Guild Wars 2

It is true that this game is unbelievably bursty. That’s something that doesn’t contribute to getting new players as new players, by definition, don’t know what they’re doing and they can be dropped in 3s by an experienced counter. If you don’t agree, you haven’t pvped long enough: walk into a full DH trapper traps’, instant death for many professions; a strong head butt + arc divider crit = +50% of you hp gone in an instant; a vault crit? 50%, 2? dead; get instantly loaded with engi’s conditions, drop 50% in the blink of an eye even as you spam your condi cleanses. There’s so many cheeses in this game it’s not even funny. And this is coming from someone who plays tanky builds and is always below 20% team deaths in ranked matches, zero or one death isn’t rare for me either. So I’m not saying this because “git gud”, it’s just the way it is.

I know this is a pointless post now due to the fact that the game is just about dead from a pvp perspective but if anet ever decides to get their poop in a group and fix pvp these are (Imo from my personal experience) the big problems they need to look at and create solutions for: (Note: I’ve already given multiple solutions in other posts so this is not going to be a solutions thread, just a what needs to be addressed thread)
-Stale build creation
A lack of build diversity and class diversity, everyone fights the same builds for every class every match. It’s boring and when there’s no good way to customize a build due to limited options via amulet and specialization system people get bored and leave. Most of the present builds are cheese or just faceroll easy which isn’t engaging for players to play or fight.
-No separation between soloq and teamq.
People who want to solo should be able to solo without running into premades on ts. It’s not fun to be steamrolled. Likewise, people in 5 man premades should be expecting to fight other 5 mans, it’s more fun when there’s a higher likelihood of a competitive match
-Every build is too tanky with too much damage and too much healing (Goes for both condi and power builds)
Part of the excitement of building should be figuring out what to invest in and how to specialize the role of your build. Maybe you want to be heavy damage? Then you have to suffer the fact that things will do a ton of damage to you if you get caught off guard or not paying attention. Or if you want to be bunker, that’s cool but don’t ever expect to kill anything. Right now every build has too easy of a time getting the “Optimal” setup where they are super tanky, have tons of healing, tons of damage, and group support/res power. The game needs to force more investment from players so nobody can achieve this “Perfect build”
-Lack of meaningful changes
This is a fault of the devs plain and simple. I love you anet and I think you guys make amazing games. The GW games will always have a special place in my heart bu you really messed up with a lack of changes. People get tired of having to complain about the same thing every day for months on end because it’s never even acknowledged as an issue. Eventually, as you can obviously see, they leave and you are left with nobody to play your game which is sad honestly.
-Too much passive gameplay
It’s both a balance problem and a gameplay problem. It’s not engaging for people to fight a billion passives. It’s not fun and frankly, its frustrating. Getting cced because you timed a cc well and they got caught with it or getting one shot because you fell below 50% health and they auto’d you just doesn’t feel good for anyone.

This is my list of general stuff to look out for and fix because imo it killed pvp, feel free to leave whatever you want here because I just don’t really care to try anymore.

can elder dragons eat one another for a large boost in magical energy/food?

based on this question, with Zhaitan dying and its body falling on the eastern edge of orr could it have been consumed and used to strengthen another elder dragon (or one of its champions). My guess would be that the deep sea dragon or one of its minions consumed the corpse of zhaitan giving the DSD a major power boost because soon after zhaitan’s fall we see the aggravated karka move into southsun cove. Considering the karka were the top predator in the depths of the ocean and appear escaping onto land soon after the fall of zhaitan (this part may be false as we don’t know how long the karka had been on southsun before they were worked into a frenzy by the consortium, but based on their leader just moving in and the nests appearing to be unfinished I assume it was soon after the fall of zhaitan)

perhaps it could’ve also been krakatorik who consumed zhaitan, or one of zhaitan’s lieutenants, or maybe its dead body is still just rotting there?

Regarding the giant rings everywhere, I believe they used to form domes. A few of the smaller ones that are still more or less intact have glass domes around them, with the rings forming a framework for the glass. So I think it’s reasonable to assume that the larger ones used to have glass as well.

But I hope we someday get a Fractal or something that takes place in pre-Cataclysmic Orr. Or a Guild Wars 0.

Yesterday I was kicked on Path 3 when the last “boss” has had 1% HP. Can you imagine? that was about 5 seconds to the end and some guy said “please kick him out” just because I was doing different tactic, which for me was more effective. How mad is this? What is the purpose of kicking me 5 seconds before the end, after 20 minutes of good playing? I can’t even find words to describe this kind of players. You are so foolish.

Maybe people aren’t fans of Soule. And I get that: I keep saying this, but I do acknowledge that he is a one trick pony.

