Guild Wars 2

ColinJohanson.2394:

SkiTz.4590:

Colin, just clear up one thing – There is 0% chance EU/NA GW2 gets a VIP system?

We’re absolutely not bringing the China VIP system to NA/EU, correct.

The question was, is NA/EU getting a VIP system in the future?

And it seems i wasn’t the only one noticing this…

.

Lishtenbird.2814:

…

Are you also absolutely not bringing the NA/EU VIP system to NA/EU?

skepticck.9714:

…

The cynic in me can’t help but notice that Mr. Johanson wrote “the China VIP system” and not “any VIP system”.

AlexPort.9204:

…

hi colin!
just to be clear, becuase it came up in our discussion: you’re not bringing the chinese VIP to NA/EU. but will you make instead a new one just for NA/EU?

thx in advance for your answer!

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Zephaust Zenith.8376:

Many arrows to the knees…

lol that guy must be Squishy , though i see its all consistant 3k’s till you get to a tougher target , all is well here Moving on ! happy thoughts.

At that time, i didn’t pay attention to vulnerability stacks in that ~10sec encounter.
That toon had ~2.5k armor.

p.s: Anet, my Hip Shot wants some love too…

Many arrows to the knees…

I have yet to see the siege side of the update in action for a longer period to judge.

Regarding the tag color, i don’t think it does much right now, atleast on my server from what i saw.
I still see the ol’ “everyone to tag”, “don’t be a lone loot bag” zerg/blob propaganda. People got too cosy playing together in big groups… only guild raids and unnoticed roamers break the mold because, ofen i hear things like, “too many tags – too confusing”…

Time will tell…

My view on this map,

I find EotM a fun map to play with an interesting design and mechanics to make fights more fun and fast paced than in regular W³.
But, from my point of view, alot of this potential goes unused or unwanted by many of its players because:

- even with megaserver tech, some sides often outnumber the others demotivating players (mostly those who are there for rewards).

- players go there to lvl up and/or just want the karma,w/exp,champ bags. They don’t mind PvP (and lootbags) when they (and the lvl 80’s) cleary outnumber and steamroll the opposition – if resistance comes up with wipes they complain about PvP in… a PvP map, blame the commander or something else.

- Commander job is often asked for and can be stressful both for them and their followers because of a conflict of interests (pro PvP and pro PvE or a mix of both) driving them.

I hope with the next feature pack, the new player experience will attract more players to level up through PvE (although for me it was never an issue after several toons).
I believe there are some genuine players who want to get into the PvP side of W³ in EotM but given the numbers of uplevels vs geared 80’s this situation can have odd results or the experience be changed by others driving motives to play there.

I’m not much of a PvE farmer (sometimes have small bursts of farming mood) and also go to EotM for the rewards but not exclusively for them. I wouldn’t mind if the rewards get toned down simply to promote PvP first and foremost.
On the other hand, while players are “farming” Eotm for the rewards they aren’t doing so in PvE maps which may be seen as a positive for those who enjoy train free maps (even if megaserver tech nulifies that)…

.

Regarding the OP,

I guess Megaserver tech in EotM could be tweaked to function better in distributing players on each side per instance.

The idea of player kill bonuses making into more of a deathmatch map sounds good given the nature of EotM’s “Hotjoin” but i wouldn’t remove cap points rewards, if anything, they could be tweaked down to accommodate the new player kill rewards.

But, a problem i see with this is uplevel players and geared 80’s, casual solo and organized guild runs affecting the whole experience which currently can already be seen .

I’d understand the frustration at dealing with turrets at melee range but the are stationary objects which are usually traited for, carry a cooldown and can be dealt with range and AoE.

robertul.3679:

Short answer: l2p.
Long answer:
… turrents!
… torrents
… turrit
… Torrets engi is a troll build.

:)

I agree and +1 the request.

This is long overdue and a deterrent to purchase and upgrade W³ gear unless it’s meant to act as a gold/gem sink – bug or another feature lacking proper clarification ?

The prices of the extractors are also out of touch with the rest of the economy surrounding most of the sigils/runes. Lowering the price would most likely boost their sale.

Branden Gee.2150:

You shouldn’t be seeing this crash any more.

Was going to update my previous post – since i posted it, game hasn’t crashed with this issue (or any other).

Thanks

Happened to me aswell a few times now with different characters in different areas.

Running -repair didn’t fix the issue since it just crashed while i was away from PC.

System game is on: i7 950, HD7850 2Gb, Win7 64, 6Gb DDR3 (system running at stock)

Vayne.8563:

OP, you’re better off logging in and checking out the game yourself. Most game forums are filled with dissatisfied people complaining. There are those of us here who enjoy playing the game.

Whether you’ll enjoy it or not you probably won’t find out by reading the forums though.

Pretentious much ?
What about those who enjoy playing the game and are dissatisfied with some of it ?

Anyway, regarding OP, a few posts above describe some of the major changes to the game since you last played so they should get you started on things to look out for, just don’t neglect forums as a source of positive and negative information even when not looking for those, since both are useful in their own ways.

This has been discussed before and the current mentality on my realm is like that – only one active commander tag per map or chat becomes a whinefest.

