Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’ll be one of the odd ones. I hate paying to use waypoints so I would run when I could. If forced to pay I would grouse about needing to make the money back up. (I was trying for a Legendary and have limited play time).
That being said, I’m not a fan of mounts either. Running from one point to another doesn’t bother me all that much. I can understand that many players used the waypoints so perhaps decreasing them isn’t the best but they player base gets mounts now which will most likely offset the pain of the decrease.
Me? I’ll still run.

DeanBB.4268:

I still don’t get housing. Anet will make it instanced, so who would ever see your little pink house?

I don’t care who would see it. I would like to have it and display things like the airship that sits in my inventory and gives a cut scene when clicked on.

That has more value to me than the messenger animations for Trading Posts and email or the mounts.

Even the ability to put my nodes where they make sense and not where ANet thinks they should go would be nice. Being able to not have extra NPCs hanging out in my home instance would be nice too. It’s not an unusual aspect for MMOs to have so if we are going to bring on healer classes and mounts then why not homes we can decorate?

Tailor could craft things like curtains. Leatherworker could make chests for storage. Huntsman could craft furniture and so on.

Here is the deal, we can talk from the new player perspective and it would hold some truth. ANet did go out of their way to dumb down the core game to appeal more to new incoming players.
However lets also remember that we had far too many veteran players more willing to run the Queensdale Champ Train back when it was still a thing rather than doing the more challenging Frostgorge one. So players as a general rule seem to want their PvE squishy. Core will probably stay as it is even though I do agree that modifying perhaps on the higher level maps would be interesting.

dace.8019:

The only way to get a Gift of Battle (required for Legendary crafting) is via a WvW reward track.

Please change this, preferably by adding an additional method that can be done by playing exclusively PvE content; be that fractals, open world, dailies, achievements, crafting, dungeons, world bosses – whatever works.

Actually I would really like a return to the badges. Yeah, yeah I’m still a bit salty about that as I had been sitting on the Badges to get a second GoB and missed the news of the update.
I have no interest in going back to WvW as a regular thing which I would have to do now to do the Reward Track and I have a bunch of badges that are more or less useless at the moment. Good times.

I also didn’t mind the WvW completion requirement for GoE even though I am primarily a PvE player. Back when servers meant something, we would do runs to help PvE players get that completion. But brave new world and all that.

Right now, I’m not sold on getting PoF. I cannot test Soulbeast in PvE during a demo weekend and what information I’ve seen on it, it just doesn’t appeal to me.
It’s also why I haven’t picked up using Druid either for my main.
However this is what ANet does. They will adjust to force a class to the spec they want people to play.

I’ve mained a longbow ranger from the beginning and she’ll stay that way. She may not get as much play time unless I can find a build that doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out in frustration. I have two other rangers that I can run which aren’t longbow oriented. Maybe it is time for them to take her place.

ruzicka.4783:

If I understand things correctly, you will not be able to avoid using mounts in PoF. It sounds as though specific mounts will be needed in order to advance through specific maps areas and/or specific tasks to continue through the storyline.

Well that is unfortunate. I had heard that rumor and was hoping that was all it was.

There is the need for balance, yes.
Trust me, I’ve said more than my fair share of curses about some of the changes ANet makes. I’ve reworked my build more times than I want to count based on nothing but balance changes and reworks of traits.
That being said though, I’m not the demographic they want to appeal to so what would make me interested in the game again isn’t happening. I wish you luck on getting them to change their ways. Truly.

Not really. I’m eh about mounts and will probably avoid using them if I do decide to purchase PoF. I was on the fence initially and thought the demo weekends would help make my decision but since elite specs are only going to be available on the second one and only in WvW or PvP, I’m passing for right now. I’ll see how things shake out come end of year.

I suspect every class feels this way. What say the Rangers?

Odin the exiled.5764:

There’s lots of room in wvw for pve ppl to go to try the elite specs out. Not many take wvw serious anymore either so you really shouldnt be hurting anyone. So go there find the pve mobs and kill them to your heart content.

