hair style for 3 of my norn females (different colors at least) without even thinking about it and could stand to change some for variety – maybe – it’s an uber style. But I mean if you can charge people 200 gems for a simple hair style change – why not?

I dunno, I’m kind of surprised this kind of stuff wasn’t in the game at release since it’s something people ALWAYS want and is the perfect kind of thing to have in a cash shop. It’s complete cosmetic but highly in demand.

I started a 2nd mesmer because I didn’t like the race of the first one after 40 levels. Would’ve been so much better to just burn some gems for a race change (although race change could be a bit sticky due to personal story quest but it COULD be orchestrated – just not as trivial as this other stuff would seem to be).

It’s supposed to be a hard zone. Get better gear and it’ll help with your survival. There are tons of mobs, they almost all have brutal special abilities that are annoying, but there are some paths with fewer mobs or that are clear.

Learn to pick your spots. If you just blaze a direct path across the map, yeah, you’ll suffer. Exploration isn’t always about moving in a straight line across a map, it’s about finding a safe route.

Some parts of Orr are ultra dense with mobs and not places you wanna go without a good reason. It’s supposed to be that way. It’s Zhaitan’s back yard, not a park to waltz thru.

Plus, like it or not, this is an MMORPG. It’s supposed to be a social and multiplayer game. Granted that concept is a sad joke in MMORPGs these days, but it’s not our or ANet’s fault that you decide to make friends with people you can’t even play with!

Stiv.1820:

Apparently there is a bug where if you socket stuff it has a good chance to bug out and think it’s soulbound.

It’s not a bug, it’s how it’s always been. Augmenting gear has always put it into that sort of bound state.

There could be a warning included in the popup that occurs if you’re replacing anything already in the gear…but…

If you know enough about buying and socketing stuff in gear to the point that you have money and expertise to do this for a friend, how did you not already know that this behavior occurs?

The better question is WHY, in a game genre with persistent worlds, 24/7 gameplay, people in time zones all over the world, people with varying schedules and play time, would you EVER have events that occur one time at specific times that works for a small number of players?

And why, in a skill based game, do you hand out ridiculously powerful and valuable loot to zergs and luck in such events?

Said events, if they must be done to propel story or new content, shoud be done the way legendaries were SUPPOSED to have been done – appearances only. It should be something cool to attend, and that’s it.

It should not be something where people can brag about getting 20 slot bags, exotics, and precursors just for being able to be there. That’s just garbage and that irritates people. Some would be upset if it was just missing cool visuals or a cool event, but throw in ridiculously valuable loot and now you have a lot of irritated players.

Horrible, horrible, inexcusably horrible design and execution IMO.

There is no real reason to “quit” since you’re not paying a sub.

I have lost a lot of interest since “buying in” back in presale/beta days. I’m not happy with the course ANet has taken that’s gone against a lot of their early design promises and intent and agree with a lot of the other criticisms going around about how GW2 is lacking.

I’ve always been a big supporter of this game and got 10-15 people to play it back then, more than half of whom have already lost interest for various reasons. I’m not a blind fanboi though and IMO ANet deserves a fair amount of criticism for many things along with praise for many other things that are GOOD about the game.

Sorry but this is not the best MMORPG ever made. It’s a very good one, but it’s not the best. The best is still held by an 8 year old game and nobody has come close to topping it yet. I’m sick of that game and that company but reality is reality.

(“best” isn’t purely about numbers – it’s about a combination of factors – do you really think you’ll be playing this game nonstop for years on end? that’s a big factor – some games manage it, and then some manage it with huge numbers of players)

It’s bad design to create events that occur at specific times in living, breathing, persistent worlds played by people with varying schedules and time zones. Utterly bad design.

It’s bad design to claim your game is skill based and then give people insane rewards for zerging and getting lucky with opening a chest. There’s no skill in zerging or in opening a chest.

Ultimately, ANet has continued to slide on my opinion scale with continual changes to the game that go against their original design, with poorly designed events, and with servers that can’t handle the events that they slam out with no testing or thought to impact in terms of performance or what the content does to/for players.

I found it to be a less enjoyable than some zones but that’s just me. There are 4 15-25 zones so surely you can find one that suits you – you aren’t restricted to a particular zone.