This makes me think, most commanders can only “play” with one big zerg/blob behind their back and competition ruins their status quo or it gets too confusing or something. Enter the silent tag’ed GvX’s groups which prove the opposite where multiple groups of ppl work “together” making map coverage and attack/defense counters much more effective than one big group.

To me, even with the current system, it’s way more effective to have 2 or 3 tag’ed groups with equal or different player numbers, with different objectives which can and should join forces when necessary but have higher mobility and response time than just one big group.

We basically need more group chat / tag options and i’d definitively endorse the introduction of W³ tags only or/and reputation system.

But, i tried discussing this ingame in a friendly tone together with the topic of “exclusion” of players if they are not on TS and been “threatned” to be blocked since, well, i didn’t fully agree with their opinions – community @ work… go figure.

King Amadaeus.8619:

They could have easily made mats drop from players only, and made them not drop at all from PVE mobs.

Thus encouraging more pvp-oriented encounters in WvW, but they didn’t. So what does that tell you about your designers?

This could be a solution to take the focus off structure/champ flipping but would probably also promote zerging/blob’ing even more and we know how much “fun” it is to fight in this environment.

Perhaps if loot tagging would be different… (although it seem loot was changed before already)

These are delicate issues but i believe they all share a common problem – the safety of numbers versus (individual) rewards achieved with said numbers.
Currently and with more emphasis put by Anet with character and account progression, the system promotes individual rewards above realm rewards and dare i say – realm pride. Leagues could “try” to fix this last bit but the former will still be there and when it comes to many players : they want their shinies first and foremost.

Feels like a catch-22…

Maybe loot tagging and structure maintenance/warfare needs some revising.

This has been brough up before most likely but i feel the need to mention this again by my own initiative and hopefully get some discussion going before the next W³ update and how it will develop this part of the game into the future to come.

I’ve been away from the game a few times now but check it regularly through forums, news, patch notes and log in every few months to check in. First i left back in early November, returned for a few weeks in April and again in August till now and can’t help to feel this part of the game (WvWvW) is becoming increasingly stale and similar to the state of PvE when it comes to… farming.

With the addon of progression, abilities, WxP and now with more ascended gear, it becomes obvious the mentality at work behind many current W³’ers (including some long time running commanders) boiling down to… farming.

While the Zerg/Blob mentality about capping and dare i say, “fighting” was always here, it is currently more evident to me that this form of grouping is, like in PvE events farm, the most effective way to farm W³ rewards, by only caring about flipping objectives and not caring about regularly defending or even set up strategies since they’ll flip them again soon for the rewards.

I see these big groups, led by a blue tag, zipping around the maps with almost no downtime, to flip as much they can until border hop and do the same and regularly bragging about how much “loot” they acquired so far. Tag followers seem to only care about where the commander is and where he/she is going next to maximize rewards leaving most of the time no room to make other decisions themselves such as looking at the map and identify issues, take action and whatnot.

Even with current limited tag/chat tools to setup more and better group options, i usually only see 1 tag on the map, knowing there are more people there capable of putting another tag up and setup more strategical combat / defensive stances.

I applaud those “GvG” guilds and groups that search for challenging gameplay and bring some more varied gameplay to this part of the game and plead to W³ players and ultimately Anet to think about what’s the fun purpose of this… farming.

I understand the need players have to get some rewards doing some content but i’d prefer to have the content being the main attraction rather than the rewards. With the upcoming “changes” to W³ i wonder if the “problems” will go away or if the game will simply build up on the flaws until the real fun part is nothing more than afterthought waiting to happen.

I have yet to see the new values of WxP base gains and with outnumbered buff ( quite popular over here) but for those wondering why WxP is not account bound…

…this might be the reason most likely.

scootshoot.6583:

So don’t buy it? The gamers who have the most time to log in and play will always have an advantage over the casuals, with or without boosters.

True but casual players not using boosters will most likely “fall behind” even more from those “hardcore” players using boosters, making boosters almost a must to “keep” the previous commitment gap advantage.

But i have to say, i’m not that surprised with this by looking back at the game’s progress through the year. This starts to resemble Aion too much… what’s next ? Laurel boosters/bundles in shop ?

It isn’t only the weapon mods but actually the aesthetics of each kit remaining the same with no skin variations. Don’t know why not making kit aesthetics which change depending on the main hand weapon skin…

Atleast, if someone spends more time using kits, they save on transmutation stones…

sarmatiko.2843:

Ascii.9726:

Hall of Monuments have no way of being obtained unless you pay money for them and im very surprised ANet would resort to selling AP for people who wish to remain competitive on the highscores.

So you don’t want to buy GW1 and grind for additional achievements. That’s understandable.
But someone more determined will buy and will grind to win in competition. Don’t like it? Then you not deserve your SoR first place on nolife achievements.

Farming Flats.5370:

how do you expect new players to be AP competitive ? How about the players who will buy the game in 2 years ?? when you are late to the party you are late …..thank you.

New players never catch up for current active top rank players and these 500 AP are totally irrelevant unless people from the tops suddenly stop playing.
You want to catch up with someone who grinded 10 months of dailies and blaming HoM AP’s for inevitable failure?

Pretty much this.
For a game which has been labeled as casual, i don’t see the point of this ranking other than demotivate new players. It just looks like a meaningless system to make people login daily and repeat questionable “enjoyable” activities… ad nauseam – atleast that’s my take on most daily quest systems and how i saw AP evolve so far… from a distance.

