Guild Wars 2

Malediktus.9250:

Labjax.2465:

Malediktus.9250:

Its a long term reward. I dont expect anyone to reach 36k before 2016. Some things are just for future proofing and long term achievements.

It is a long-term reward. What the OP is proposing wouldn’t even change that.

It would change it. There are plenty of people with 18k achievement points already. Its not even enough to get into the top 1000 in EU. Let alone 2 years from now.

That’s still likely below 0.1% of the player population. It will still likely be below that 0.1% even two years in the future (unless the game bombs and loses lot of players). That’s anything but plenty.
Also, remember that 25k, after 2 years, is currently held by less than 10 people total. And likely all of them have capped or near capped dailies and monthlies (so, at least half of that ap), and lot of the remaining aps are from core achievements that cannot be repeated. It’s extremely unlikely any of those people will be able to get 11k (or even 6k) in the next 2-3 years. It’s also unlikely more than ~20-25 people will ever get to that point, and that only assuming that gw2 will continue to grow for years to come.

The 33k/36k level is definitely too high for a full set.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Guilds should play together or not. If you don’t play as a guild together, then why are you in a guild at all?

Through the possibility of joining multiple guilds at once, GW2 promotes the existence of specialized guilds – guilds dedicated to specific activity. There are PvE guilds, WvW guilds, etc. TTS/TxS are world boss slaying guilds. Their members do play together – when they are performing the activity guild is dedicated to.

Unfortunately, that activity doesn’t give any merits, and only small amount of influence (which is then divided across all the servers the members are from). Influence can be bought. Merits (and, by extension, the required research level of Guild Challenges Unlock) cannot.

Star Ace.5207:

I just believe that, despite their apparent “difficulty”, these events weren’t meant only for “hardcore” players but just need more coordination.

You are perhaps thinking about Marionette event. That one could have been done by an organized PUG, assuming several people in the crowd knew what should be done. Tequatl and Wurm are different. They offer absolutely no possibility for learning during the event – either the whole crowd knows their drill, or the event fails. You cannot just arrive to a zone full of people, organize them and hope to win. You need at least a core of experienced Teq/wurm slayers (if you can herd the remaining pug – even a small amount of people you have failed to control can fail the event even if they are meaning well and really trying).
If those two events really weren’t meant only for the “hardcore” crowd, then Anet either messed up big, or have a poor knowledge of the average skill of their player community.

Here lies Knowledge
It will be missed.

Ticky.5831:

Honestly there isn’t even a content drought. Raids are still being released regularly. It may not be the content everyone is interested in, but it’s content.

The fact that the only content getting released is a content that a large part of the game population didn’t ever want to see in this game makes the whole situation even worse.

Drakkon.4782:

Make them collectibles so we can stick them in the bank without using actually valuable slots.

Or better, make them unlockables, like the Achievement skins.

Argon.1563:

If its in FotM. then no, if its anywhere else, then yes.

There is no contradiction here. It should be in FotM – just as any other ascended gear should be accessible through FotM. It should also be everywhere else – including WvW, TP, dungeon/karma vendors, open world drops and crafting (the normal kind, not the Mystic Toilet one). Otherwise there’s really no point.

That saying, no, i’d have been happier if ascended gear was never implemented at all.

PopeUrban.2578:

If I remeber correctly, the fact that shortly after launch that you and all of us had several top tier sets for every conceivable situation was why they added ascended in the first place though, right?

Wrong. They added it, because people were asking for more content, and Anet at that time was unable to deliver. Gear grind (yes, they fully intended going hamster wheel with gear then, which is clear if you look at their posts from that time) was just a cheap substitute for introducing new zones, events, boss fights and dungeons. It was also a kneejerk panic reaction to the content locust leaving the game, that was most likely done without much of a forethought (because at the time they made it game was still fresh, and they didn’t have any meaningful data they could base it on yet).

Kat.7830:

Am I the only person who is really happy because of less dailies? Before patch if I wanted to do everything I had to spend much more time than now. Now I don’t have to do Krytan killer, Shiverpeak veterans and Maguma events running through whole world and then jump into a fractal and dungeon story.

