Guild Wars 2

Dristig.9678:

Can you post a build? How do you run without Soul Reaping? I feel like I really want the shroud cooldown traits.

Yeah sure here you go.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQD7kZTolGsmGwbTg9GsgLYQDgAQLI+K+FHjTZhmQVA-TBSBABWqeAlq40lyDAuIAXt/oE7hnAAe6GMTJYAAEgbezsZbGc0je0je0j22t5Rv5RvZpAiYZE-e

Like the poster above me said, Soul Reaping doesn’t provide a lot of dps. You dont stay in shroud to dps, just to use death’s charge and soul reaping, and the 15% CD reduction isnt worth losing blood magic or spite, which provide group utility and damage respectively.

Reaper tank here for one of my guild’s groups.

Your toughness should be just enough to be the highest amount in your group. The current amount of toughness you’re running is too high, you don’t need that much. You’re losing out on damage and all of the bosses, especially Gorse, are DPS races. You’re also running with pugs who vary wildly from good to bad, so you should be doing your best to help the group with damage as much as possible while being a good tank.

With Shroud and Rise Reaper tanks are very durable while using the minimum amount of toughness required. Furthermore, once you hit 30% crit chance you can mix in Valks for extra health, since fury and decimate defenses will make up the final 70% crit chance.

The amount of toughness you want to run is just enough where you are the person with the most toughness in the group. Generally its your group’s druid that you want to collaborate with, as they usually run gear with some toughness. You also might want to collaborate with your group’s ele if they’re running cele to be more supportish. Everyone else should be at 1000 toughness.

Going with this theme, you do not need to build for defensive traits. Death Magic is unnecessary (unless you’re a condi reaper tank, but you’re not). Take Spite instead, as it gives +15% more damage (Spiteful Talisman, Close to Death), and either a little more personal chill (Chill of Death) or better axe damage/CD reduction if you have to be on blue guardian during the VG split for boon removal.

For the 2nd trait line I like Blood Magic, as it gives some more healing with siphons, a minor group damage/healing boost with Vampiric Presence, faster rezzing with Ritual of Life, and either an emergency rez through Transfusion or lowered well CDs and some protection and siphons with vampiric rituals.

Finally, in reaper I like to use deathly chill, which with 25 might and thus the 750 condi damage, can hit moderately hard. Going with this chilling nova is a good thing to take, although augury of death is good too if you want rise and your soul is mine up more for more sustain.

A few other things I like to do is to take well of corruption/suffering for more damage (and prot/siphons if you run vampiric rituals), Rise and your soul is mine for self-sustain, and flesh golem for break bars, although chilled to the bone is good if you’re group is bad at the seekers during VG.

Agreed. I love to PvP as well, and it’s nice that PvPers can get recognition out of PvP modes.

While I don’t mind it displaying across all zones, considering that its only going to be in game for the duration of PvP seasons, it would be nice if there was something similar for both PvE and WvW. Maybe get a special badge if you clear a raid wing, or if you hit a certain rank in WvW. Theres no reason why a system like this that is in game should be confined to just one game mode.

I guess while I’m at it I’ll make a mention that I don’t appreciate all the undocumented changes. Please make use of your patch notes.

This x100. Not all of the tiny little undocumented changes should be in patch notes, but things like new legendary effects, the UI changes, more rewards from magnus falls events, and the new craftable ascended amulet are all noteworthy of being in the patch notes. I shouldn’t have to go hunting on the subreddit for the full picture.

Kinda disappointed in the guild portal upgrade. I was looking forward to using it as a method to get the entire guild zerg into the puzzle/challenge instance when mission time comes but instead it only ports you to the closest waypoint.

I can do that by linking the WP in guild chat.

It also would have been cool to be able to link it to your guild’s waypoint of choice. The upgrade seems wasted if only a select few (its rank gated) can actually use it.

Finally, unrelated to guild portals but the guild XP upgrade is pretty bad. 3% XP gain doesn’t feel like a guild wide reward at all, and considering that guild members are supposed to choose if they want this or the other %upgrades (i.e. karma), it seems like everyone loses. Its a huge downgrade from the old guild wide buffs.

Pretty disappointed in this collection only because the event in Malchor’s is always bugged (and has been since launch) and the Modniir Ulgoth gives the wrong drop (Overlord’s Ruin, aka the centaur boss in kessex). Any word if this is going to get fix?

