Guild Wars 2

Eh, I’d like another vote for the outcome type LS release, but not about this plz.

CharrGirl.7896:

She reminds me of little sisters from Bioshock tbh.

And can every1 stop calling the new group DE 2.0 already?

What’s wrong with DE 2.0? They kind of are…. and they’re better in most ways. (IE we feel like a team during living world stuff rather than us being the followers. *cough*Trahearne*cough*)

Well I did see on reddit a few days ago that a dev had posted about client side upgrades in the next few months that might fix some of the connection issues at least….

Elbegast.6970:

A 50 man instance is perfectly viable. ArenaNet just has no desire to instance the world bosses. They think having major bad guys in the open world somehow makes the world feel alive. Ignoring the fact that it completely empties all zones in which there is no event.

For an open world boss to be ‘good’, it needs to scale well with the group size. If 5 people are the only ones attempting the fight, those 5 people should stand a chance of killing the boss.

I get the lower scaling thing to an extent, but if you can just find 3 people and go, I think it wouldn’t seem as epic and people would master it in a day and say it’s too easy, boring, like dungeons have become, so I think it has to have SOME people. (Though 50 or so is too high a requirement, I agree.) As for the instanced versions, since a lot more ‘casual’ type players (like me) play the game, organizing 20+ people for any type of instanced version of a boss would royally suck.

I know the system isn’t anywhere near perfect, but I am enjoying what we got, and can definitely see them improving in a lot of ways, even if it’s still frustrating some people. I think we’ll get a good balance of difficult based on skill versus player count as time goes on, but I also know some people are getting real impatient with Anet. :/

You get to get rid of them once you have 25 of each. You have to hold on to them for a day or two. I get that sometimes they’re annoying, but I’m never really hurting for inventory space….

Well, from when this game was released I remember people liked to discover things. Jumping puzzles, where bosses were, cool hidden areas, etc etc. I think they try to keep some of that. The in game prompts give us some direction, but part of it still supposed to be all ‘adventure-y’ and such. After a few days we’ll all have it figured out, but this way if you want to just play and explore, you can try to figure it out yourself. Like we used to do with video games….

Okay you don’t like it, what do you want though? What WOULD be good? And people’s ‘solutions’ to what they think is the problem usually isn’t viable, like making an instance for 50 people for a boss or whatever. How would you do an open world boss to make it good? How would you tell the story better to make it feel epic?

Scott McGough.6897:

Firearm.6904:

Is it just me, or am I getting a Jimmy Neutron vibe from our new Asuran friend?

Thoughts?

Good ear! Taimi is indeed voiced by Debi Derryberry
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220635/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Really? Sweet.

rfdarko.4639:

I get that they are splitting up the zerg, and they want to encourage those moments where you feel like you, as an individual, had a big impact on the fight. But I think the initial platform separation is enough. Standing around for a good minute just watching a single defeated player on a platform is not a compelling moment. Let the walls come down after you defeat your champion so you can at least help range the others.

That would be something I’d like to see. Reward the group that killed their champ quickly and let us help one another. If we have to work together for the rest of the event, why not there? It also sucks when there are 2 of you on a platform but the person you’re with either dies instantly or doesn’t help res you when you go down, which has cost us a chain 2 times.

I DO like the bosses though, and aside from that, I like the challenge on them.

SoPP.7034:

I wish they had included this level of depth to other LS. It really consolidated a lot of information and you even developed greater empathy for a lot of these characters.

They should be able to more moving forward. The writers now know how to add dialogue to the game, so they can flesh things like this out a bit more moving forward.

Also, I liked this a lot. 1: Characters got some well needed development. 2: They feel more like teammates and allies than Trahearne or Destiny’s Edge ever really have.

JJBigs.8456:

People are trying their best, if you can do better, lead like several individuals and guilds have done. If you think you know more than the current commander/leaders doing the event, im sure they would be open to suggestions or pinning down if you took over.

In the meantime, no one is really out to sabotage the event, people do what they can to the best of their abilities without making it a chore, while having fun. Its an eye opener for sure to how bad of a build or weapon choice certain players make but i wont go too far on this point cept : Run zerk/scholer warriors pls

Yup, I agree. I like the difficulty, and while it might be harder to organize a full open world server over an instanced version, it makes us talk to each other, teach new people how to work with the mechanics, and when we do finally start beating these events, rewarding. People used to whine that the content was too easy, and now that we have to try more than twice, we whine again. I think this is good content personally, and have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with my server on how to go about these bosses all day.