And here’s the thing – you never had to do them. And the total ap dailies/monthlies cap made sure you didn’t even need to do them. All that change did to you was to deprive you of the choice do to things that you like.

Justdeifyme.9387:

I can understand Chinese people getting angry because their culture is mixed with japanese culture

Somehow, mixing European elements is perfectly okay, though, even if the difference between European cultures is at least as big as between Asian ones. A little bit of consistency wouldn’t hurt.

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

The biggest stereotypes in the industry would be the european medieval ones (with a special honorable mention to the vikings – i don’t see anyone wanting to take Norns out of this game due to being soo stereotypical).

Phy.2913:

Ajja.4583:

Raizen.7981:

Why should a total noob be at 163 mastery points? Just why?

The only way to collect enough mastery points to be able to use all new abilities should not require playing short timed mini games.

Why shouldn’t they? Because it’s hard?

Because they are not MMORPG content. They are just side games, so they should not be required for core content.

BellatorDeus.2310:

I see nothing wrong in putting mastery points as rewards for these minigames. People that enjoy them can get mastery points as rewards. HOWEVER – this is a MMORPG, therefore there should be enough mastery points within the MMORPG content to get all the mastery points without playing a single minigame.

This, so much this.

Keysha.2815:

Whenever you see any streaming interviews or updates by Anet, it always seems to be focused on WvW or PvP. The recent major nerf to rangers was done because they are too strong in PvP, so those in PvE got hit hard (no, I don’t run a ranger, just the easiest example).

Yes, it has always been that way. The game is mainly PvE (and it’s not going to change), but the balance somehow was always done with PvP in mind. This last SotG at least suggests they might be again thinking about splitting balance between modes to more degree.

This is a problematic sideeffect of the devs that do play the game (and not many do, it seems) being more PvP oriented themselves.

Conski Deshan.2057:

It’s just like Liadri 100% of people can try the content but you want it to be so hard that it feels like a challenge , a wall to climb/ do or die sorta thing. It’s not with exclusion in mind its with challenge in mind something to strive for.

What you (general you, not you specifically) want is the illusion of difficulty. You want it to be so hard that you feel challenged, that you can feel pride you managed to do it. But at the same time you want to feel pride you managed to do it.
In the end people never really ask for a challenge they cannot pass (though are often perfectly okay with the challenge being hard enough that anyone else will be excluded). Which means that the contend needs to be easy enough to let them pass. It just need to present it as an accomplishment. Something that separates you from the “unworthy”. An illusory challenge.

Nilkemia.8507:

“Theres no time to explain.”

Really Caithe? You had the whole trip there to explain! You’ve had a year or two to explain!

Is it shocking? Yes. Does it make any sense? Effing no!

So apparently Scarlet was seemingly right about Caithe not being trustworthy, and she’s seemingly turned evil. I’m not sure which one makes me angrier.

I’m currently pretty sure, that the answer is simply “Mommy asked me to. No, she didn’t say why”. Because, seriously, that would fit with the whole Pale Tree’s policy of keeping everyone in the dark, even her own most trusted children.
Of course, the most likely end result would not be “go look for caithe and ask for an explanation”, but rather “go, bring us more flamethrowers, we’re going to pay the Tree a visit she won’t forget”.

maddoctor.2738:

The question is why should a player get Legendary Armor easier (or same difficulty) than Ascended Armor, the existence of Ascended Armor isn’t disputed.

I have no idea, you are the only person that mentions it. I have no problem in legendary armor requiring as much effort as legendary weapons, or backpacks.

Absurdo.8309:

Astralporing.1957:

I never said i want legendary armor just for stat swapping, did i?

I’m not sure how to respond to this. If you agree with me that stat swapping is not worth it, great!

I do not. I feel that stat swapping that doesn’t require lugging whole sets of additional armor in inventory is very useful.

Absurdo.8309:

Why do you want a legendary again?