The zone is not difficult – that’s just silly, and wolves are no more annoying than any other mob.

If you find any of the leveling zones in GW2 to be too difficulty you really should take a deep breath, look inside, and figure out what you’re doing wrong so you can play better because as with any MMORPG these days, the leveling zones in GW2 are all solo ez-mode, and if you’re failing at content designed for the least common denominator, well….

Most/all of the time when I switch out of fire to air (and not even in combat most of the time) I get a fireball shooting at a random target even when the already ultra annoying and unavoidable Electric Discharge talent fires even if it can’t hit anything.

First off – I just switched out of fire – no new fire spells should be spontaneously happening, especially one I didn’t want happening and didn’t fire off.

Secondly – Electric Discharge is one of the most annoying forced talents, if not the most annoying forced talent in the game. It’s utterly uselss and completely annoying. It causes random aggro when you’re running around the world, can be disasterous in instances if you’re not careful, and you have to constantly be trying to avoid it firing and doing something stupid.

Maybe it’s neato extra dmg in pvp – whatever – no clue. The trivial amount of damage it might do that’s helpful is greatly outweighed by how utterly annoying it is most of the time doing damage when you’re not even in combat and putting you in combat.

It’s extra annoying when you THINK you have it so it won’t hit something and put you in combat and this magical extra fireball comes out when you’re attuned to air and does the job Electric Discharge didn’t manage to do – create a waste of time out of nothing.

Mintyfresh.2539:

As I have stated before, this is the most boring/lackluster game in the most beautifully conceived setting of any game that I’ve played. It’s gorgeous, but lord is it boring.

This is kind of how I’ve been feeling. The game has many amazing elements and ANet is amazing in some ways, but then the flip side is there’s this certain boredom that creeps up and ANet has it’s not so great side too.

I also find the dungeons sort of lackluster even when the fights are marginally interesting. Trash pulls are boring. The loot is boring. There’s no oomph. There’s never a feeling of omg I can’t believe we survived that since downed state/recover/run back make any battle you don’t own an attrition exercise. Dunno. Something is lacking.

Because dueling is for wusses and MMORPG pvp isn’t about 1 on 1 matchups? If you wanna PvP, go do sPvP or WvW.

As everybody’s favorit npc Trahearne would say, “this won’t end well”

I had no problems with halloween event.

This even it’s lag soup. Autoattack doesn’t engage, skills are near unresponsive, massive delays on all actions.

It’s not my ISP. My connection slays universes. I never have any connectivity problems with GW2 from my side – ever – and almost never have connectivity issues in general unless ANet is reporting problems, even when they say there might be problems it’s clear for me usually.

So why play RPGs if you don’t like RPGs? That’s the question.

The stuff you don’t like is common to all RPGs and most games.

If you designed a game around what you want – what I could call the quest for mediocrity – almost nobody would be interested in it.

Ranger with bear pets is solid for everything.

Sin.8174:

Guardian or Warrior. Easy mode!

Agreed for solo PvE.

Not so much so for instanced grouping unless you wanna avoid melee which is pretty silly if you play a warror and/or guardian.

I try to surpress memories of the zhaitan non-fight. Thanks for bringing it up again.

This has happened before, it’ll be ok.

This patch looks like it’s freakin huge.

PlagueParade.7942:

The biggest flaw I’ve seen in MMOs recently is that they do exactly what most players want. A quick finish. I mean, how long did it take for people to make it to 80? A month or less? Of course people leave when they have nothing to do once they’ve reached cap and have done all the dungeons to get their armor.

Not all people. I feel like leveing in GW2 is far too quick and it’s super easy to gear up to full exotics once you’re 80. You can be “done” with a character very quickly if you push and even if you don’t push, if you play a character it will level fast unless you just park in LA and chat.

I tell my friends about dinosaur times when I played EQLive and it took months to hit cap and just hitting 20 was a big deal (at release, people would grats you in public chat, you’d contact a GM to get a last name, it was a big deal to just hit 20 with a 50 cap).

The trend in MMORPGs is to make them more casual friendly and more solo friendly but really, these games are about grouping and about long term gameplay, and that is not a casual thing. The casual/solo emphasis just ends up hurting these games and making them into too much of a single player experience for many players – where they play for a few weeks/months and are done, just like they do with single player games.