But… just listen to the sampling in this. Especially the lead woodwinds. It’s really terrible. And there is little to no orchestration: it’s just bass notes with variations on themes by Soule. Oh, and a bass drum on downbeats. In the last third you get a little orchestration, but while Soule did compose music that was samey, it was well orchestrated, and he understood how to compensate for the shortcomings of sampling.

Also wanted to say the song that plays in the destroyed lion’s arch has a terribly low budget synth and sounds like a 16 bit era Square soft track.

If the Crystal Desert gets put into gw2 at any point, they better use Jeremy Soule’s theme from gw1.

I used to just stand around listening to that track that played in the Crystal Desert. Mesmerizing.

I’m a big fan of video game music, and I follow the different composers and see who’s up to what.

EDIT
Kain made a good point that it is good to get new names out there for composing. And I actually agree on this, and think that it might be a good thing to have Soule out and new faces in. But it still stands that their sampling needs to be higher quality (it’ll cost Anet a few thousand dollars, but big deal) and I think it would be beneficial for them to up their game in orchestration, instead of relying on film scoring tricks and clichés to create atmosphere. (Example: four repeating, dramatic chords over and over again, with strings playing a repeating, cyclical pattern on top for half a minute. Soule did this as well, but usually with decent taste. Not all the time, but most of the time.)

One of my favorite composers is Jeremy Soule. He has a huge résumé, with games such the Knights of the Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls, and Guild Wars under his belt. His music characterized by rich musical texture, high quality sampling and mixing, lush melodies, and simple, but effective, harmony.

The original Guild Wars had him on as the composer for the entire ride of three campaigns and an expansion. He also composed the original release soundtrack for Guild Wars 2. Although his music can be seen as somewhat samey after a while – he’s kind of a one trick pony as far as aesthetic – but the aesthetic he puts out is at least high in quality and is highly atmospheric. And nobody else sounds like him, so while he may have only one sound, that sound is his sound.

Why I bring this up is because the new music since the initial release – so the music that has been composed and mixed for the living world – is obviously not by Jeremy Soule. The only distinctive melodies are the ones taken from the tracks he already composed, the sampling is of horribly noticeable lower quality, and the aesthetic is derivative from game soundtracks and film soundtracks everywhere. There are a few gems here and there, but for the most part the soundtrack I find to be bland and lacking when compared to the sound of the soundtracks by Soule. I don’t know who the composer is, but he needs, first of all, to buy better woodwind samples at the very least (or just don’t use them) and then write better melodies.

Compare this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7dHRaBIE-Y

To this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqAhc2yVcbs&list=PL9u7rbRjJmqD_qh-WXX7zSftvxOL5nUhI

I mean, can you hear it? I know some people like the new tracks, but it is indisputable that the quality has severely suffered. The first example sounded trite, like a cheap track composed for some children’s show. The second one, by Soule, has a richness and a nobility to it that gave the world of Tyria a life that the new tracks can’t compare with. Their vapid quality leaves a hole in their world that I’m sorry to see go. I know I compared apples and oranges between the two tracks, but go listen to the entire Jeremy Soule playlist, and then go listen to any of the new music to hear what I’m talking about. When the new soundtracks try to sound epic (like some of the Scarlet release tracks) it usually relies on cliché Hans Zimmer-esque tools-of-the-trade technique to achieve it’s result.

I don’t know if Soul was cut from it for budget constraints or if he just stepped down from the position, but I’m sorry to see him go. And if there is any way to bring him back, then that needs to happen.

That is all.

PROPOSAL

Create a key-bindable function to instantly toggle between TWO FULL SETS of gear while out of combat.

Why?

• Save time if you have different armor sets for different activities (PvE/WvW/PvE etc.) Since stats are tied to gear instead of the character, this would streamline things immensely.

• Restore the lost functionality of Town Clothes somewhat. With one click, you could switch from full combat gear to whatever “in-town” look you have created.

Little Details

• As mentioned, this would be out-of-combat only.

• You can swap ANY gear from the Hero screen; Armor, Weapons, Accessories, Harvesting Tools, and Underwater Weapons).

• Gear does not swap in and out of your standard Inventory. When inactive, a gear set is stored in its own little space, just like the Town Clothes used to be. Otherwise there could be issues if for some reason a piece was removed from Inventory, or if your Inventory would become over-filled by swapping.

• Some people won’t want to swap out every single piece of equipment. That would mean having to buy two of everything. You would be able to Right-Click each gear icon in your Hero Menu and toggle “SWAP LOCK” on and off. When locked, a particular piece of gear will NOT be changed when using the Equipment Toggle.

Please examine the sample pictures below. This can be done without massive changes to the familiar interface. Imagine how helpful this would be if we ever get the ability to save and reload different TRAIT setups!