Valtameri.2075:

NOTE: This is mainly for those that came from GW1.

Just out of curiosity, if/when you quit playing this from whatever reason, do you go back playing GW1 or are you just gonna move on completely?

I played GW1 for around 7 years on and off ( have ~7300 h played) and the same could happen to GW2 but unlike the former, it’s future doesn’t look very promising to me.

I have not decided to quit GW2 altogether, yet…
But, my last log in was a week ago or so when the details about Lost Shores were first disclosed and the huge mess on the forums started. Since then, i’ve been questioning myself if this is the game i waited 5 years for and if i want to put time and resources into or consequently, support the game by logging in.

For the time being, i’ll just visit the forums to monitor the “progress” of the game through patches, content updates and expansion.

The irony is, not long ago, i was posting in defense of Anet telling people to be patient and let the developers fix and tweak the game and work their “magic”…

… time will tell.

Ballistic.4531:

Moving away from MMO genre completely. I’ll most probably go to single-player games.

This will probably be my case aswell with some dota games on the side.

Caran.3217:

Hermes.7014:

It’s unevitable. With new content will eventually come a level cap increase, perhaps a new level of traits and more powerful weapons and armor.
Guild Wars 2 began differently, but will become similar to the vast majority of MMOs.

I’m even fine with that, though as long as gear elitism and farm/grindfests are kept off the game.

You’re kidding yourself aren’t you or not being serious? GW1 has proven that nothing you state is ‘inevitable’.

You also seriously think that if GW2 becomes like all the other MMORPGs (RPG dude!), it won’t be plagued by the thinks you don’t like? That is very naive.

Read my previous post above in the same page.

Ascended gear is just one of the concerns.
Another GW1 major features might have changed with the sequel.

cherrie.8907:

Zephaust Zenith.8376:

I posted earlier on about this.
Lvl cap will probably increase with expansions and i’d assume with it, new higher lvl gear will be released aswell unless they’ll have some different lvl/gear progression.

Unless I’m mistaking you with someone else, you actually attributed that claim to ANet themselves.
I’d like a source for that if you wouldn’t mind. Thank you.

The link was posted elsewhere a few times within the mess of this thread but here’s a previous post of mine:

Zephaust Zenith.8376:

Kelvran.9047:

…

Think of how many mystic stones would be needed for a full set for everyone’s main and alts. Then when the first expansion hits the stores in a year or so, we can all do it again for the new higher level ascended armor and infusions to match the new level cap. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A&t=58m35s Ascended armor will still be best in slot, and legendaries will still be equivalent to best in slot. But you’ll still need to upgrade your infusions and also your new ascendeds if you haven’t done the legendary grind. Anet has been telling us the truth all along, there won’t be a GEAR grind. It’ll be a gold/resource grind.

…

Interesting take.

Also, i’d like to point this incase some people are not aware,
from the link about GameOverCast interview at EuroGamer 2011
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A&t=58m35s ) one can hear :

Q: “What about the level cap… ?”
A: “The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game and we will absolutely increase it further into the game, probably through expansions…”

One would assume, after lvl cap is increased later on through an expansion, let’s say to lvl 100 for example, new lvl 100 (“Ascended”) gear to be released aswell making lower lvl gear redundant ?
Then, there will be a gear threadmill regardless… unless there is an unconventional Lvl / gear progression implemented.

Just food for thought.

Mik Hell.8206:

I would be glad if ANet could answer one question:

Is Ascended tier going to be the last to be introduced or we will see Ascended 1, Ascended 2, 3 and so on?

Even if “filling the gap” sounds like an excuse on ANet’s side, anyone can make mistakes, but if this is only the beginnning of a tier system…

Well then all they said in the manifesto, all their declarations are nothing but a bunch of lies and I will not play a game made by liers.

I posted earlier on about this.
Lvl cap will probably increase with expansions and i’d assume with it, new higher lvl gear will be released aswell unless they’ll have some different lvl/gear progression.

If this content update (and maybe future updates pre-expansion) introduces a new mechanic (infusions) for dungeons at current lvl 80 cap, i’d assume once cap is raised, the mechanics for dungeons will be further expanded together with higher lvl gear.

But for now, this is only speculation on my behalf but i’d love to know the game’s lvl and gear roadmap.

Mr Crazy Moose.5760:

…
Also on a side note it seems like all of this ascended stuff seems to stem from a.net not being able to infuse exotics at this point, it’s as if they hit a development snag and rushed the easiest solution through. They keep using the phrase “over time” which makes it seem to me that they’re unable to do double slot gear right now. Could be that they rushed things to “combat” TOR going F2P and shot themselves in the foot in the process.

I don’t think this was not planned and rushed per se. Maybe the timing of the announcement of the changes was and they way these news were first found on other mmo news media prior to the patch, didn’t help much – i think this should have been exposed to the players earlier.

Perhaps the reason this new Ascended gear will be introduced slowly is to act as “damage control” and let players “soak in” the changes at a slower pace.

Kelvran.9047:

Bingo.

This gear progression faction vs GW1 veteran faction thing looks like a smokescreen. I suspect its really about resource grinding and gem sales.