+1. I like that he reminds us of good old GW 1 lore and how it ties into GW 2. Also, I like some of his mysteries and theories videos.

lordkrall.7241:

Based on the hints the data-miners on reddit have posted one can assume that something big and surprising is going to happen, yes.

Yeh, kind of expected. I’m excited for it too.

hun assassian.6145:

The only problem is that arenanet said no new regions or dragons this year so we can only get living story on already existing maps

This is true, but hey, with the 4 teams now, the team that’s worked on this release won’t release again until January, so maybe Collin threw out the ‘no new regions this year’ specifically knowing we’d get there at the very beginning of next year? It’s a long shot, but I can dream.

zexion.5842:

Any GW1 veteran will vote for evon.

the fall of abaddon?!?!?! That’s amazing!

I don’t want to replay how the asura lab blew up….. that’s stupid. But refighting abaddon for gw2? OMG

I know, I want to see the Fall of Abbadon… but I don’t like Evon other than that. THIS IS HARD TO CHOOSE.

Payadopa.4706:

The Living Story is finally picking up steam and I love it!
I never played GW1 but I heard so many things about it like that it has a cool story and all (I’m a sucker for story and lore) and that was sorely missing in GW2.

It’s awesome to see that it’s getting better every 2 weeks!
Keep going, ArenaNet!

The lore in 2 is somewhat deeper when you have played 1, but for anything interesting you have to do some serious digging. The Bazaar specifically has some potential secrets that are pretty awesome. If you want to find some interesting, somewhat hidden lore, check out wooden potatoes on youtube, he likes to dig into a lot of it.

Lord Krilik.3692:

A lot of people think Scarlet may be Livia

She DID get the staff the Vizier used at the end of Eye of the North, so she could still be around. That would be SO great too.

Danikat.8537:

I agree, all they ever add is jumping puzzles.

It would be nice if they did something for people who like other aspects of the game, maybe something like:

• A new PvP map
• New mini games
• Something to show for all our achievement points (besides titles)
• A reason to explore the overworld again, some sort of scavenger hunt (not necessarily the precursor one, we could be looking for anything, just a reason to explore)
• New world bosses and DE chains
• New guild missions
• Something new for WvW, like environmental effects we can trigger
• A way to customise PvP matches and watch other peoples
• Something to reward WvW players and give them a sense of progression
• A way to compare our progress in all aspects of the game to other players, guilds and servers so we can see how we’re really doing
• Something to make dailies rewarding
• New dungeons, maybe a really kittene with some new mechanics that won’t be face-rolled right away by experienced groups
• New item skins and items, maybe even new tiers if it won’t make too many people angry

But no, all we ever get is jumping puzzles.

(In case you’re wondering yes that is a summary of all the permanent content from the Wiki’s Releases page in rough reverse chronological order. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Releases )

This. You don’t like JPs, there’s other changes….. What about when all they had were dungeons and people who like JPs were shafted? Or when they added WvW updates and SPvP people got nothing? They’re getting a bit of everything to everyone as quickly as they can. There’s PLENTY of good stuff going on.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Is it actually stated anywhere that the zone is going away? I know the ship is leaving, but the map itself is part of the world map and appears to be permanent to me.

Yeah, other new stuff that’s left haven’t been shown on the world map, so I would imagine it’s sticking around in some fashion, or at least coming back. They have mentioned the quartz node being the only way to get it, so it might go away at least for a while. I do hope we get more vertical maps like this though, and that somehow we get those zephyrite crystals around the world. Like a slot canyon map leading us to the crystal dessert in a couple of months with jumps and such like in this release would be AWESOME. That or a few new jumping puzzles from time to time that happen to be by spots that the ship dropped some crystals by and you need to use them for it.

I think there are more skins, someone I was talking to had a link to the GS as well. The pistol looks amazing though. I want like 5.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

I’d rather have Marjory’s armor.

John Widdin.9618:

Heavily resembled Paragon armor, which was leather at the time.

Paragon armor was heavy armor.

I’d rather have Marjory’s too. That stuff was awesome looking. And yeah, Paragons were heavy armor. Only ones besides Warriors in GW1.