Pretty excited to see what other surprises lay in store for me in tier 2.

Artorius.6178:

Oxidia.8103:

Or orrrrr, here is a fun idea. Play for fun not grind. Masterys are going to happen eventually.

Eventually isn’t an option when you want to do the HoT story, I’ve ran into 4 or 5 ‘’mastery walls’’ now, at least once per map so far, you then have to force yourself through a 2 hour long mastery grind when you want to be doing the story instead.

Maybe…just maybe Anet wants you to take your time with the story?

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Not having everything day 1=impossible grind?

You are literally attempting to use your own misunderstanding of the topic as a rebuttal against a 100% vaild point that has been expressed for several months now

This “expansion” is just Living World Season 3 behind a pay wall…. stretched out with gating and grinding in an attempt to get “expansion size gameplay hours”.

Didnt know LS 1 and 2 had new WvW maps, new massive world maps, Guild Halls, a new class and new sub classes, a new PvP mode and PvP leagues.

Cmon anet, where you hiding all that missing content?

The expansion doesnt include new WvW or SPvP mode, either.

I don’t think the development and upgrades to these systems would have happened without HoT. You also can’t use rev/the elites in them without the xpac, which will probably put you at a disadvantage.

Yeah you can say “mah $50” but then you’d be supporting gating them off, which is what everyone hates here. Its also unrealistic to expect Anet to make the changes to WvW/SPvP gated behind the xpac.

Zetsumei.4975:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Do we think that everyone is going to stop complaining and calm down in a weeks time when they fully unlock their elite spec for their chosen mains?

Tao.5096:

Those Hero Points in Heart of Thorns are utterly bad.

5min for killing a champ solo which not only hit like a truck, also CC and heals up or stealth.

A few months ago: We want harder open world content ArenaNet!

Decently challenging hero point challenges that require you to group in a MMO are implemented.

Forums this week: We want easier open world content!

I haven’t fought one of these champions yet but I’m pretty sure the people asking for this are asking for proper scaling not easier content. As it stands it seems these champions are not soloable (talking pure numbers of damage received and damage dealt) but get roflstomped by a passing zerg.

I can definitely see some concerns with them not scaling properly, as some really don’t, but I dont think they should be soloable.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Not having everything day 1=impossible grind?

You are literally attempting to use your own misunderstanding of the topic as a rebuttal against a 100% vaild point that has been expressed for several months now

This “expansion” is just Living World Season 3 behind a pay wall…. stretched out with gating and grinding in an attempt to get “expansion size gameplay hours”.

Didnt know LS 1 and 2 had new WvW maps, new massive world maps, Guild Halls, a new class and new sub classes, a new PvP mode and PvP leagues.

Cmon anet, where you hiding all that missing content?

Do we think that everyone is going to stop complaining and calm down in a weeks time when they fully unlock their elite spec for their chosen mains?

Tao.5096:

Those Hero Points in Heart of Thorns are utterly bad.

5min for killing a champ solo which not only hit like a truck, also CC and heals up or stealth.

A few months ago: We want harder open world content ArenaNet!

Decently challenging hero point challenges that require you to group in a MMO are implemented.

Forums this week: We want easier open world content!

Not having everything day 1=impossible/boring grind?

Guild upgrades are not working as well (Missions, boosts, etc.). “Guild Data is taking a long time to load. This may indicate a an underlying server or connectivity issue”.

skullmount.1758:

bigbobpataki.4796:

skullmount.1758:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Everyone here wonders why Anet is hesitant to talk to their player base? They can’t even make an announcement without getting comments like this:

skullfaerie.7203:

Well, cringe. This will teach me to never preorder anything, ever again. Thanks, Anet. I normally don’t get particularly bothered by things in the same way other people do and don’t have many issues with most decisions Anet makes, but consider me completely and utterly disappointed (angry, upset, you name it) for the first time.

Guess I’ll start looking for a new class, then, so I can have some specialization to enjoy. Meh.

Despite us knowing nothing about the spec or what it will do. Considering how nice shield mesmer (who only received 2 new weapon skills, as opposed to the ele’s 8 ) turned out, I’m going into Thursday pretty excited. Reserve judgement till then guys, because everything we know other than the elite spec is a warhorn is 100% speculation.

And look how well the dragon hunter turned out…

So till its released, yeah, we can still hate it.
I hate the idea of getting warhorn, but like dragon hunter, I may wind up using only have the elite spec (for DH I’ll never use the traps, for tempest I’ll never use the warhorn).