Think about it. Assume for the moment that we’ve been told the truth – with the exception that there’s now a single new top tier that will from now on be the top tier in the game rather than the exotics that were originally advertised by Anet.

The full ascended armor will be rolled out slowly, probably so that the demand for resources won’t send the markets into shock. According to Linsey Murdock, “As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content).” They’re giving them away. Anet want us all to have them. At least the initial rings and backpacks. As for the rest of the set pieces they can control the difficulty of acquiring them by changing the drop rates as needed. They can’t do that (at least not directly) with crafted exotics, karma Orr exotics or dungeon token exotics, which many of us have already.

We’ve been shown one ring that’s got Magic Find, Precision and Power for stats. That’s one ring only. Surely there is one that has Vitality Toughness and Power, and one for each of all the other existing stat combinations, otherwise this entire new system would be pointless.

The socket is the real key here. Infusion stones replace things like the Superior rune of the Mesmer, which has 33% increased stun duration. Linsey has stated that these infusions will be offensive, defensive and omni, and paired with their “like slot” (whatever that means), and also that they will be crafted from the new mystic forge recipes (200 or so new recipes in this patch).

Right now no one but Anet know exactly what these Infusion stones will do, but many of the ones they replace have skills very similar to the trait skills that we pick in our skill trees. What engineer for example wouldn’t want one of these if there was one that had for example something like a weaker version of the grenadier trait? Especially if the engineer had no points in the power tree. Or a generic one that granted retaliation for 10 seconds on using an elite skill. This new gear is useable everywhere except in structured PvP, which allows Anet to say that there’s an area of the game that you can always be competitive at maximum level with no extra cash investment or grinding of any sort.

Infusion stones, created at the mystic forge, possibly requiring something like 10 mystic stones, 10 lodestones, 10 wines and a stack of dust for a high end infusion stone would create a massive demand for gems in the gem store, a small sink for gold and a huge grinding requirement for the other materials. Don’t want to grind? Buy more gems and sell them to players willing to do the grinding for double the mats required to buy the gems and fill the other recipe requirements for their own gear.

Think of how many mystic stones would be needed for a full set for everyone’s main and alts. Then when the first expansion hits the stores in a year or so, we can all do it again for the new higher level ascended armor and infusions to match the new level cap. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A&t=58m35s Ascended armor will still be best in slot, and legendaries will still be equivalent to best in slot. But you’ll still need to upgrade your infusions and also your new ascendeds if you haven’t done the legendary grind. Anet has been telling us the truth all along, there won’t be a GEAR grind. It’ll be a gold/resource grind.

Long run will this be good for the game? Perhaps. Only time will tell, and it’ll depend on how its implemented and how greedy Anet and/or their publisher are. I’ve done a lot of speculation here (as nearly everyone has in this thread), and I’ve probably overstated the power, impact and cost to the players. But players will pay, one way or another, and Anet will profit. How much remains to be seen. Also the extent to which it will trivialize existing pve content remains to be seen. I am hopeful but not optimistic.

Interesting take.

Also, i’d like to point this incase some people are not aware,
from the link about GameOverCast interview at EuroGamer 2011
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A&t=58m35s ) one can hear :

Q: “What about the level cap… ?”
A: “The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game and we will absolutely increase it further into the game, probably through expansions…”

One would assume, after lvl cap is increased later on through an expansion, let’s say to lvl 100 for example, new lvl 100 (“Ascended”) gear to be released aswell making lower lvl gear redundant ?
Then, there will be a gear threadmill regardless… unless there is an unconventional Lvl / gear progression implemented.

Just food for thought.

Creslin.1758:

stof.9341:

Creslin.1758:

They really aren’t that hard to get…it costs like probably less than 2g per piece of exotic gear if you can craft…and it’s megaeasy to max out a crafting skill.

You can just buy items at a low buy price and then sell them at a higher sell price to get the money, then you’re done. I have nearly full exotic, and I think I’ve done maybe a total of 5 or 6 dungeon runs…rest almost all WvW…no farming at all.

2g per piece is around 2h of grind per piece. 2 weapons, 6 armors and 5 jewelry we are at 22g (more than that actually,most exotics cost more than 2g). Then add in the superior runes which for some cost a LOT.

And then, after all that time you decide that this full berzerk set is kinda squishy for dungeons and you need something else XD

Hey, I’m not saying that you can get them in a day, but compared to most MMORPG top-level gear…exotics are mad easy to get. And my proof of that is that I actually have them, but have never got top level gear in any other MMORPG lol.

Yes, compared to other MMO’s…
… but if you compare it to GW1, it was even easier to get “top-level” gear there.

And i think this was one of the major features of the game.

Shayde.2564:

Godd article on tentonhammer: http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/honest-discussion-about-ascended-gear

“But, I think what we as a community of outraged players want to hear from them say something along these lines:

“Ascended Gear will be best in slot for the lifecycle of the game. We needed to fill a gap we left in our original design while introducing the infusion mechanic we used in GW1. Ascended gear allows us to do that, and hopefully solve many problems for a slight pain to current players.”

If I had that once piece of confirmation, I would be set."

If it was true and came from Anet, I agree this would assuage most of the population.

I agree.