I do hope we get some new permanent FULL armor sets sooner or later. Even if it’s like, one permanent dungeon at the year anniversary or something, I’d be perfectly content.

OP, no. Just no. Like a lot of people are saying, we need some different ideas in fantasy universes. I love that there aren’t elves. I also really like the Asura, I have 2 of them, one is 80, the other somewhere around 60-65. They’re way fun to play. I don’t love the Char to play, but as a race overall, and their lore, etc? They’re amazing. There are 10 games and fantasy universes with elves for every one that they don’t exist in. :P

Yeah, I hate fighting Dredge more than anything else in this game. I wish they could at least be thinned out some by these events. Also, they have let us know that January and February have been more for introducing other things into the game, and the story aspects have been secondary in those patches. I think these will be okay story-wise, and I think they’ll be able to add enough to at least keep ME content. I also have faith that they’ll get better at making these bits of story content as time goes on, we’re still in their first attempts of doing some of these types of things.

In beta I played the Guardian for like an hour and hated it, then I made another one a month ago and tried the hammer and loved it. Utilities didn’t even matter. I just like being a small Asura and knocking trolls or Norn back across the battlefield.

Satakal.6971:

I was kinda hoping the update would kinda push towards a new dragon story arc, but I guess this is basically confirmation that dragons will only come with expansions, and we will never see Cantha again. I hope I am wrong. By the way, if it’s not dragons, I haven’t an idea what it could be, but the karka even’t felt like a diversion at best – a story arc that has no bearing on anything else we should be concerned about, I hope this one doesn’t end up like that too.

I REALLY hope we see Cantha again, but my guess would be that they’ll do an expansion of Tyria first, like letting us go back to the Northern Shiverpeaks, into the Crystal Dessert, Ring of Fire Islands and deeper into the Maguuma. Then a year or so after that we’ll hopefully go back to Cantha. Pleasepleaseplease!

They’ve kind of set up entrances to go to those other areas in Tyria, like the southern gate in Ebonhawke and some bandit barricades in the jungle that make it seem that those places will be visited first.

I think it’s a bit hard to stay at the right level from 1-20 or so, but beyond that I’m always overleveled. I leave areas at 60-70% completion and am already 3 above the next area’s minimum level. By the end game, crafting and exploring gets me experience faster than I bother to go do my story missions, so I outlevel those significantly as well.

They DO need to teach newer players how to play this game better, and how to get to other starting areas, but in the 2013 preview video they said they’re planning on addressing those issues.

Genevra.6318:

I get a dye every 1-2 days, I think.

@Wheezy: Colin Johansen mentioned that the laurels will be a currency that doesn’t take up inventory space, like karma and gems, and that they will be account-bound.

Sweet, thanks.

Mira.4071:

I have a question about the laurels:

If they’re not being awarded retroactively for past achievements, then should we be waiting until the 28th to finish January’s monthly? The way I’m understanding it, finishing the monthly now means no laurels, and finishing the monthly on the 28-31 means laurels, yes?

Can anyone clear this up?

Anet said that we’re not getting any laurels for the January monthly, so just finish it up if you want to now.

My only concerns are that I still have to wait for the update, and I don’t know any specifics of what’s happening to zones, events, gameplay, etc. All the concrete info we have is on achievements and gem shop items. :P

Shinzan.2908:

Get just about one a day. Though the new achievement system should let you buy them if the preview picture is to be believed so that might address the shortage.

I hope so. After getting ascended stuff that would be a great thing for me, I love getting dyes. Also, does anyone know if they’ve said if the laurels are going to actually go in your inventory like mystic coins, or are they a currency? Plus, are they soul bound or account bound? (I’m assuming the latter.)

Three or so days ago I got like 4. I hadn’t seen one for over a week before that and haven’t seen one since. :P

I don’t want mounts. Please please please NEVER put them in this game. Thank you.

Martin Kerstein.3071:

VOLKON.1290:

Martin Kerstein.3071:

Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:

There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.

So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?

Affirmative.

I don’t know whether you can confirm this or not, but are there at least hopes that we can EVENTUALLY get back to Cantha and/or Elona? I don’t even care if it’s in the second paid expansion four years from now, I just want to know if I can hope or if I should give up the thoughts now?

Like everyone else is saying, thanks! Love the game, and can’t wait for more of these updates to trickle into the game over the next several months.