And whoever counted the skills, I think you forgot 5 skills, for the trident (I remember reading the person one one two hander, but theres 2 )

Dragonhunter has nothing to do with the tempest. Neither does the trident. I hope the warhorn turns out awesome so you’ll be the only ele that can’t use it since you pledged on the forums that you’ll “never” use it.

It was in reference to your use of the chronomancer.
(Trident comment wasn’t directed at you, but now…)Trident absolutely has to do with the tempest if we get the 5th element that some people think we’re getting (which I’m doubting).
And yeah, as of now, I’m planning on staying staff only. There is really nothing warhorn can give that would make me go away from staff (mainly because since I hate the only two possible main hand weapons).

While dragonhunter imo is the weakest of the 3 elite specs so far revealed, I still think its alright. We also can’t use it as precedent for elite specs to come (it actually works against that since it uses a 2handed weapon and got the weapon everyone wanted, unlike tempest). I never took the rumors of a 5th element seriously because, while cool, isnt feasible since they would have to create new weapon skills for every weapon.

I can understand being frustrated with being locked into scepter/wh and dagger/wh but chronomancer’s are in a similar situation and so far it looks great. Just give it a chance until thursday.

skullmount.1758:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Everyone here wonders why Anet is hesitant to talk to their player base? They can’t even make an announcement without getting comments like this:

skullfaerie.7203:

Well, cringe. This will teach me to never preorder anything, ever again. Thanks, Anet. I normally don’t get particularly bothered by things in the same way other people do and don’t have many issues with most decisions Anet makes, but consider me completely and utterly disappointed (angry, upset, you name it) for the first time.

Guess I’ll start looking for a new class, then, so I can have some specialization to enjoy. Meh.

Despite us knowing nothing about the spec or what it will do. Considering how nice shield mesmer (who only received 2 new weapon skills, as opposed to the ele’s 8 ) turned out, I’m going into Thursday pretty excited. Reserve judgement till then guys, because everything we know other than the elite spec is a warhorn is 100% speculation.

And look how well the dragon hunter turned out…

So till its released, yeah, we can still hate it.
I hate the idea of getting warhorn, but like dragon hunter, I may wind up using only have the elite spec (for DH I’ll never use the traps, for tempest I’ll never use the warhorn).

And whoever counted the skills, I think you forgot 5 skills, for the trident (I remember reading the person one one two hander, but theres 2 )

Dragonhunter has nothing to do with the tempest. Neither does the trident. I hope the warhorn turns out awesome so you’ll be the only ele that can’t use it since you pledged on the forums that you’ll “never” use it.

Everyone here wonders why Anet is hesitant to talk to their player base? They can’t even make an announcement without getting comments like this:

skullfaerie.7203:

Well, cringe. This will teach me to never preorder anything, ever again. Thanks, Anet. I normally don’t get particularly bothered by things in the same way other people do and don’t have many issues with most decisions Anet makes, but consider me completely and utterly disappointed (angry, upset, you name it) for the first time.

Guess I’ll start looking for a new class, then, so I can have some specialization to enjoy. Meh.

Despite us knowing nothing about the spec or what it will do. Considering how nice shield mesmer (who only received 2 new weapon skills, as opposed to the ele’s 8 ) turned out, I’m going into Thursday pretty excited. Reserve judgement till then guys, because everything we know other than the elite spec is a warhorn is 100% speculation.

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

3 million people leaving within a time span of a few months is indicative of something and it isnt a good indication.

Yup, but you claimed to be speaking for all seven million WoW players.

Is that all you can come back with? Harping me for a casual “ask any player” statement in a casual setting on a forum for a game?

You made a claim. I pointed out that it was inaccurate. That is all I did. You attempted misdirection by changing the subject from any WoW player to a minority of WoW players. I did not raise the subject of a completely different game here, you did.

Want to talk about misdirection? I’d argue that you’re trying to “misdirect” the conversation by making it about semantics over a displeased base of players, a base that lost 3 million players in a few months and are probably losing even more. I also didn’t bring in WoW, the OP Daksh did. I responded to him originally, which is how the entire thread got derailed.

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

3 million people leaving within a time span of a few months is indicative of something and it isnt a good indication.

Yup, but you claimed to be speaking for all seven million WoW players.