Or we could simply have the ability to test out the elite specs in PvE. I stopped playing WvW a while back and have no interest in PvP. I’m sure my one player self isn’t going to have an impact by passing on the demo weekends, but it kind of sucks that PvE players are being funneled into other game modes to test.

Druid could be useful for dungeon running I suppose. How it would be viable in WvW though remains to be seen. It’s all well and good to fight for your server that isn’t but loot is a driving force as well and healing won’t give that loot.

The Druid feels like it should have been an entirely new class, instead it was pasted over top another class. I must confess to being puzzled as to why it was even created. I thought the purpose of the game was to not require a healer class and yet it looks like one is created. It would be disappointing if the sole reason is for raids.

I was hoping whatever we ended up with as a class would address some of the issues that have been raised repeatedly. I was hoping for more flexibility with managing our pets (which I know was a long shot but so is everything with rangers). I was hoping that for Druid we would see more of a nature magic infusion and perhaps a limited ability to manage nature or wildlife in our skills (something other than vines at least because y’know Entangle skill).

Perhaps play testing will make it look less horrible to me but as of right now… this Ranger isn’t sold on this new elite specialization.

It would be like putting lipstick on a pig at this point. The game mechanics are widely different from the two games as well as the business model and vision it seems.

Isn’t that always the way with sequels though…

This has been a sporadic thing that has happened in the game. You usually have to move to another action, combat or otherwise, to try and break it.

Lets not taint Guild Wars. It is a solid game that has gotten much cheaper over the years but it is still a solid game.

Unfortunately I await the day they close up the servers for it. It will make me very sad.

We don’t need anything. The very fact that any of you think that ANet will listen to this is amusing. They have already shown they will only pay attention to things that will make them money.

If they offered a discount then people would complain it wasn’t on what they wanted. I personally am sick of skins. I’m sick of the fluff like the mail carrier getting priority over actual game play improvements. I’m sick of idiocy like wedding gear. There is nothing ANet can offer me that would make me happy with a discount coupon. So that solution is not a catch all.

They have made it clear that GW2 is a poor quality game that is now free unless you want some slight additional extras. They made that clear when they gave it away for when people bought the expansion-not-an-expansion Heart of Thorns.

Essentially we are now all at the point of suck it up and deal or go play another MMO. Although ANet really does need to block WvW access to Free to Play players. It will not end well and I’m seriously starting to wonder if any of them actually play this game with any amount of seriousness.

It has been mentioned quite a few times. Maybe we should suggest it as a gemstore item and it might get some actual quick attention.

Yes, a guild mail feature would be very handy. I think that since they are looking to revamp guilds, that maybe they would be considering this very handy and useful feature. Truthfully I haven’t really looked at what they are putting out for guilds but I am hoping this one is included in those changes.

Someone on ANet’s team should have known that if you introduce wedding stuff people were going to want to modify it. Weddings are highly personal things and so it stands to reason that modifications would want to be made.

They should have made it a crafting thing vs a gem store thing. Then again I’ve been asking for them to include outfits as something that can be tailored so yeah…

Either give us a use or let us sell it back for a decent amount of money. She isn’t so pleasant of a character that I want to have lots of them kicking around and it’s a throwaway gift.

mercury ranique.2170:

Why an outfit?
Besides the usual critics bout outfits. My main critique is that it gives a very specifick look. It is nice for those that can use the look, but for others, it has limited value. You will never wear it again.

I think it would have been nice to have something usefull instead. The game is all bout skins, so giving just one skin that is obivously is not going to be unique is not really cutting it. I would have opted for a loyal dolyak. It would function as a second miniature (that you can hide), but also as a 25! slot bag.
I think it would be something that everyone would welcome, has a cuteness level and is functional. As it is unique (there are no 25 slot bags) it is also a real reward.

This. I am tired of nothing but skins. I like functional and just throwing another cover up at me is kind of tiresome. I generally don’t care about cuteness level but I accept that for many people this becomes some sort of catwalk for their characters. Could we please have something that has a worthwhile function?

It really isn’t a surprise that the game has become free to play. They sort of gave that away with the Heart of Thorn promotion if people were paying attention. I think it is more telling that it is free to play and Guild Wars is not.