For a game like this where there is so little to actually earn, the leveling and ease of gearing up is just too fast. I like the idea of no gear tiers and no gear treadmill but people need something to work towards and the hell grind for legendaries isn’t something the average person is going to want to do (I refuse to even consider it since it’s a ridiculous grind and feels more like an exercise in tolerance than anything skill based or earning-oriented).

I think there are other issues too. For ex, I brought several friends to GW2 and we are all long time dungeon crushing raiders who love to group and do instances just to do stuff together. Problem is between the difficulty of instances (and we love hard modes and challenges), the downed states, the lack of roles, the chaos, the feeling of being 5 sololists in the same spot – the quality and style of grouping just doesn’t work for a lot of people I know. It’s not fun for them and I’m not even sure that I like it. There’s nothing rewarding about beating instances via attrition and when you see that big sparkly chest and it drops vendor trash blues just like any other mobe it’s a big fat MEH.

Anyways. My server feels a lot more dead. I play alts of all levels, have 3 80’s. I only really see people in Orr on gathering runs or at karma grind spots like Plinx. When playing alts in low/mid zones I just don’t see many people. I’m sure some are in WvW, yapping in LA, and whatnot, but overall I’d say pops have to be down.

I’d prefer to be congratulating ANet for sticking to their word, legendaries having the same stats as exotics with sexier skins and exotics be the end for gear quality.

So.

No thanks to the idea of this thread.

What was my dps for that boss?

1. You could have probably gone to an amusement park for 1 day for $60 and be happier than paying $60 for 3 months worth of gameplay? Eh.

How does this even apply?

A big selling point for GW2 was there will be no gear tiers – you get to the top and you’re done and can have fun experiencing cool content instead of running in place on a gear treadmill.

Then they boost legendaries to be stronger than exotics when they originally said they would only differ by having cooler appearances.

And now they’re adding an intermediate tier.

Clearly, they did not stick to what they said they were going to do and it’s ok for people to be upset about this since it’s somewhat of a major point. Many people were jazzed for GW2 because of major paradigm shifts (away from formula MMOs) like this.

you’re kidding, right?!

(quote humanoids in the game use when you attack them)

Faline.8795:

I am absolutely new to F2P games, so this is a seriously noob question.

F2P isn’t really free, there’s always a catch. Most F2P has classically been more like free to demo and lube up your credit card if you really wanna play. More recent trends are getting away from that since people obviously don’t like it and are getting slicker in coming up with ways to pry away your money.

GW2 isn’t truly F2P since you have to buy the box up front. It’s a hybrid and I think this is a very good approach for high quality games. The F2P aspect of GW2 beyond that box sale is amongst the least lame of the F2P offerings I’ve tried or know of, since there are no restrictions on your playing and the things you can get for “cash” are entirely optional conveniences.

(Compare the micro transaction and restriction heavy F2P implimentation that’s hitting SWTOR today if you wanna see how F2P should NOT be done…oy…what a mess. Sadly, BioWare seems entrenched in 10 years ago – it showed in their UIs and features when SWTOR released and it’s showing now in their F2P implimentation – it’s like they haven’t paid attention to what’s happening in MMORPGs since WoW released or something – they just saw WoW, said, we should do that to KOTOR, and got locked in time stasis.)

Anyways…

One could very easily play everything GW2 has to offer without ever spending an extra penny.

ANet’s goal then is to put stuff in the gem store that are attractive to get you to throw down extra cash, without being pay 2 win or overpowered, and without comprimising the principle of the whole game being available without cash barriers. IMO, they do a very good job of this.

The other thing about GW2’s “store” is that gems can be bought and sold in player economy, adding an interesting wrinkle to player economy, and enabling players to ultimately obtain gem store items via in game currency.

The thing is, you’re not likely to have extra or enough in game currency to do this until you’re at the level cap, or you just may be like many players who aren’t very good at accumulating wealth and that’s the rub. You might want more bank slots, another character slot, or other attractive goodies long before you can afford to translate game gold into store gems, and instead decide to throw down some cash for gem store options.