Is that all you can come back with? Harping me for a casual “ask any player” statement in a casual setting on a forum for a game?

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Ask any WoW player

Millions of them say they are still paying every month.

Except for the 3 million that stopped paying from q4 2014 to q1 2015:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4878-WoW-Down-to-7-1-Million-Subscribers

You said, “Any WoW player,” and now are quoting that a large majority remain with the game, presumably paying for the privilege.

Which is it ? The majority are speaking with their wallets, indicating that they are OK with the game and its current direction, or “Any WoW player,” would speak negatively of the current direction of the game regarding its content ?

3 million people leaving within a time span of a few months is indicative of something and it isnt a good indication. Especially after the initial xpac bump and especially before the xpac has went into its “transition into next xpac” phase.

People will always pay for WoW, and it doesn’t equate to “content direction is good” but “I have spent years with this game and don’t want to leave after one bad xpac”. You can read their forums themselves, or any community and many players feel like the game is going in a bad direction.

Ashen.2907:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Ask any WoW player

Millions of them say they are still paying every month.

Except for the 3 million that stopped paying from q4 2014 to q1 2015:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4878-WoW-Down-to-7-1-Million-Subscribers

daksh.2176:

Wow has more content…….

Ask any WoW player how the content stream has been going and they’ll tell you its crap. WoW has gotten 2 raids (3 if counting the planned one) and a bunch of garrison crap that promotes the game world being empty during this entire cycle. One of the major features of the first of two content patches was a selfire camera and twitter integration.

daksh.2176:

50 bucks and no character slot?
Time to renew my wow membership

Spend nearly $50 for 3 months of content in the games worst xpac or spend $50 for what will probably be roughly 2 years of no sub required content? Makes sense, go for it dude I think you’re on to something.

Oh and have fun spending $50 on their next xpac.

Fermi.2409:

MoonStoneX.9245:

Lil Puppy.5216:

I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.

At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.

$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.

It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.

So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?

Khisanth.2948:

Unless ANet has been holding back a lot of information, HoT just doesn’t seem to have that much content.

Holding back on information for a proper build up to the xpac launch a month or two before it launches? Never happen.

MoonStoneX.9245:

bigbobpataki.4796:

MoonStoneX.9245:

Markhov.4603:

The price is not fine as you are paying TWICE for the core game, think again if the money that you pay is your own hard earned money.

The Expansion is $49.99 (Standard) if you buy it on a new Account that doesn’t own the Core game you get the Core game for free. So if you own the Core Game you aren’t paying for another. Now I am not defending the price just wanted to clear that up. I for one think this is far to expensive for the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point compared to other MMOs hell even Guild Wars 1. I mean come on we don’t even get a single free Character Slot for buying the Standard Edition?

“the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point”

Yeah it is too much for content up to this point, but they have a lot more to show. Think you’re jumping ahead a little early? If all they have shown was the content they’re launching with the game would be out already.

No I don’t think I am jumping ahead to early. I don’t believe what they will show us from now till release will be enough to warrant the price.

Do you have access to some knowledge/news/leaks that other people don’t, or are you just speculating/guessing? If you have the former we’re all ears for you to share.

Yppah.2157:

[————————————————————-]

wow, its like plans never change during the course of developing an expansion.

MoonStoneX.9245:

Markhov.4603:

The price is not fine as you are paying TWICE for the core game, think again if the money that you pay is your own hard earned money.

The Expansion is $49.99 (Standard) if you buy it on a new Account that doesn’t own the Core game you get the Core game for free. So if you own the Core Game you aren’t paying for another. Now I am not defending the price just wanted to clear that up. I for one think this is far to expensive for the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point compared to other MMOs hell even Guild Wars 1. I mean come on we don’t even get a single free Character Slot for buying the Standard Edition?

“the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point”

Yeah it is too much for content up to this point, but they have a lot more to show. Think you’re jumping ahead a little early? If all they have shown was the content they’re launching with the game would be out already.

Eight Samurai.6840:

There needs to be an upgrade version for those that already bought GW2 and have the ‘core’ game. I can’t see many people jumping the gun to buy the preorder for this amount of money

And just to add… if we do buy this preorder which includes the ‘core game’ then technically speaking we should get 5 character slots because we are buying the game again…

You’re not buying the game again. They’ve removed the ability to buy gw2 in its current state. Everyone for now on if they buy gw2 gets both the “core game” (which is what we can do now) and HoT. This is the exact opposite of greed since they could have required new players to buy what we have now AND HoT.