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Absurdo.8309:

All the arguments for easier access legendaries seem bunk to me.

I’m not arguing for easy legendaries. I am arguing for legendaries that are not locked behind a narrow gate. And the arguments for that are good. It’s just not everyone is interested in hearing them.

Absurdo.8309:

It is much more cost effective to make multiple sets of ascended or exotic gear.

Using normal harvesting tools is more cost effective too, and yet people keep buying the infinite ones from gemshop.
QoL has its worth too, you know.

Absurdo.8309:

(As an aside, legendary backpieces are much more useful, because you can use them across all classes, and because you don’t need to worry about a sigil or rune. And yet a see much less complaints about those …)

Because there are two of them, acquirable by different means, and on top of it the gates on them are mostly illusory.

Absurdo.8309:

We don’t even know what the skins will look like. Even if we did, it’s ok to have exclusive skins.

I might even concede the case on exclusive skins, but in this case i cannot, as for foreseeable future there will be only one set of legendary armor. And that single set being exclusive is not okay.

Absurdo.8309:

If someone doesn’t even have ascended, why are they going for a legendary?

I have ascended, several sets in fact. Just not multiple sets on a single char – that would be both inconvenient (loss of inventory space) and wasteful (i have more alts than ascended sets). Which is, again, besides the point. The primary reason for existence of legendary gear is for players to want them. Why are you surprised that they fulfill it well?

Absurdo.8309:

For the record, I’m ok with Anet eventually providing alternate ways to achieve legendary armor.

Sure you are, you won’t be the one waiting years for it (as we’re not going to see a second set anytime soon).

Absurdo.8309:

But they seemed pretty strained right now. And I don’t want them to water down raids just for legendary armor.

I’m not asking for a nerf to raids. Not yet anyway.

Absurdo.8309:

For now, it’s ok that this is the only method to achieve it. (Just as, for now, pvp is the only way to get a legendary backpiece).

As i have already said, there’s no real gate to pvp backpack, Anet said clearly that they expect anyone that participates to get it eventually. You’re not required to be a good pvper.
And the fractal legendary (so, an alternative) is on its way, and will likely be in before legendary armor.

Welcometotheden.8547:

Is it just coincidence (i.e net traffic on my end) or is this causing some pretty bad lagging?

It is not coincidence. It has been known long ago that they barely started optimizing game engine at launch, and even now that work is far from being finished. As it is the engine simply cannot reliably support that many people and effects in one spot. But hey, introducing megaserver was so important that making sure first the rest of the game is actually compatible with it was not an option apparently.

Nike.2631:

Gene Archer.8560:

We were fine with just exotic. We didn’t need Ascended. We didn’t need difficult to get armor. We didn’t need this grind.

If that were true, then why do you think the people who watch the whole of the player base every single second suddenly scrambled to implement what is indeed a massive gear grind?

Because they panicked when the locust started to leave the game. Of course, the locust left anyway – ascended was nowhere close to keep that crowd interested. So, in the end Anet might have retained a tiny fraction of the community the game wasn’t intended for, by introducing content that was at the same time poisonous to a part of the original target group, and useless for the rest.
They also fractured the community, with severe consequences that can be seen even now.

Draco.9480:

I’m tired of those people with L2P issues. They just want to get reward for without any effort. Press 1 1 1 and get 100g.

Strawman much?

maddoctor.2738:

pepsis.5384:

maddoctor.2738:

pepsis.5384:

“Levelling there is something that just happens while you’re still discovering the world”

Of course when you discover than same poi or vista for the 5th (or 10th) time it’s such a natural feeling that you get while re-discovering the world. Natural leveling comes the first, and maybe the second time, a third if you stress it enough, from then on there isn’t much to discover anymore, you’ve already seen everything.

Maybe Im just not as burned out as you people. Im currently leveling up my 4th alt, he is at lvl55 with no books used. I’m just moving around following the story, grabbing hearts and hero points along the way, collecting mats etc. Feels very natural and if the vista is boring you just skip it and still get credit for it. Veterans who played it all 50 times over or people who simply have way too much spare time may disagree with me.