I’m thinking ANet is doing pretty decently with gem store based on the fact that the gem/currency market seems pretty thriving and the fact that ANet is already cranking quality free content (if you wiki GW1 and their usual way of doing things, one way they’ve intended to make money is by charging for xpacs, although they did do free content for GW1 too).

Medazolam.3058:

when the prices were in the 2s-3s range, i must have bought about 500 dyes easy, got the gambling bug bad.

Yeah, when the were < 3 or up to 3.5 I was buying them by the 100 even though I already have amost every dye on my main. Most of my many alts have sexy rares too. It’s a terrible addiction that kills what little income I have.

But this inflation has pretty much curbed my habit, so thanks ANet!

My conspiracy theory is, ANet wants to steer people towards dye paks in the gem store. Those really weren’t worth buying with dye drop rates high and prices so low.

The current drop rate is brutally low compared to what it was before they “accidentally” increased the rate. My theory continues that they intentionally upped the rate briefly to then turn around and crush the rate under the premise of “fixing the problem” the increase caused (which it has done and beyond, well beyond).

Luck aside, the TP relfects drop rates as a whole. I don’t think bots getting slapped down is that much of a factor since dyes drop for everyone at all levels (or used to) so lack of bots shouldn’t make THIS much of a dent (compared to what it’s doing for rare crafting mat prices).

ANet has been doing patches for the most trivial of things at times. If they felt like they overcorrected for this after doing a patch JUST to correct the increased rate, they could’ve already balanced it out, not that I really believe they can make mistakes with this because they have metrics and data tracking and a pretty good idea of what dinking with drop rates will do to supply and demand.

Either way, conspiracy or not, the current dye situation is lot less fun for those of us that like to buy lots of dyes and play “dye lotto.”

I doubt they’ll tie achievements or monthlies to the one-time events and I would guess that whatever event-releated stuff that’s tied to the monthlies will be reasonable to accomplish.

AcidicVision.5498:

On paper, A.net has pretty much stayed consistent with their habits. It’s more that the players have changed. Maybe that’s the new audience scared that this game will turn in to the one they left? To them I say, it didn’t happen seven years ago, it likely wont now. Maybe its other former GW players that didnt experience the game pre-Sorrow’s Furnace? To them I say, this has already been done and you continued to enjoy the game for a long time afterwards.

You don’t work for ANet so clearly you can’t speak for them.

This game is not GW1 and not a direct sequel to GW1 since it’s aimed at being a more mainstream (but different, or was) type of MMORPG for a wider audience.

ANet did speak for themselves with their oft touted manifesto and clearly different philosophical vision for this game.

First you realize that GW2 isn’t an “endgame” type of MMORPG in the classic sense. Anybody who bought the game should already know that if they have any shred of intellect. Sadly, this is the MMORPG genre and expecting players to have and use brains is asking for entirely too much.

So complaining about lack of endgame crap from typical formula MMORPGs doesn’t make much sense if you have any idea what game you’re playing in the first place.

There is plenty of room for expanding and adding content to GW2, obviouisly. It doesn’t have to involve more tiers of gear.

GW2 was supposed to be about a different mindset. Enjoying playing a game just to play it, to enjoy content, to have fun, without an endless gear carrot treadmill.

Unfortunately, so many people who have no clue ended up playing this game, and want it to be like a formula game, and they whine, as they always do, and apparently ANet is listening to the whiners (which is typical of formula games and something I never expected to see from ANet).

Yeah, thanks. I’ve been feeling like this game isn’t for me for the long haul since the “endgame” zones are mediocre, players return to brat form due to poor game design at endgame, getting great stuff via mystic forge lotto vs earning it stinks, and so on.

If you’re gonna shift away from core design philosophies (big reason why I was excited about GW2) and turn the game into a formula gear grind MMORPG, that kinda helps me decide that this really isn’t the game for me.

It doesn’t matter whether the new gear is optional or not. Everything in any game is optional. You don’t have to grind gear tiers in WoW either, you can be one of those nublets that never gets past level 20 and does trade chat all day (kinda like people in Lion’s Arch or Queensdale that never shut up).

What matters is that GW2 was sold as being a different kind of game and ANet is already shifting away from the philosophies that attracted many of us.