Happy, since I can read and understand that “core game included” doesn’t equal “get a new gw2 account and HoT”.

Its also $50 for what will probably be 2 years of free gameplay, which is pretty great value.

Xenon.4537:

It’s not a good deal for veteran players. It’s awesome for new players, but it’s simply a lack of thought for veterans. Those of us who supported the game since launch deserve at least a character slot or a measly token mini or something.

you’ve gotten anniversary gifts 1-3 and 3 years of no sub gameplay?

Genesis.8572:

RabbitUp.8294:

“So far” means absolutely nothing, because so far we know next to nothing.

Then it’s my prerogative to vent based upon what we do know.

Which is an incredibly dumb thing to do, considering that we’ll know most of the mechanics tomorrow.

IntheCoconut.3497:

So, I’m looking forward to this specialization. But for those of you who don’t want to use a bow or act as a “hunter” on your Guardian, there is good news for you as well: You don’t have to play it! Conveniently, Arenanet made this thing called specializations that are totally optional. You can choose to play the specialization or choose from the other dozens of build options already in existence for your Guardian.

To add onto this, conveniently enough you can use the elite specialization and not have to use the longbow. What a thought.

Fernling.1729:

This is definitely the least interesting specialization released so far. Kind of sucks, I had high hopes for the Guardian. I’m just hoping the thief isn’t as big of a let down.

But only two elites have been released yet.

Because paragons wielded bows and used traps right? People who were pulling for a paragon should be happy with this news because it means that if land spears ever get added, the next guardian elite will probably use spears and will probably be a paragon. Would you rather have something that is worlds apart from the GW1 paragon for the sake of the name or something that represents the GW1 paragon further down the road?

Black Box.9312:

bigbobpataki.4796:

In the video a little barrier trap activates that traps the dino in a little cage of light. That’s pretty cool imo and fits the overall guardian theme well.

That’s not a trap, it was a longbow skill. There’s a very clear barrage-type cast animation to be seen.

Just rewatched it, I didn’t see the barrier thing be cast, the mob walked forward and got caught by the cage which suggests to me it was a pre-laid trap but for all I know maybe i’m just not seeing it. Either way the first trap use (the burning/blind one) looked like a ring of warding type thing so we know the traps will (probably) have the appropriate aesthetics.

I think they’re going to function much differently from ranger/thief traps, and they put them in the traps class in order to create more synergy with runes. I hope nobody seriously thinks that an enemy is going to walk over a guardian trap and spikes are going to come out of the ground.

In the video a little barrier trap activates that traps the dino in a little cage of light. That’s pretty cool imo and fits the overall guardian theme well.

Do you even know how the heal works? Or how the rest of the traps work? We’re all listening if you can share. If tomorrow on the live stream we find out the abilities suck than we can complain but until then we really can’t say how useful/terrible they’ll be.

You also don’t have to use the heal trap, I probably won’t because it probably wont be as good as shelter in PvP. The nice thing about elite specs is that you can use previously available abilities/weapons.

Sauncho.8076:

If you like this generic kitten name you should go apply to work for ANET. I’m sure you’d fare well.

Because zealot, paragon, justicar, etc. aren’t generic and are totally original names for a holy warrior?

Pitman.9210:

Yup.

Sorry, I’m a Dragonhunter, so I can’t help the world with this thing that isn’t a dragon but will destroy the world.

So with that same logic an elementalist shouldn’t use arcane abilities because they only should use elements?

I like the name Dragonhunter. Considering that dragon’s are the great evil of the world, and guardians have the justice/smiting evil theme going on, whats wrong with combining the two and saying “I smite the great evil, dragons”?

Paragon, justicar, etc. aren’t exciting and pretty bland imo and do not fit what they want to do with elite specs, which is to take unique spins on classes.

xinkspillx.3914:

I’m not sure if any other choice for a Guardian elite spec could have been more appropriate than a LB wielding rebranded Paragon, but I do feel that Dragonhunter should have been a spec for either the Ranger or the Warrior. :/ I am disappointed, but hoping the devs will still wow me.

I’m actually pretty happy that warrior/ranger didn’t get dragonhunter because there is no way that could work as an elite spec. What weapon that warrior/ranger doesn’t have yet that could make them into a dragonhunter? A dragonhunter warrior with a pistol seems pretty wimpy. There is no way those two classes getting dragonhunter could have differentiated the elite enough from the base class to call it an elite spec.