And why can’t you do the same in HoT? You can move around and follow the story, follow the events, gather mats, mastery insights and hero points in the process. What’s so unnatural in HoT zones that is in core tyria?

There are only 4 zones, with events on a constant, unchanging schedule. This gets old very fast.

Avarice.2791:

It doesn’t effect the casual community because they can… oh I don’t know… not raid…

And not get the Stuff.
Yeah, putting cool things behind raids do not affect non-raiders in the slightest. Because they can, i don’t know, not get the cool stuff (and be happy, because reasons).

Seriously?

If you don’t like the horns, why did you pick up a Charr?

NaotsuguLH.8915:

Raids were added for those who would like a greater challenge. It was not intended for everyone. They are not forcing casuals to do it.

Then they shouldn’t have nerfed dungeon rewards into the ground and told people to move to fractals and Raids.
They shouldn’t have locked legendary armor (as well as some ascended stat spreads) behind raids as well (yes, casuals want to be able to get those too).

Wahaha.7938:

If there were few players on the map you would get a message saying so, and an offer to join a more populated map.

Only if there was a more populated map.

Sabetha.4910:

I have to ‘bite the bullet’ as well when I did Adventures to get my mastery points. I spent an entire night trying to get silver on Leyline Scramble once. I don’t recall making a complaint…

If it was so unfun for you, you should have complained. Many did, which is why a lot of adventures were made easier, and why the new zone has so many relatively easily accessible mastery points (with only 1 needed for new mastery track).

Sabetha.4910:

I’m not advising you. I’m telling you what you can choose to do.

Sure, but the “cure” you suggest is as bad as the disease, so it’s no surprising people call you on it.

Sabetha.4910:

Or not. I don’t really care what solution you pick. I’m only here to say that this problem is very easy to solve.

Nope, since the “easy solution” you provided is the problem.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think you should change the title of this thread to “I want World Completion to not be challenging”.

There’s nothing challenging about getting WvW part of world completion. It never was. You either are on the right server, and you get PoI’s/Vistas easily, or you are on a wrong one, and you just don’t get them at all, and have to wait.

Handin.4032:

Sinaya.4201:

I’m deeply shocked and appalled about the general hostility within this part of the community.

I’ll be happy to let this thread die at this point. I got my concern for other players across, got my Staff answer, and opened my eyes a bit about how little I have in common with many fellow WvW players.

Hope to see you on the battlefield.

There has been no hostility, just people showing you the OTHER side of these arguments. Often enough people who do PvE forget that their arguments go both ways. So, don’t try to put all this off as hostility. There’s been no name calling, etc…just showing you how your argument is flawed, and pointing out the flaws and our reasoning.

The flaws, actually, were in the WvW’s side of reasoning. Mainly, in the part where WvW players silently assume that PvE players have any problems agains there being WvW-only way to legendaries.
I, for one, find it entirely reasonable that WvW players should be able to get their own equivalent of “world completion” – an alternative to Gift of Exploration, that can be acquired through purely WvW gameplay.
I don’t see however any WvW players asking for that – what i see is people trying to use an example of poor game design to justify even more of it. Not because it helps them in any way, but because it would hurt others. Which, i’d say, fits well under “general hostility” tag.

aspirine.6852:

Why are you so against people killing you or another player? Nothing happens, just a repair bill. Just give it a try?

Because it’s not fun?
It’s not like the Obsidian Sanctum LS debacle wasn’t already bad (which people didn’t forget to clearly communicate to the devs – it seems it was completely ignored). And it was just about few achievements, not connected to the main story at all. This is likely gonna be much worse.

Edit: hmm, maybe not much worse, if indeed most of the LS component will be elsewhere.

Lunarhound.7324:

Okay, so they’re gliding mounts, then.

They are mounts only as much as wings in Aion are mounts. And, funny thing here, i have never heard of those wings being referred that way.

TChalla.7146:

The following is a legitimate question, since I haven’t even started working towards ascended gear.