Gehenna.3625:

Yep, see this Anet?

That’s what I mean. Once you say A, you need to say B. If you think that people are exaggerating because they are upset you let go of your principles….it’s started already and this thread is part of it.

Bring in the gear check. That way we can make sure we can shun players and turn this game into “yet another one of those MMOs”.

Truth is spoken.

It’s very sad to see ANet abandoning what they sold us on.

You knew something like never seeing the same boss twice in 10 minutes wasn’t gonna happen, that was a pipedream.

But something like there won’t be tiered gear is much more critical and tangible and under firm control. Flushing that is flushing one of the major design philosophies and selling points of the game.

loaded.1938:

forum users are about 5% of gw2 community and the other 95% are probably looking forward to the new patch as i am just saying

Or they’re drones with no opinion and/or no idea what’s going on.

If I didn’t tell my guildies what was upcoming, they would have no idea there was even a patch coming. They are oblivious. They visit no forums, no game sites, never visit the official site, and definitely nobody I knows gives a rats backside about facebook or twitter for games.

You can’t have FULL exotic since the back slot item is a screw job limited to a green you must go thru a nut stapling misery of a story quest to obtain (wasn’t so bad the first time even though the ending is horrific, but doing it repeatedly makes you want to rip your own head off….I literally quiver at the thought of hearing another trahearne speech).

Anyways.

I’m fully exotic on 3 80’s. It’s cake since you can do it all thru crafting and I got a lot of it done before they nerfed the T6 spawn cycles into unfun oblivion. Even so, I could easily get it done quickly for a new 80 now with 3 80’s doing gathering runs and gold earned before selling exotic weapons became misery too. (Seems like a common theme in this game is taking out fun and replacing it with misery, IMO, for ex, I used to like buying unidentified dyes, but that’s gone as well.)

I like crafting but I think it was a bad idea to make it so that ALL exotics (except universally unavailable lame black slot) were so readily available via crafting. Too exploitable and too easy even if it doesn’t work for some.

You also had the problem of speed runs and other exploitive ways of getting set exotics fast early too.

Overall, endgame gear in this game was poorly thought out.

And now to make it worse, they’re going back on “there will be no gear tiers” and already adding a new tier. Oh. Yay.

Another fun element of this is that IMO ANet did a weak job of internal testing on all content not experienced by beta tester players, especially the Orr zones and explorable modes (lotsa exploits discovered and closed and entire emblem system revamped since release). So far their track record on patches hasn’t been so great either (usually have 1+ subsequent patches to fix (often glaring) issues).

The chances of this new dungeon being exploit free and fully functional as intended are pretty low, IMO. I don’t have much faith in ANet’s internal testing or testing methodologies at this point.

Bad design move + weak testing = incoming lameness.

It sounded good at the time. Clearly reality doesn’t match and it’s going downhill with enhancements already.

ANet is a business. They exist to make money. Reality is money. Utopian dreams are vapor.

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

People are mad because they just found out they have been cheated and lied to for years.

Pretty much. So much for the manifesto. So much for a different design philosophy. It hasn’t even been 6 months and already another tier of gear in game that wasn’t going to have gear tiers.

This kind of kills ANet’s credibility.

I’m of two minds.

On one hand, this goes against everything ANet said (so soon?) about gear not being tiered. It hasn’t even been 6 months and already we’re getting another tier of gear? That’s laughable. It’s honestly truly pathetic that they are this full of dookie. So much for the manifesto and different design philosophies!

On the other hand, this game severely lacks for things to EARN in PvE. Eastern grinds for rare items or exotics made via MF isn’t earning. Getting cool precursors or named exotics via MF is luck, not earning. Luck-based loot like how MF works in GW2 is utterly lame.

Doing dungeons, beating bosses, seeing that huge chest, and having it drop a couple generic blue pieces of vendor trash you can get off of any mob in the game is a major joke. Dungeons in this game lack the punch you get out of dungeons in ANY other rpg where beating bosses means getting some kind of reward, even if it’s crap you don’t need or want – it’s at least there’s something potentially remarkable about it.