I think the name fits very well. Considering that dragons are the great evil of the world, and that guardians have a justice/smiting evil theme, becoming a “Dragonhunter” was only natural. We have to see what other changes they made in the ready up before we jump down Anet’s throat, but so far they’ve definitely met the “Changing classes in unexpected ways” goal for elites.

As a sidenote, in my opinion its all but confirmed that Eir is going to die, Braham is going to find her bow and become the first dragonhunter.

Any game is going to have its PvP community be somewhat toxic (which I personally haven’t really found in this game). GW2 doesn’t need the trinity for its PvP to work, you’re just looking at it from your own personal tastes without considering how it makes more sense for what the game is. Either way, specializations are moving classes towards more defined roles.

Yeah, GW2 has its share of problems, like any MMO. Updates have slowed, PvP hasn’t changed much. But considering what we’ve gotten for the price of the base game (which was as low as $10 for some), and considering how good HoT looks, I’m satisfied with GW2.

Honestly you should just go back to FF14 (which btw, has one of the largest gaming studios out there backing it) if you dislike the game this much.

KotCR.6024:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Anet eventually has to increase player power IMO (and I may mistakenly speak for the community here) along broader lines like levels.

I hate to break this to you, but I believe you are indeed mistaken here and do not speak for the community. Certainly not the core community (those who are willing to stick around after hype dies down). GW2 does not need an increase in player power (at least not directly), and least of all not with levels. That’d be one of the absolute worst things they could do.

Guild Wars 1 did fine and lived through 3 expansions packs and beyond without ever raising the level cap beyond the original 20, and without losing players at a non-natural rate. If anything, the only thing that eventually ended up losing Guild Wars 1 players, was the release of Guild Wars 2. That’s it.

For those who do want an increase in player “power”…the mastery system is more than enough to take care of that. Just like the PvE only skills were enough to take care of that in GW1’s expansions. You do become more powerful through flexibility (Elite Specializations), gimmicks (increased damage/resistance to various mob types), and safety-nets (Gliders, when knocked off a cliff), which are enough to increase a player’s power without making players that don’t have these feel like they are too handicapped if they don’t have a particular expansion or have a long-grinding road ahead of them before they can compete again.

I think hardly anyone that’s ever gone through the painful grind for Ascended Equipment for all classes wants to have to do that again, ever, and those that never bothered with Ascended Equipment to begin with, certainly don’t want to have to bother with it ever, let alone ever again.

Thats fine, I completely understand where people with Ascended gear are coming from. Anet is going to have to grapple with the fact that they opened up that pandora’s box. Whether or not the mastery system provides enough progression past HoT remains to be seen, I’m hoping it will but at the same time one has to wonder whether its enough.

Fashion Mage.3712:

tacticalevilnoodlefox.5694:

I’m so sorry, but because you make logical sense and refute most of the arguments in this thread with said logic you’re going to get completely ignored and they’re not even going to bother reading it let alone trying to reply to it.

My condolences.

The SJW-ish flavour put me off from reading most of it. It being an enormous wall of text also may have had something to do with it.

I don’t want to take sides here but wouldn’t it help your argument if you took the effort to respond to whoever you’re criticizing? A “wall of text” is honestly no excuse.

CureForLiving.5360:

WoW (if I recall) is a good example of this were the population shoots up and then starts to drop off relatively soon after an expansions release.

Yeah WoW has had troubles recently with retaining players (myself included): http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4219-WoW-Down-to-6-8-Million-Subscribers

How much that is owed to an aging game formula and how much is owed to an aging game genre is up to debate. I’m inclined to agree with the former though. What Anet has to do though is learn from what happened to WoW.

CureForLiving.5360:

Judging by what we’ve seen ANet has created the framework to easily expand upon: specialisations and masteries. So I’d say we’d definitely be getting more of those in future expansion. We’d also probably see new regions being added (since you can’t really call it an expansion without more zones to play in). Maybe we’ll also see some Guild Hall stuff, but having heard nothing about Guild Halls so far I’m unsure how easily they can be expanded upon.

Yeah I agree that Anet has really kept players interested with specializations and masteries, but HoT is more of a question of “how can anet keep players engaged with familiar, old systems” and less of “how can anet keep players invested in spending $60 every 2 years on expansions without physical, quantitative content”: the former is very short term while the later is very long term.