Seriously guys, GuildWars2 is a masterpiece in the making, and close to being finished. I am sure many of you already see how great this game is, but sometimes when you read these forums all you see is unintelligent complaint. Whenever people get some emotional frustration of some kind thats related to GW2, they just go dump it here somewhere so its out of their mind. It’s normal, it’s what people do. But with so many people doing that at some point it gets hard to make out what is really going on here.

The work ArenaNet has shown here is nothing short of brilliant, and I feel the latest patch has proven how determined Anet is to make further improvements. Sure there have been a bunch of problems along the way, but you always deal with it and facing trouble is just a necessary phase of getting better. Heads up to you guys! Keep up the good work!

100% Map – 1 Precursor Token.
Level 49% FOTM – 1 Precursor Token.
Rank 500 WvW – 1 Precursor Token.
Dungeon Master – 1 Precursor Token.
X sPvP wins – 1 Precursor Token.

5 Precursor Tokens – 1 Precursor.

Lazarus.3970:

Im sure you have seen videos of other games where people go to unfinished areas or dev testing sites. Undoubtedly GW2 has such locations.

I wouldnt be surprised if there was even mechanics/special class hidden to us that allow the devs to use any skill or any weapons/armor in any combination. Such things are necessary for testing.

Except that there is absolutely no way you would be able to gain access to maps that you are not intended to.

Yes you can glitch into areas within maps that were unfinished, but the mechanics for travelling between maps and the way the server tells which map you are in mean that there is almost zero likelihood of you being able to port into some magical unfinished zone that you shouldn’t able to reach.

First of all, they wouldn’t put an unfinished zone in game – there’s no point, they would be testing it on their own servers, no reason to implement it onto the live servers.

Second, if it were on the liver servers there’d be a good chance someone would have found something in the .dat that at the very least HINTED at its existence.

Third, they’re not idiots….

Konig is absolutely right, if they had a map that they were going to release – they would have done so. I would assume they probably are working on new maps, but until they decide to release them they won’t be accessible in any way shape or form within the game. It’s common sense, they know that datminers have a tendency to jump on anything new – that’s part of the reason patches aren’t released until patch day.

Also the devs don’t need a special hidden class that allows that, if you’ve watched some the live streams they have the ability to mess with things on their own servers for testing purposes – e.g. removing cast times completely. But they do that kind of stuff on their OWN servers for testing, not on the live servers. An intelligent company is not going to put potentially game breaking things on live servers if they can avoid it. Testing servers exist for testing.

My Mesmer: Mind Tormentor (named after the GW1 creature that is a Mesmer)

Three bits are zodiac, but she has different gloves, helm and shoulders being the mix-n-match bits. Dyed accordingly to match.

Great, a schoolgirl outfit. Now we just need angel and demon wings and we’re set for a Korean release

Anet already stated they were taking a break from story producing so that they can present a better story than season 1. Like with TV series, I expect the new season to begin after summer – though maybe it’ll start with the anniversary, or DragonBash (a good way to introduce going after a new Elder Dragon).

There’s a lot in the game, so much so that I would find you a bloody liar if you said you did everything in your preferred format of PvE, WvW, or sPvP.

Primordus, for following reasons:

1) He was The First. He had the most time to amass his forces, and by the time of GW2, his minions are popping virtually everywhere. This tells me he already controls the Depths of Tyria, and now he is coming for the surface. If so, he is the most powerful Elder Dragon right now.

2) The Dwarves. Remember the little fellas who turned to stone to slow Destroyers’ advance? With Primordus being the next, we’d finally see what happened to them. My theory is they are the only thing that keeps Primy from full scale invasion on the surface.

3) Asuran civilization. Entire Asuran cities, containing advanced technology and magic forgotten even to Asura themselves, lie underground. Meybe we’d found out if there are more Asura refugees in Tyria. More Asuran lore = good.

4) Tengu. If there are any candidates for playable race, it’s them. They are tied to Primordus, as their Dominion of Winds is besieged by destroyers. Also, they are heavy-Canthan themed, which means new Cantha-related lore. It would be the first step in Canthan expansion. Which is good. I probably say Cantha too much. I don’t care.

I feel Primordus would bring the most from the Elder Dragons. Dwarven, Asuran and Canthan lore, there is enough variety to make the content interesting. Also, the thought of Primordus erupting from the ground like a volcano and our characters charging him is exciting as kitten.

My vote would be for ol’ Kralky.

Partly this is for the crystal and lightning theme, both aesthetics I like, so not really such a rational explanation.