Many people found out about this through other news media and even with official statements from Anet, it still leaves something unanswered and lot of frustration in the air.

If this indeed is just a Tier filler to “balance” Tiers and stats will be final throughout the game releases – just say it.

I’ll be a bit upset if Ascended gear ends being the new and final optimal stat gear overall and having to replace all my existing Exotic gear (3 toons) but i’ll live with it knowing there won’t be anymore gear stat chasing in the future.

But people need to be assured this was just something they “missed” when launching the game and gear in the future won’t suffer from higher stats.

Skamlic.8041:

People complained they didn’t have end game. Now they get it (very good version, because new gear isn’t that superior to exotic) and now they complain again.

ANet said that only Ascended gear is going to be with better stats then exotic. Right now you can get from 0 to hero (from green to exotic when lvl 80) in 1 day! 1 DAY! If you craft of course, but look at (current) dungeon gear more like for SKIN then stats. If you don’t feel like using your time to do dungeon then simply don’t.

That doesn’t say much.
Probably the people complaining about nothing to do already left, taking a break, waiting for updates and whatnot – same happened with GW1 and even myself did it while still enjoying what it offered.
Many people are happy with the game and still play.

In GW1 you could max lvl in half a day or less and gear up to max stat from npc.

Many people run dungeons not only for skins but for stats too – i know i did.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

the Real question is Is Ascended gear really the most optimal option for all content

in WvW and explorable’s am i still better off useing Exotic because I can slot ruins
were i can only slot infusion in Ascended

and what are the stats on Infusion exactly ((this we realy need to know))

This is something i still need to see once the full set of Ascended gear is released and compared stat wise.

I think it “was” generally acknowledged that the optimal stat gear at lvl 80 “was” Exotic quality and Legendary was for looks. Karma npc’s and dungeons token rewards pointed to the same conclusion.
People knew this and started gearing up through either buying, farming, crafting, running dungeons and regardless of the time spent gearing up they knew they were getting the optimal gear and could relax now.

If Ascended gear ends up being the new optimal stat gear (regardless of dungeon advantages), this will make people a bit unhappy since they will have to go through the process of gearing up optimally again, spending time and resources while having a feeling of being “scammed”.
This kind of change should have been in the game before it was launched so people could plan ahead instead of looking back and thinking it was all a waste of time.

Still, if this is the last Tier of gear added to the game and no more stat gear chasing required…
… better sooner than later.

But, i remember seeing some hints during development that lvl cap increase in the future could be a possibility and wonder how gearing up would work if that happens.

A couple of times now, i had 2 threads i posted in being merged into the huge mess of “Thoughts on Ascended Gear? [Merged threads]” when the topic was about ideas for end game gameplay and whatnot.
I understand someone might have posted something regarding the Ascended gear but the thread wasn’t started and being used exclusively for that topic.

Tracking the post i made to see any developments is pointless since it points me to pages without any sign of my contribution unless i manually search throughout the pages.

A little more consideration when merging threads would be appreciated instead of using the 112 page [Merged threads] as a garbage can.

Thank you

Plunder.8195:

Zephaust Zenith.8376:

(…)
consequently increasing the rewards / chances of getting better loot.

Same could be said for dragon events and many others.
This is all ingame already and i’d think it would be a matter of tweaking it.

I might miss something, but what is the purpose of better loot if you are already full exotic?

I don’t think ‘better loot’ is in anyway a lasting concept for endgame.
…

Better loot scaled with the difficulty and player actual lvl could be several things…

higher exotic drop chance
precursor drop chance
mats
different skins
consumables
and so on

… pretty much anything that could be of some use other than vendor items, doesn’t need to be better but the higher the event difficulty, the higher the chances of something worthwhile item wise.

Sam.4728:

Like most other players, I first read the ascended armor blog post to be the addition of gear treadmills to GW2. I was outraged. However, after a more careful reading of the blog post, I think that this is NOT what Arenanet has actually said.
…

I do remember posts about requesting another tier between exotic and legendary and it seems this will be the gap filler between those. This made me think about where Ascended will evolve, although the blog post explains this better than the news media, it still leaves some questions in the air like you point out.

Are the new Ascended gear stats final ? Will these stats change with future content or will they remain the optimal stat gear only changing the different infusion upgrades?

“…The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. We’re going to add tons of new high-level content to Guild Wars 2 in the future. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items…”

This is what many people fear, if with future content…
… will new tiers be introduced with new infusion slots leading to the optimal stat threadmill or just new items to finish itemization of this new tier ?

If just a Tier filler and gear stats will be final for future content releases, it will be fine…
… just wished this would happen earlier to save me the trouble of gearing up 3 toons with exotics and skip straight to Ascended…

Nevertheless, i think further explanation by Anet would be nice, to clear up this mess…

I still need more details about the introduction of Ascended items and how will they evolve and affect the progression of the game on different fronts but…

If this is indeed the start of gear progression and a sign of what other future content updates will bring, requiring upgrading gear with each release to obtain optimal stats (like the majority of other mmorpg’s), then..

No, I hate the new ascended items.

Havana.8625:

One thing that would have greatly extended content would have been making all zones decent at level 80 in terms of rewards, or at least upping the amount of awards in lower level zones. They built a huge and beautiful world and people spend all their time gathering Ori and repeating Plinx and a few dungeons. The content was there, it just didn’t make any sense to do it. Instead they added this.