By quantitative content I mean content that shows an increase in player power/ability, you can preach being able to pierce a certain mob’s armor all you want but in the end relatively you’re just as weak/same as 2 xpacs ago. Anet eventually has to increase player power IMO (and I may mistakenly speak for the community here) along broader lines like levels.

Celtic Lady.3729:

It would be nice if they’d do a little article about the details on acquiring a guild hall.

As an officer in a major guild im really awaiting news like this but I understand their restraint, releasing information on things they cant deliver is worse than no news in April or may at all.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

I dunno what some people complains about… I dunno, I am not good with numbers but this is how I see it.

For example (Not the real numbers)

Before Trait fix stats are for zerker:
Gear – Pow 100 Prec 80 Fer 80
Traits – Pow +10 Heal Pow +20 Vita +30

After changes:
gear – pow 120 prec 100 Fer 100
Or (This is important) you switch out one or two accesories and get
Gear – Pow 110 Prec 80 Fer 80 Heal pow 20 Vita 30

In the end, no change… Well exept that base stats gets a boost too.

So in my mind it does not seems to change a thing if you don’t want but it gives us more custumization as stats are not forced on us by wanting to invest in a specific traitline. Well and for those who want some xtra boon duration and stuff that may go away… Maby they will also go in gear now? We don’t know. So at the moment I look forward to this change but I do not dare to say that I know it’s gonna be good or bad. Let’s see what the future holds.

Not much although I really want to go back to rolling a sinister condi war in PvE. Only thing thats stopping me is how condi dura will be played out on gear (if it at all).

Jana.6831:

Since everybody I know feels the same about that part of the story I can’t really pretend I’m in the minority and what does it matter anyway? You don’t need relationships anywhere. No matter whether hetero or gay, these guys are basically your friends and let’s be honest, they lack character/story to really be anything like friends, they’re just generated characters. I get that there are people who think that the lore is important but they make up their own stories as the original is lacking so much -and I’m fine with that- you don’t need a game to teach you things about life.

No, I don’t play the personal story anyway – but I can voice my opinion which I just did. Sorry that this bothers you.

Voicing your opinion doesn’t bother me, I won’t lose any sleep because someone on a forum disagrees with me.

I think we’re closer opinion wise than we think we are. The personal story sucks, decisions do not matter past “choose x, get y for 3 chapters”. Should this focus more on how the PS characters interact with themselves? Nah, I’d like to see more of how they interact with the ever changing world that they’re designed to interact with. I really want them to become part of your characters lore. But in regards to gender/romance/etc, does it really matter/should it be a focus of anet’s? No, give me a better overall story.

Jana.6831:

bigbobpataki.4796:

Whats exactly force fed? What would you do if you were in the developer’s shoes? You cant necessarily say that you’d have “no relationship” because you’d get blasted by people who’d want one.

Force fed: You can’t escape that story, it’s everywhere in LS2 and that’s plain annoying – there must be something else than this relationship, right? Yeah there is; an underlying relationship of a cat and a man.
And of course you can, these guys are basically strangers to my character and no stranger would tell me their whole life while we’re about to save the world- or if they did so, I would find them more than just a bit weird and rather stayed away from them.

Edit: Why not being smart about it and let people guess instead of shoving it in their face? Like the Braham Roxx story- it’s a bit weird as well but at least Ikind of have the choice to further think about it.

Lets suppose for a minute that your opinion isn’t shared by the majority of players. How would you possibly insure that every player would be happy with what they got out of the personal story?

Even then, its Anet’s game. They can write the personal story however they want to. If you do not like that, nobody is forcing you to log in/p2p the personal story. Its their choice to write the personal story however they please.

Celtic Lady.3729:

I never could figure why they haven’t added more giants to the game. Like it would be any big deal if we could kill more than one giant in a given zone regularly.

Yeah its kind of a silly. There are plenty of high level mobs you could you add giant eyes too (undead and living giants, eyes of zhaitan). If this was a new issue you could call it an oversight but its clear that its become either a.) Anet is fine with how giant eyes currently are or b.) Anet hasn’t bother fixing the issue. Either way imo it reflects poorly on Anet.

Well, whats your definition of a gaming chart? Critical? Popularity? You cant please everyone and neither can the expansion.