That being said, I think WvW should be restricted for free accounts. Getting to level 60 isn’t much of a barrier to entry considering the ease of leveling in the game. Once the free accounts can access it you will hear complaints of spying taking place. I’m not saying actual spying will or won’t take place, just that the complaints will begin. Lets face it though, spying happened with paid accounts so it is very possible there will be an uptick for the free accounts.

For the rest? I stopped caring when ANet decided they wanted to become a hybrid of Second Life and WoW.

Ayrilana.1396:

ardasica.4531:

Still doesn’t explain why we can’t have a fourth package just for the expansion. Not even asking for freebies in it. I just want the ability to just buy the expansion. That’s it.

It’ll just be the same package you see now for $50 but it won’t include the core game.

So? If they are willing to acknowledge that their core game is so screwed up with their attempts to cater to the lowest common denominator that they want to give it away to new players then let them. I just want the expansion.

I realize it is shocking that I’m not demanding huge price cuts or freebies. I’ve only suggested they could make a fourth offering of the expansion at $40 but if they want to keep it at $50 I would be fine with it. As long as it is packaged with the core game though, not happening.

Just give a fourth package with just the expansion that is $10-15 cheaper. That’s it. Don’t include a character slot or gems. Just the expansion. I don’t care if new players get the core game for free. With all the attempts to break the game that ANet has pulled, they can have it for free. It’s a training MMO now and worth a give away.

Asking for just the option to purchase the expansion isn’t unreasonable.

I’m sure there are people who are flipping out because “OMG they had to pay and how dare new players not have to pay for the expansion”. I view these same people as the reason why we have mail carriers. Wave a shiny in their face and they’ll go trotting off.

There are those of us that simply want the expansion because we already own the core game. There may be distrust that the additional core game won’t cause a problem with the current core game being run. It may just be the fact that people don’t want to pay for something they already purchased. Whatever it is, offering just the expansion would be an expected offering and it isn’t.

If they want to acknowledge the core game isn’t worth anything now, cool. Hand it out like Oprah handing out cars… go for it ANet and tell the stores to start passing it out for free too. Still doesn’t explain why we can’t have a fourth package just for the expansion. Not even asking for freebies in it. I just want the ability to just buy the expansion. That’s it.

Wow, it was further back than I realized. So about a year ago:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Ranger-Pets-Overpowered/first

A small group of us trolled the forums non-maliciously a while back. We basically started with rangers being OP (this was right before they updated the ranger) and went to how hard it was to fight bearbows. ANet even joined in it for a bit as I recall. There were a few that picked up on it being a troll because I mean at that point it was far too ridiculous to not be a troll.
Then we had the ones that thought we were serious and kept coming back. So it is possible and if done right, nothing bad happens.

The one ANet dev I have spotted in PvE was in Ascalon. As soon as I spotted them, I got kicked from the game.
I was like “Oh cool, it’s an ANet person” and then BAM! I had to reload.

That wasn’t very nice Dev Charr Person. Just sayin’.

Another question or questions:
Will the components needed to craft legendaries change? For those of us that already have some of these components that were purchased with skill points, are we going to end up holding the bag with these?

MashMash.1645:

Pandeh.5248:

So ANET, should I buy 2x Bloodstone Shards? Or should I save my skillpoints? You really need to give us more info on this. Wiping hundreds of hours of saving up skill points? And all you give is this vague info? REALLY? H O K A Y.

If the Legendary crafting recipes stay the same (i.e. you need the various gifts and the components to make them), then it “may” be better to buy the skill point crafting items before this comes in. At least that way you can pick exactly which crating components you want / need now or for future use. Otherwise, all those skill points will end up being taken and you’ll get…. well, we don’t know. And RNG bag? I’d rather be able to choose what I want, not leave it up to chance.

If the Legendary’s recipes were to change though, then it gets even more confusing.

I’m not going to spend any more skill points on characters now – it’s a waste. They’ll lose them all after the patch anyway. Only the map ones will stick. I’m going to hoard them and calculate the best spread of Mystic crafting items to buy for future use. But I’ll also wait to see what they announce in the meantime – won’t spend them all now.