So, while I’m kind of upset that ANet has already shifted on a core design philosophy that was a driving force for this game, they needed to do SOMETHING to make dungeon loot something more special than perpetual generic vendor trash. I’m not sure this was the answer, since it’s a slap in the face of everyone who bought into their manifesto and philosophies, but it’s something.

Nova.2897:

Why would they nerf drop rates

IMO, to steer people towards the gem store and gem paks.

My conspiracy theory is that they originally intended to stealth nerf the drop rates to reduce supply, drive up prices, and make the gem store dye paks more attractive (since they are a very bad buy when dyes are common and cheap as they have been since release).

But they pooched it and bumped the rate up instead (or maybe on purpose to weakly justify the radical change in the other direction to “correct” it).

Either way, the rate has now been dropped harshly, lamely, and un-fun-ly into oblivion such that dyes seem to drop very rarely now, prices have skyrocketed, and unidentified dyes have fallen off of the “most traded” spot on the TP summary page that they’ve held since release (with the only time previously that they fell off was during halloween when event crap took their place for a while).

There are definitely fewer bots around (thanks ANet for that, for sure) and you can see that reflected in the market with the prices of T5 and T6 crafting rares soaring, but I kind of doubt bots had as much influence on dyes. Bots were specifically targeting mobs that yield crafting drops (like anything in frostgorge/orr), but dye drops are more random (or were til they dried up entirely).

As someone who plays the game daily on several different characters, I’m seeing a dye drop every few days where I used to get a few dyes per day and if I was really cranking the killing I’d get a several dyes in a session easily.

I think I have all dyes unlocked on my ele and all of my alts have lots of dyes, but I still used to enjoy buying a bunch of dyes to see what I might get. Not doing that anymore when the prices have more than doubled. And sure as hell not buying dye paks in gem store no matter how much ANet screws over dye drops. To me it’s just an example of fun being taken out of the game.

On one hand I applaud ANet for how well they are able to control the economy in GW2, but at the same time, it’s kind of lame because this game has the worst economy of any MMO I’ve ever played. Most MMOs suffer from non stop inflation which usually isn’t a real problem since things are relative and new players can hop in easily but this game suffers from the fact that almost nothing has value or is worth selling and things that do have value aren’t earned or produced, they are gained randomly thru MF, which is lame. Ultimately, the market in GW2 is boring and not fun at all.

The way aggro works in the open world is utterly broken and leads to a lot of griefing.

It as if the game design facilitates and promotes grief.

Much of this game is about fairness and cooperation, and you do see that at early/mid levels. But once you hit 80, especially in Orr zones, especially when it comes to T6 gathering, you instead see typical MMO brat and scumbag behavior, and it is because the game provides a way for it to happen.

If some little brat aggros 10 mobs running around, those mobs should stay with the brat, not peel off onto random people the brat either gets near or intentionally runs over knowing that in this poorly designed game the mobs will peel off and attack other players.

Far too often, some brat will drag 10 mobs onto a gathering node, tap the node since it’s also moronic design to allow gathering while in combat, and “share” those 10 mobs with everyone else near the node, then run off, leaving all of those mobs in combat with other people.

There are two problems – the poorly designed way that aggro works in this situation, and the ability to gather in combat. Remove the ability to gather in combat and brats would be far less likely to drag mobs all over and onto other people. Instead people would be cooperating to clear mobs near nodes like they used to cooperate in early game.

The other problem is that mobs one punk scumbag wakes up far too readily move to other players who have nothing to do with the situation. If you attack, heal, intervene, do ANYTHING involving those mobs, that’s one thing, but if you’re just trying to stay out of they way and mobs are peeling off the original scumbag brat punk to attack others, that’s another thing.

So much of this game is well designed. This aspect simply is not. The way aggro works in this situation is a built-in griefing mechanism, it’s game facilitated griefing, it’s poor design, and it ruins fun for people who do like to cooperate and enjoy a fair environment.

Your lame game design in this situation turns people into griefing brats. For sure some do it intentionally, because unfortunately MMORPGs always have a decent sized population of undesirable punks, but some people undoubtably just do it because it’s possible and it’s more efficient for them to be d-bags than to play nice.

What is less common in Orr is to see people fighting mobs near nodes, or helping people who are shockingly fighting mobs near nodes. What’s more common is to see brats dragging tons of mobs thru other players, tapping nodes, and moving on, or running up while others are fighthing, tapping the node, not helping, and greedily going about their happy scumbag way.