This was something that would help greatly i think and really make use of the down level mechanic and re-usage of low lvl content. Content would have to be tweaked both in challenge and rewards (according to player’s real lvl).

For example, something i’ve noticed a few times, was the Plinx end chain champion – someone kitting it while a zerg beats on it for a minute and then complains about the poor loot for a relative easy kill with such number of players.
I’d increase the number of skills and effects that champion could use, making it more deadly and challenging when facing many players – consequently increasing the rewards / chances of getting better loot.

Same could be said for dragon events and many others.
This is all ingame already and i’d think it would be a matter of tweaking it.

Turtlemilk.1064:

phooka.4295:

GW1 went for 7.5 years without a gear treadmill, too.

No, it didn’t. ArenaNet released insignias in Nightfall. Practically the same thing.

Not the same thing at all

From GW wiki:

“In the past all armor bonus prefixes were inherent. Prophecies armor art types had a specific inherent bonuses. For example, Warrior Templar armor was only available with Knight’s Insignia (and named Knight’s armor). Factions prefix bonuses were independent of armor art. Each art type was available with every inherent bonus for that profession. Nightfall armor introduced insignias. With the release of Nightfall, PvP armor also switched to using insignias. In the Thursday, May 24, 2007 update, all armor was adapted to Nightfall’s insignia system and as such made all bonus independent of armor skin.”

Edit: Also, these insignias can be purchased from any Rune Trader at market prices.

Like many others, i found out about this in a MMO news site just a few moments ago and didn’t enjoy reading about Ascended armor. Maybe it was bad wording or lack of details in the article but i felt uneasy with the news.

I took a panic pill and wonder…

Will the Ascended armor’s “slightly more powerful than exotics” become the top stat tier armor used in the whole game replacing current lvl 80 exotics?

Will the Ascended armor’s “slightly more powerful than exotics” affect only PvE or Lost Shores or Fractals of the Mists specifically ?

Will the Ascended armor’s “slightly more powerful than exotics” be attainable through upgrading existing lvl 80 exotics in a process similar to GW1 infusion ?

Will the Ascended armor’s “slightly more powerful than exotics” affect PvP(vE) ?

Until i get more info, i’ll hold on to my verdict about the introduction of Ascended items…

No, not bored with Wv3…

Right now, i’m taking a small break since i had an intense week of Wv3 but i still enjoy it.

I generally play Wv3 on my own rhythm while still contributing in several different ways. Sometimes i join a zerg when moving to cap or defend an important structure but i normally break off soon after to other things (always PvP driven).
Either run supplies, build sieges, repair structures, scout and investigate suspicious activities – always reporting back my finds in chat if substantial.

I think i press M as much as i use skills, always trying to check for activity and possible threats or opportunities. If i think the map i’m on is doing well i change to maps i see that could require some help.

Wv3 is still a work in progress – i believe it still needs tweaking on several things but it still provides me alot of fun moments.

Ned Stark.9356:

Turtlemilk.1064:

If I were ArenaNet, I wouldn’t want to depend on hype and risk broken promises. For example, I remember when Diablo III came out, Blizzard stated they were working on a PvP system for patch 1.1. That has yet to happen. I had a lot of friends who actually bought Diablo III expecting a PvP system soon after launch.

I also remember EA talking about how they were working on guild capital ships for the Old Republic soon after the game was released. That has also yet to happen.

ArenaNet already talked about how they were considering things like a dueling feature and were working on guild battles, a ranking system, and more enjoyable dungeons. Not sure what else you want from them.

They already risked things on hype and we got the broken promises. Now all thats left of the game are the fanatical devotees, the army of bots, and a game flawed beyond comprehension. “Mission Accomplished” as Bush once said.

Funny…
If anything, GW2 delivered what i was expecting as base content for the start of another GW adventure and then some more.

Having played all GW releases since 2005, i became extremely happy when in 2007, GW2 was announced. I followed development news to get an idea of what was coming but never deluding myself with unrealistic expectations.

GW2 came, i play(ed), (got around 950h clocked in) and i was/am very happy with the foundations of another great GW saga.

Yes, there was/are some things which could/can be a bit frustrating (bugs,bots,content tweaking and whatnot) but for me, the positives aspects of the game clearly outweighs the negatives and it has certainly delivered the fun i was expecting prior to release.
Having played the previous GW releases, i know GW2 will be continuously under observation to fix, improve and balance game mechanics and content – so, i practice my patience and give Anet feedback and time to get them sorted.

Having said this, I’m sure Anet will let us know of new content and features when they are sure they can deliver them.

Basically, what i’m trying to convey in the post is to have a bit of patience and good things will eventually come to you.

I suggested this a while back on another thread:

Increase recloak debuff time.
Remove stealth stacking.

Although this was mainly because of the render bug coupled with stealth i think it still applies.

I consider stealth a support utility mechanic not to be constantly relied on.

And yes, i have a Thief and it’s the character i played the most so far (~437h played).

And no, i don’t randomly QQ being killed by them, if anything i think i have like 50/50 chance of killing or being killed even under the current circumstances when i play on my engineer – although some of them are not very bright.