Partly, though, it’s because of the potential for expansion from taking on Kralkatorrik, both in the sense of expanding the lore and expanding the game world. Politically, tackling Kralky would make Elona more accessible, and in combination with the destruction of Zhaitan, could bring Joko and the situation in Elona back to the fore, thus paving the way for expansion into Elona. More locally, a concerted effort against Kralkatorrik would probably require the participation or at least support of Ebonhawke and the Iron Legion, so a Kralkatorrik-focused storyline would generate impetus to at least show us how the peace process has been going since release.

From the perspective of bigger-picture lore – going up against Kralkatorrik has the potential to give us more Zephyrite-related lore, including possibly bringing Glint’s children back into the picture in one form or another. Furthermore, there are a lot of sites of lore significance in the Crystal Desert – Augury Rock and related sites might carry some more knowledge about the gods, but more significantly, being able to poke around in the former stomping (slithering?) grounds of the Forgotten might allow a lot of questions about the Forgotten to be answered – the simplest being getting an answer on whether they are actually still hiding out beneath the sands, whether they’ve left, or whether those that used to live in the Crystal Desert are in fact now extinct.

I don’t have time to respond to everything in your post now (I’m at work right now) but LA was empty because all of the city functions like bank access, merchants etc. have been moved to the Vigil Keep as part of the Living Story.

If you go through any of the portals (in cities or the Heart of the Mists) that normally lead to LA you’ll come out there and find all the people you’d normally see in LA. (Although there’s also a lot more people in the racial cities now.)

Also if you were buying trait books every time you wanted to change your traits then you were wasting a lot of money – the trainer would reset them for a few silver, far less than the cost of a book. In that sense the new update should be better for you because now it’s free to change them whenever and wherever you want (as long as you’re out of combat).

Seras.5702:

Victory.2879:

Lvling without traits isn’t fun.

Agreed. That’s what I meant about the “trait situation.” I hate that Anet feels the trait progression was too advanced for apparently stupid players and had to push everything back 20 levels. I lost access to my GM traits on my most recent alt. And my buddy who’s new to the game lost access to ALL of his traits for another half dozen levels. So much for him getting the hang of experimenting with traits.

I know that you are right about that, but when megaserver is over the whole game, you can do everything with more players, so more players, less hard to do.
So without traids wouldn’t be that bad.

I never started a post here, but this time i feel like i want to say this.

The Megaserver, the dye system, the wardrobe, all these new things make it so mutch more fun to play.
You can do events with more people, no more dead zones, your character looks nice when you start it.

Before all this, you had colors that you don’t like, you was all alone in the world :p
I realy like to lvl a new character now

I just want to say that, i like the new updates.
Oke i now that there are some things that couldt be don beter, but that i don’t mind, the outfits seperated and mixing was more fun.
But i like it that you can where theme in battle
and the boss timers is something to get used to, but i think that’s not a prob.

But overall the most of the update is very nice.
So i wanne says well done arenanet

I hope the megaserver will be soon to expand

no, megaserver da best, need megaserver for every zone!

OMG NO!,

My thief did 15k Pistol Whips in PvE on average, Now she does 13.8k on average. OMG 1.2k Damage lost!!! The world is ending!

For real Zerk is still best dps stop crying and do some math/testing.

Are there really people out there who believe that berzerker gear is no longer the best for pure DPS? All these people asking for a refund on their gear, if they got one, what would they replace it with given a total refund?

Louveepine.7630:

1) MEGASERVEUR!
Especially in Europe, where he virtually 6 different languages??. This is a mess!

This. If you don’t fix this quickly, you will lose players in droves.

Greetings and salutations.

With Season 1 of the Living Story drawing to a close, it seems appropriate to offer review and reflection of everything that has come thus far. Sadly, there is much to consider, as the brand new path trod by Anet has many missteps and mishaps along the way.

Rather than talk about individual flaws, I thought it might be best to take a stab at the overall writing style of the Living Story and the narrative flaws it continues to exhibit. Plot holes come and go, individual complaints will always remain, but the best way to help Season 2 is to consider the pitfalls of Season 1 from a writing and gaming perspective. And so, I thought I would offer up a bit of constructive criticism in silly infographic format.

For your consideration, Fifteen Lessons From Fifteen Months of Scarlet Briar.

The megaserver is probably the best feature Anet has ever added to the game. Its absolutely necessary to bring liveliness to the game from drastically improving the population. The game is an MMO, and there should be a lot of people around you who give the game a community feeling.

Especially for gw2, a game that strives to have a living world, and has Dynamic events in each zone, having a lot of players is crucial. Because dynamic events alone dont give a world the living feeling, but the players actively participating in these events, through these chains, are what give it this feeling.

Honestly, I think Anet just giving AP farmers some breathing room to farm WvW right now.