Victory.2879:

I found the OP’s remarks that the bigger zerg usually wins quite amusing- maybe it does in noobsville, but in higher tiers it’s much more about communication and people’s playing abilities, styles and having the right sort of builds to both survive and contribute to the group. Been in many battles where our far smaller ‘zerg’ has wiped far larger ones- it’s about having the right mix of team and solo players and builds and people willing to commit to the fight.

It’s truely great when you realise you have been standing in the enemy aoe for quite a while and because other players on your side know how to play and what to throw around you’re still alive. Contrast that with a bunch of solo selfish builds that can’t adapt quickly to circumstances and bring no group skills to the party and believe their role is to run backwards at the first sign of even odds and i know which side I’m on.

GW2 is great because the more you look at the professions the more you realise they are there to be tweaked and adapted to suit your style of play and can be adapted for different roles in different places without having to pigeon hole, the more you play one class the more you realise you can do with it and the more you realise how important the right weap, armor, stats, traits, foods, etc all combine to help you realise that build that works best for you.

GW2 rewards synergy between builds- better built squads will always find things easier than a random throw -together. But the real beauty of GW2 is that even pug squads can work in most instances, only failing if the players themselves are not up to scratch and totally failed to think about their build, traits etc:’ I’m fine I’m a solo build I can 1v1 ’ might not be quite so good in a dungeon:-)

I for one am very happy that they didn’t fall into the usual MMO trap of ‘healer/tank/dps roles’. I know it’s difficult for WoW players to get this concept but GW2 system gives you way more flexibility for your profession than the old way of MMO’s.

Try some non-cookie cutter builds on your professions and see what plays well for you. For instance, a mesmer running 30/10/10/10/10, two glamours, gs with scepter (X)/temporal curtain will no doubt attract some derision from a lot of solo mesmers but I run it in wvw for group play for devastating effect and can hold my own against soloists of most classes- most don’t seem to realise what a powerful skill temporal curtain is- try pulling people with it and see!

GW2 is great in it’s variety for each class- sure some stuff is broken, in the wrong trees, etc but they will work on balance issues (check out gw1, endlessly changing skills) and it can only get better.

This, all of this. Especially the last part. Give it a year or two, balance will be way better, and classes can shine in other areas when more builds work better. Mesmers, Assassins and Dervishes seemed to always have changes in GW1, but they got better and better.

This would be fantastic. They had the animations for weapons in GW1 as emoticons, but this would be way better. Plus, it would be more interesting to me than some of the cosmetic items we have as is.

As a Necro, I used Scepter/Dagger the entire time I leveled. I use dual daggers if I’m clearing lower areas since it attacks faster, I move quicker, and I can take care of destructible objects easier as well, but in end game areas, a scepter keeps me alive better than anything else. (I use cond damage as a general, mostly Carrion equips.)

If you guys are still getting through a lot of these, wow. Kudos.

My thoughts are that a one time event is cool, but in the end disallowed a lot of people to participate for various reasons in real life, whether that just be their time zone or obligations like work, etc. It seems to go against the whole idea of rewarding everyone with this game. I would have preferred that the event ran 3 times that day, or once a day for a couple of days, but having a limit set that each account can only access the chest/reward once. We still get to participate, it can still be something that only happened once in the world lore-wise, etc. Or if the game’s system can manage it, do it as an instanced thing that we can only complete once, but make it a larger group than 5, just for these special events. (I don’t want to try and organize 20 people for a dungeon EVER.) I don’t know, just my thoughts.

I enjoyed the new area, and the new stat combo for armor. More items with later updates that gave you other stat possibilities would be great and allow for some more build combos, which would be awesome.

Oh, also, as for bugs, it’s annoying, but I mean, it’s your second time rolling out new stuff, it can take a few times to get the wrinkles ironed out, just keep up the good work with that. Events in GW 1 had no issues, I know you guys can get this to roll content out just as well.

I agree. I had some disappointments as well, (I missed out on the final event and the exotics/20 slot bags) but we got some good new content, and the game has been out for what? 3 months? That’s awesome. We’re getting some gear progression for those who want it, the new dungeon is really fun and provides a good challenge with the scaled difficulty, and we have a promise of more content next month. (I love wintersday in Guild Wars.) For $60 bucks, I’ve gotten about 300 hours, and I’m VERY happy with this game.