I’m honest and admit this class paired with stealth and easy to use skills still needs tweaking.

But whatever changes Anet brings to this class, i will still play with the class and against the class regardless.

No class is or will be useless. If anything, classes will be “balanced” as the game plays on.

I played GW1 for 7 years and saw all these nerfs and buffs to skills and mechanics coming and going and while some would be frustrating to accept i learned they were all for a greater good – that is, “balance”.

GW2 was recently released and the process to evaluate professions playstyles, skills and mechanics will be an ongoing thing for a while – pretty much every mmo goes through this during it’s lifespan.

Regarding the thief, i had no problems playing it effectively to end game PvE.
Currently in PvP, this class is getting into the spotlight for 2 reasons (atleast for me):

- WvWvW render bug coupled with stealth mechanic allows thief to keep attacking unseen for a period of time. (seems this will be fixed in this month’s patch)
- High burst dmg with little skill required.

I wouldn’t be too worried about picking Thief and lvl’ing it – if you like the profession, do it. I have one and i really like the class regardless of what changes will come for it.

vox.5019:

If you have to longbow kite as a warrior you should rethink your build, gear, slot skills, or tactics because you’re just plain doing it wrong. On my warrior I won’t even stop to fight unless there are 5 Risen to kill, and I do it in their face with a GS. That’s just travelling, when I feel like actually hunting and flexing I’ll pick fights with as many as 10 just to feel like I’m in danger. I do this in full MF, including trinkets.

Every single annoying mob skill can absolutely be avoided or countered, even when you’re fighting entire groups of them. I always like to use the most complained about one as an example, the hammer pull attack from the Risen Putrifier. This thing is absolutely the easiest thing to avoid since the lowly Goomba.

1. This mob is easily identifiable even without its name (if you don’t have enemy names on) just by the silhouette that its weapon makes.
2. If you select it, its nameplate even says right there “pulls.”
3. This attack has an easy to identify windup that makes it easy to anticipate.
4. This attack, if you for some reason don’t see the windup, gives you an unprecedented second chance to dodge as it doesn’t actually pull you when it first hits you. The mattock will travel past you, then return and on its way back is when it pulls you. The hit made by the first attack is also easily recognizable even if you didn’t know that there was a Putrifier in the area.
5. If you dodge after the first hit, and before the second, not only do you do not get knocked down but the mob is knocked down and pulled to your feet offering its helpless skull for smashing. Yes, by simply dodging this attack you have disabled an enemy for an easy kill.

If you’re still getting ruined by this thing then I have to assume that you don’t like to look where you’re going, identify what you’re fighting, learn what your enemies like to do to you to make you die, or work to prevent them from doing these things. In which case, yes, Orr will probably give you problems and you will die alot. But then I really have no problems saying that the game shouldn’t be changed for people who don’t want to learn to play in its final level.

My favorite part though:

I believe red is dead and teabagging my foe because I’m the alpha you don’t mess with and now I’m trying to avoid combat at all costs.

This just strengthens my belief that all of the so called elite pvp’ers who spend their time ganking in other games are relying on something that’s definitely not skill

Pretty much how i see Orr myself and i’m fine with the way it is now regarding mobs.

Was a bit frustrating at first yes, but the above quote simply shows ways of dealing with it if one is willing to adapt to what is supposed to be an end game warzone.

Personally, i think Malchor’s Leap is fine apart for maybe one area mentioned by delmarqo.5038 which is the SP on NW of map.
My main “issue” with this SP is actually the field effects that dazes constantly with mobs in the way which can render player defenseless while being attacked. i did this SP the first time with another player on my thief and we took the hard route – the ramp. But i managed to solo this SP later with my guardian and engineer – there are easier ways to reach SP other than the ramp.

Other than that, i didn’t/don’t usually have problems with any of Orr and i run around solo alot. I wont deny i die there sometimes but nothing to worry me more than the deaths i had up to Orr. Most of those times are due to my lack of awareness and acting accordingly. Besides, Orr is supposed to be end game area – difficulty is to be expected.

The lack of ppl around to get through some events can inflate the difficulty though – depending on what the player is trying to accomplish.

Good points.

Like Decrypter.1785 said, patience is essential if one wants to see a good game become better and have a little faith and respect for the developer.
Since launch, Anet had alot of things to test, fix, improve, tweak and build from and this is an ongoing process for a while.

Several of your points, can and will be cleared with further content being deployed – i’m pretty sure of this.
If i compare GW2 release with GW: Prophecies, it’s very clear GW2 has so much more going than it’s predecessor. It’s just a matter of time to let it settle a bit and mature and let Anet work their magic.

lunawisp.2378:

There’s a reason most MMO’s don’t give crowd control abilities to minions (or trash mobs). Those mobs nearly always come in groups and giving them all abilities like this makes the game more annoying than fun. This is one area I think they should learn from other MMO’s and tone it down a bit…

I think Anet did learn, with GW1 and still gave mobs abilities and gladly so…

Personally, these abilities spice PvE more and prevent rushing careless through maps or some farming methods – GW1 is a good example of this like souldonkey.9534 pointed out.

If anything, i wouldn’t want PvE to be more dumbed down.. like other MMO’s

Annoying ? yes, sometimes but doable

I won’t deny that Risen mobs frustrated me a bit when i first entered Orr but it was just a matter of time to learn their behavior and with a bit of timing and practice they became easier to deal with.