I think it is something they really need to address for those of us working on our legendaries. I have some of the materials already stored up. I will be more than a little irate if the recipe suddenly changes and those materials become useless. I know I won’t be the only one.

Many of the low level crafted items can be sold for decent amounts as can the crafted components for those items. The low level crafting materials often flood the market because they tend to be in greater abundance than the higher level materials.

My question:
Will ANet expand the wallet to allow for proper storage of all currencies currently not able to be stored and for the future vague mystic forge currency?

Curo.2483:

You mentioned that switching specializations will be as “easy” as it currently is to swap traits. Some may argue that this in fact is not easy, and would like to see a build-saving system similar to the one in GW1. Can this be a possibility?

This!! One of the nice things about GW1 was the ability to save builds which allowed a player to quickly switch out as needed. It also had the added bonus of people being able to share the builds they are running very quickly. I realize that without the flipping in and out of skills on the skill bar that this becomes less important, it was still a player friendly feature that would be much appreciated if it was brought into this game.

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Nike.2631:

“Dear ANet, please screw over people who have put in effort I haven’t”

“Dear ANet, as a Vet who’s been with you from GW1 and loyally supported your game since the Beta, could you please take under consideration this suggestion I proposed to improve game experience for everyone, not just new folks. I prefer not to buy a half-completed expansion.”

Dear ANet:
As a Vet that has also been with you from GW1 and loyally supported your game (and your nonsense) since the Beta, could you please not take this suggestion under consideration. Well unless of course you really, really, really want to irritate a chunk of your player base. Then by all means, have at.
Thanks.
Ranger – GW1
Ranger – GW2

Hopefully one of the points they will consider is expanding the wallet to pick up all these new currencies we’ve been getting and will get.

Hopefully they will really be clear before Heart of Thorns is released about what the SP exchange is going to be. Simply saying “mystic forge crafting material” and then “currency” isn’t clear enough. I just want to know if I should burn my SP now or wait until after the release.

I have two things that have ultimately decreased my desire to even launch the game:
1) Megaserver – Making it an optional thing that people could move into for Boss Events would have been a better idea. Instead the need to recalibrate the metrics to be more favorable resulted in the one thing that really killed my enjoyment of the game. It also destroyed the ability to WvW recruit for servers and server loyalty in general. The timing was right during our planning of our server party which also was unfun.

2) Daily log-in/Dailies – I am a PvE player primarily (although due to #1 I find that to be less enjoyable). The dailies are really meant to try and force players into other parts of the game. I don’t even bother with doing them anymore and thus have stopped caring about achievement points. The log-in reward is there to pat me on the head for bothering to load a character and giving ANet their metrics boost.

Ultimately I would have tolerated #2 if there was no Megaserver. The Megaserver implementation single handedly killed my game enjoyment so I guess #2 is really an optional at this point.

I really loved the game at Beta. Loved it a little less at the release but loved it all the same. As the year has come and gone, I play it less and less. There is nothing that really drags me into play. For the last 6 months my only motivation was my legendary and that has stopped being enough to give me interest.
I am not ever going to be a huge fan of WvW or PvP primarily because I see the potential WvW could have had and how short it falls on delivering. PvP just has never been a thing for me. I think it is great that the game has these points for people that like that sort of thing though. It gives it variety. The problem I see is that it sometimes feel like the developers want to shove everyone into one direction over another periodically and some of us aren’t interested.
It is disappointing how specific functional things have been pointed out time and again and ANet delivers on the fluff but chooses not to address other concerns effectively. (Commenting to please consolidate all the concerns into a single response time and again is not effectively addressing anything). We were promised the ability to play how we want and choices being what they are, sure we could but those that don’t play in accordance to how they would prefer us to play are shorted. We have seen the potential for contextual flavor taken out of the game entirely (charisma, ferocity, etc) with no explanation. The whole “how you play impacts your environment” also never materialized.
Instead we get skins and more skins and more skins and please buy this shiny in the gem stores and ooooohhhh look at our new monthly subscription game.

I came because I loved GW1 and I saw so much that I loved about GW2, of which little remains. The level gating, the goofiness of the trait acquisitions, the treating of starting players like they are idiots, and acting like we are all ANet’s personal ATM has destroyed it for me. Please make the game challenging and bring back some of the greatness it once had. Now, it is just disappointing.