You should NOT be able to gather a node where combat is occurring. Period. Fix your game design so that ALL of the design is about fairness and cooperation. Not just some of the game.

You can’t fix players that are scumbags, but you can fix broken design.

The ability to gather while in combat is simply bad design. It allows people to skip fighting mobs and moreso, allows players to grief other players when combined with the utterly stupid way activating/aggroing mobs works.

This game is largely designed around fairness and cooperation but being able to gather while in combat encourages and facilitates grief and leads to zero cooperation (and coupled with the moronic way aggro works leads to endless griefing).

I’ve been playing MMORPGs since EQLive released and can’t think of one where you could gather while in combat. It makes no sense to allow it, and leads to lots of negative gameplay.

Change it.

I have 3 80’s. They all ONLY carry ori tools (and occasionally black lion if I’ve got them from chests).

Today and on past occasions, my ele has ONLY ori tools in bag and equipped. Today on past occasions with the same tools, I’ve gotten ruined ore chunks and ruined wood using ori tools on T6 nodes.

I have never got ruined crap on my warrior or ranger using T6 tools on T6 nodes.

Not sure why this happens with my ele but it’s pretty lame.

The economy in this game is lame, limited access to nodes is lame, doing gathering runs in zones full of kittens dragging mobs all over the place and griefing aggro transfers is lame, and then to top it off, NOT getting your mats and getting poop instead is extra lame.

The daily is about playing the game and getting rewarded for doing basic playing.

If you can’t manage to tap 5 events…dunno what to tell you…other than you fail at E-Z.

I consider this one of the lamer aspects of the game.

For the most part, the player economy in GW2 is horrible. There is little you can sell beyond raw materials since so much stuff goes for vendor prices or cost of mats. Too much supply, not enough demand, and brutal listing/selling fees.

The only big profit items are things you get thru luck in the MF. So much for being a skill-based game.

I think this is one reason my interest in GW2 is waning. The player econ is setup entirely to benefit ANet, not players.

I list a few things I get that are actually worth selling and once in a while I dump excess crafting mats since outside of exotics there isn’t much point in making anything to sell. I barely touch the market at all since there just isn’t much point.

In more typical MMORPGs I’d be heavily involved in the market doing all kinds of buying and selling and would have dozens of auctions going at all times. It’s not like it was get rich quick and easy, most people aren’t that great at player econ regardless of game.

I have a nice pile of gold in GW2, it just isn’t very much fun at all acquiring it vs the enjoyment of the economic/player econ minigame in other games.

I really, really dislike the MF – I like to achieve and gain due to skill and tenacity, not due to luck.

Why play MMORPGs if you don’t wnt to group? They are massively multiplayer for a reason. Tons of single player games out there for people who only want to solo – stop contributing to diluting MMORPGs if you don’t really want to play them.

For me, no. Monumental waste of time and resources and not fun to do.

I like to earn stuff but prefer it be done via something resembling skill or effort, not via mindless grinding. All of the high end style mystic forged loot I’ve seen so far is all about grind – you need ungodly amounts of mats and whatnot, and there’s nothing special about the way you get it, you just grind, grind, grind, or in some cases you can shortcut with gold, which just encourages cheating via gold sellers.

I find players dragging 10 mobs behind them and having most of them peel off that person and attack me instead a lot more annoying. The way aggro (doesn’t) work in this game is very stupid and you see it more in Orr than anywhere. It’s pitiful and amateur game design that leads to griefing.

I find the fact that you can gather while in combat a lot more annoying. It means people just hit and run nodes while dragging mobs all over the place (see previous point). It’s pitiful and amateur game design that leads to griefing. You see this more in Orr zones than anywhere.

The snares, knockdowns, and the fact that there might be 1 mob type in all of Orr that doesn’t have an annoying ability would be a lot less annoying if you only had to deal with the mobs YOU aggroed or activated, instead of the incessant trains created by bung wipes plowing thru the zone not fighting anything.

I don’t really care when the patches occur, and I think ANets way of doing patches is slick, but 3 minutes of warning is pretty weak.