Btw, it’s funny to pull those grappling Risen to you instead of the other way around

Although i haven’t been in Orr for well over a week with any of my toons, i remember many times ppl complaining about how much they hated the area – personally, i love Orr and how difficult it can be sometimes.
Straits of Devastation and Malchor’s Leap are my favorite maps – great map design and i like the map’s difficulty mob wise.

Player’s selfishness has always been present in most other mmo’s i’ve played and that’s actually a player “problem”. If anything, GW2 is way more friendly with the personal nodes and loot and i see ppl helping each other when overwhelmed by mobs more often than not.

But yes, sometimes i’d see ppl running past and dropping aggro on some poor unaware soul without caring – you can’t really stop things like this… all you can do is become more aware of your surroundings and use these situations as… “training excercises”

Polaritie.4851:

….
Between culling, lag on reveal, asset loading, etc. the revealed debuff that’s supposed to limit thief shenanigans is basically worthless. It needs to be lengthened to account for how long it takes thieves to actually become visible in WvW.

This is actually the biggest issue around thief mainly.

Stealth should end the second thief attacks but it doesn’t, they stay invisible while still attacking and it looks like they “chain” stealth back to back.

warboss.1362:

yeah i assume you sleep during night man. people on VS are not sleeping well for many days and it starts to take on their IRL and health. still proud of you and your white flag things? you have no idea how hard we are fighting right now..

and clueless people on Deso saying " best fight ever keep it up!!" you should all be ashamed.

Do you really think this only applies to you ?
Since this match started, i have done zero pve or other activities, simply log on and go straight to Wv3 every day when possible – I’m from EU, i’m not in any major Deso guild like many others that show up in Wv3.

When we, Deso peeps, say this match as been a blast, we meant it.
We are effectively fighting against 2 servers who are both against us – there is no denying now, it’s so obvious.
It takes 2 servers to fight Deso (even on EU prime) – Deso is flattered.

I could point so many situations on all maps where one side goes out of the way, past both VS/AS cap points just to hit Deso. When both VS/AS are putting pressure on Deso from different sides (like AS attacking from north/west and VS from south/east) when there are other “easier” places to cap for them.
Sure, there are strategical moves to take advantage of pressure but there are just too many “coincidences”

The other day on VS map, Deso had all their spawn side up to Wood tower (which was being attacked by AS at the time) cap’ed and AS had all their spawn side cap’ed including garrison. VS just had the supply up north. What does VS do ? They run a 20-30 man zerg all the way to the bottom to attack Briar and supply camp.

If anything, this match has been a blast for Deso because we have alot of pressure on us and we are actually dealing with it and being sucessful many times.

I’m proud of all Deso work so far – keep it up !

And for AS and VS peeps – keep it up guys, the fights have been fun so far

see you in the battlefield !

Red Falcon.8257:

And Engis deal 20k burst AoE with nades.
And Warrior deal 20k burst with Killshot+Volley.
The list goes on…

Simply put, the game isn’t balanced around WvW, nor around 1v1, and will never be.
You can’t balance a class around what damage it does with 25 stacks of power, 25 might, orbs, guild buffs…

/thread

You are missing the point.

Although some classes burst dmg could use some tweaking, the issue here is about having great survivability with great burst dmg.

The issue to me with the thief class is actually INVISIBILITY and how it is abused while still putting great dmg out.

My main up till recently was a thief (got a guardian, engineer and necro also) and i admit thiefs got it too easy along with mesmers from what i can tell.

I can live with the burst dmg but stealth really needs rework in this game. I played many other games with stealth mechanic and it was most of the times unbalanced – it doesn’t change in GW2.
When Sin’s got introduced in GW1 i thought stealth wasn’t implemented for balance reasons and shadow step put in place instead – if this was the case, what changed their mind or it was just a game engine limitation ?

Last night, i was with 5-6 ppl more trying to fight a duo mes and thief and it took us LOTs of chasing for around 10min around a supply camp while we were getting picked 1 by one – it sure feels epic and awesome on the the thief/mes side but one must wonder, when compared with other classes survivability and abilities if this is “balanced”…

This situation is common even when fighting solo thief’s/mesmers – their escape mechanics out of danger while still putting dmg out are far greater than any other class – FoTM classes it seems.

Add to that, the fact that many times, foes are attacking without being seen (invisibility render bug) doesn’t help at all.

Of course i sometimes can kill those classes but most of the time it’s all smoke and mirrors and death when compared to any other classes i face.

Solution ?
I’d say, increase recloak debuff time for one.
Remove stealth stacking for another.

I consider invisibility a support utility mechanic not to be constantly relied on.

/rant off

I’ve only noticed this today, after we captured Ascension Bay in Desolation but the rocky side south of south’s inner gate had a red name tag sticking out of the rock.
I looked around and saw a pet stuck in the rocks and someone suggested it was just a visual bug but i went there and not only there was a REAL player there but also 6 others inside the rock once i AoE’d the place.

One can jump from the south outer gate ledge onto these rocks and move further in.
Some of the rocks have no collision detection and it’s possible to hide there.

Just an heads up

*corrected location name