They implemented mail carriers? I should have known that was going to the top of the priority list based on ANet’s eager excitement. It is something that barely exists on the screen for more than a few seconds if that. While I get fluff works for many players, many other players would like some practical changes implemented or at the very least not snubbed.

It was created as a place for high level characters to go as an alternative to Orr. While nice, it can be annoying as a solo player to run it. I usually go out there to gather and solo the outskirts. I don’t bother with the events though.

Giving it some sort of life outside of it being a section where a big event took place would be nice.

I think ultimately it depends on the composition of people when you load up in SW. I ran the storyline on Saturday and early on in the day SW was ticking at all forts. People were doing the coverage. Sure there were gaps where people weren’t at one fort or another but I was at every fort at some point for a defend event and there were people there.

Later in the day it was a different story. Definitely more leechers happy to let others do the work for them and definitely some camping out and ignoring of other areas. Still the entire area is set up as one large farming event. The defend events are really fast spawning and encourage farming.

It has been a far better atmosphere than the previous areas. The previous areas are now all about just doing only certain events for the geodes and calling out false buried chest locations.

It would be nice if we could have the active crafting professions listed for each character at the character selection screen. Bonus points if the level for the profession is listed as well.

It may be info that could be added to the little box that gives last location information for each character. It would just save time for those of us that cannot remember which character has which profession.

I apologize if this has already been suggested. I did not see it when I looked.

I have been unsure why we even have a mail dove. It flashes for all of 2 seconds (maybe) on the screen. It would seem to be an animation we could do without actually. I do not see much usefulness in changing it whether it be for gold or gems.

However some of the suggestions put forth by Orpheal do have merit and should probably be examined first before we start looking at the frills of the system.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Gulesave.5073:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Gulesave,

There has been a ton of discussion and brainstorming on Guild Hall Content in the thread. Maybe once Jon gets some time he an summarize some of it.

Chris

Chris,
For example, how can the hall serve as a superior launching pad for jumping en mass into PvE or WvW content? How can the space itself benefit PvP’ers in practicing and testing builds, or organizing and running tournaments? How can it be laid out to enable roleplaying? What incentive is there to visiting other guilds’ halls other than gawking? How are a guilds’ accomplishments demonstrated in the hall, and how can that be interacted with? How can guild members interact with each other in ways they can’t do elsewhere?

How might the spaces and objects and rules specific to the guild hall improve the overall experience of being in a guild?

Yep those are some good questions. Thoughts folks?

Chris

What incentive is there to visiting other guilds’ halls other than gawking?
Recruitment. People are visual and being able to see what a guild has been able to do outside of what is stored in the guild bank could be a big deal.

How are a guilds’ accomplishments demonstrated in the hall, and how can that be interacted with?
Hall of Monuments held areas that displayed account/character achievements. That had less purpose since unless you ran in with a party, no one would see it. A guild takes pride in what they achieve so perhaps a portrait room that autofills in the portrait of each guild bounty completed. The key is to make it about the guild and not individuals in the guild. If you really want to get into specifics of individuals than a leaderboard for WvW or PvP kills might be fun. If a guild is geared specifically towards those parts of the game, it would be a driving focus for them.

How can guild members interact with each other in ways they can’t do elsewhere?
They can have a guild party and invite guests. Run contests that involve only the guild. Celebrate important guild events (some of these guilds go way back to GW1 days).

Right now there just is not a good way to do it especially now that guilds cross servers. When we wanted to throw our server party, we had to do it in WvW because that was the only place we could gather as a server. In that same vein, guilds should be able to have a gathering place for whatever events they would like to run.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Re: “What happens to the alliance guild hall…”

The answer is simple: Alliances as an entity do not get guild halls but rather an instanced place to call home which does not receive upgrades (perhaps aside from cosmetic revisions) and thus nothing is lost if the alliance dissolves for whatever reason.

This doesn’t allow small guilds to work with others in regard to progression of the guild hall though.

Chris

Not necessarily true. I co-run a small guild and while we haven’t attempted guild missions or anything, we do pretty good for ourselves. We had a small guild in GW1 and were still able to kit out our hall with everything.

Small guilds are not incapable of doing things in the game to build out a guild hall if the requirements are set forth that way. If the guild has to raise a set fee to purchase the hall and then pay out for other additions, they could do so. They may not get it done as quickly as the larger guilds but it could be done.

I’m on the fence about alliance halls. While I think they have potential benefits, I am leery of how the politics would work if the alliance hall was customizable. I think it is necessary for it to be instanced but have limited custom features in it. Most of the custom options, be it NPCs or decorations should be with the guild halls.

Why do you think that it would be a hurdle for small guilds to work together. If multiple guilds want to take on a guild mission for a single guild, the alliance hall is a place to meet. It is a lot easier than trying to do it on a PvE map or central city.

The biggest drawback for me is the F2 not being available until Lvl 13 and half the downed skills being locked. Will it be so for new players? I don’t know. As a veteran player that “knows” what should be there it is disconcerting.

The leveling process itself is not that big of a deal. The inability to pick up skill points though is a pain because it means you have to backtrack at some point to get them. Previously we just grabbed them as we moved along and they stacked up. Not sure why that cannot be the case now.

Another big issue is that they did not explain ALL the changes they made. Hearts were removed, moved, or added without explanation to various maps. For new players not a big deal. For veterans who have established already how to move through a map, rather annoying.

Why limit what weapon can be chosen at the time of character creation but keep the behavioral traits when the behavioral traits have no bearing on the game anymore and the behavioral response are being stripped out?

Artur Hawkwing.9125:

It seems like the real issue here is that you’re unable to Key Farm as easily as you used to and that you’re just hiding it behind outrage about something else.

I am amused that whenever non-new players start complaining about the leveling changes, someone comes in with key farming.

Not all of us key farmed. Some of us just want to see the game work in a fashion that is both fun and successful.

Swoop was working for me as well as it could with the lag.

OMNIBUS.2913:

Veteran players seem the most upset by this which i dont get. I started since release and its not like i dont hav 8 experience scrolls and 80+tomes of knowledge sitting in the bank. If your a veteran how do you not have any?

Oh I have them, I just don’t want to use them. I liked the whole run of leveling my alts. It gave me time to get used to different weapon sets or just approach things a bit differently. Being a veteran doesn’t mean all of us use the scrolls. I just wish I could sell them off since I have no plans to ever use them.

Kulpath.6314:

From what I’ve been hearing you will not need aegis and levels 1-10 have become cotton candy land with no downed state, no condition damage and no dodging. Nothing is a challenge and unless your a three year old messing around on your older brothers account there is no way you can die. The three year running around bumping in to trees and agroing left right and center and not knowing how to play will probably not even be able to die.

I have not tried a low level zone to verify for myself the state but I was already bummed that the difficulty since launch and gone down several times.

Personally I wish difficulty would return to beta weekend 2, now that was fun.

Enemies below level 10 may not dish out condi dmg. You can get it if you tangle with an enemy above level 10 even if you are below level 10. So it is probably more important now to be aware of the level of the enemies you are fighting whereas before you could be a little more foolhardy.

New players I do not think are going to notice the difference as much. Veteran players will because we know what we can or should be able to do. My biggest adjustment was the loss of the F2 skill with my ranger. I don’t think I realized how much I use it until I didn’t have it to use anymore.

I think all classes are going to see an impact with this.

GW1 had its flaws but it is a solid game. Yes the quests were a bit annoying and the A.I.s that you used before they did Heroes was painful at times. The death penalties did not bother me so much. You died, there was a penalty that you either buffed off with items or worked off with kills.

GW2 has some positive aspects to it. There are things in the game that I wish they had pushed just a bit further. Water combat is a good example. I like water combat but it is not class friendly to all classes and aspects were not really thought out well.

Combining both games might have given you a close to perfect game, if that is the type of game you like.

sirian.4981:

Maybe they assume all vets will level through crafting and tomes of knowledge?

Unless it was a bug, crafting appears to be hindered as well for new characters starting off.