What materials are actually considered the “grind” materials?

It’s not the materials per se that are considered grind. It’s the quantity of those materials. Like the 900 mithil, 360 platinum, 810 iron and 30 orichalcum ore, 450 elder, 180 hard, 90 seasoned, 240 soft and 30 ancient wood (and a ton of other stuff ) for one ascended GS. Or things like over 10k silk scraps (again, in addition to other stuff) for a set of ascended light armor.
Basically: t2-t6 basic mats (metal, wood and cloth. Leather is not used that much so it’s not as hard as others to gather rrequired quantities). Ironically, t6 mats might be the easiest of those – the worst choke points would be iron, soft wood and cloth in general.
Additionally bloodstone dust, dragonite ore and empyreal shards. You need 500 each for a single weapon, or 1500 for an armor set. Depending on your preferred gameplay style, those might be a heavy grind, or really easy to get.
Each ascended crafting gear requires also some dark matter – those can be acquired only from salvaging exotics. That again may be problematic or not, depending on how much exotics you get normally, and what you usually do with them.

Axelwarrior.9084:

The way I see it, the recently announced changes to levelling are in response to the complaining about the new trait system.

In case you don’t recall, tons of people were complaining that now gaining a single level feels meaningless and unrewarding, especially up until level 30.
With the new changes, they’re “fixing” that problem with new rewards and UI changes that make levelling feel important.

Have you actually seen the rewards for level 58 on their blog? Yeah, important my…

Also, i don’t get why “making it easier for the new players” suddenly transformed into changing things so they’ll be actually harder (the traits change, for example, definitely made levelling less rewarding and more painful).

Nokaru.7831:

I went back to look back at the wording ArenaNet used in their blog about raids and this armor: (Source)

“Secondly, raids will introduce the very first ever set of legendary armor.

The raids are introducing the first set. They did not say it will be the only set ever.

They didn’t, that’s true. On the other hand, while their answer on AMA was not all that clear, it seemed to suggest they are not planning any other way of acquisition.
In fact, it opens the possibility that if they are thinking about any possible future legendary armor, they plan for it to also be obtainable through (future) raids only.

Which is a moot point. Knowing how fast anet works, we will likely not see any other legendary armor set for years.

tolunart.2095:

IndigoSundown.5419:

If you’re looking for an example of devs actually changing their tune, look at max stat gear.

So you expect the devs to lay out their plans for the game years before release and never deviate from that plan, even when the players ask for something different?

The players didn’t ask for gear stat progression (well, some did, but it was a tiny, tiny minority even on forums). They asked for more endgame content, new zones, new skins (as well as raids, mounts and holy trinity). Anet decided to go that way on their own, barely two months in the game (less, if we consider that they had to start developing it some time before the November 11th patch).

And yes, i did expect Anet to keep to the core values of the game, or at least inform players they intend to change them in advance. I certainly didn’t expect them to do it out of the blue, all the while claiming that nothing important has really changed, and that was the plan all along.

Well, one thing we do know now. CDI was nothing more than a PR smoke screen. The one thing they obviously do not intend to do is to talk with community.

AlienMenace.7516:

They remember a time where some things some devs said got interpreted as “promises” and players overreacted banking on these supposed “promises.”
(snip)

For them, the fear of that happening again overrides all. Even though it is an irrational fear.

At some time i thought so as well. Now, i suspect something even worse.
I am afraid, that their policy of not saying anything is there, because they do know that no matter what direction the game will go, it will be unappealing to some players, who will be disappointed and leave. They know that those players will leave, but they don’t want those players to know until the very last moment. So, by not telling people they won’t get what they want, they are stringing them along for as long as possible.

Of course, that also means that any hard decisions are being kept pushed further and further out. As long as they don’t commit to anything, they can pretend that everything is possible, and that all players will eventually get what they are waiting for. Even when they know it’s not true.

I may be wrong, of course. I still hope i am wrong. But the feeling that it may be what’s really going on is getting stronger and stronger with each day.

Rin.1046:

It is not a compulsory action Anet has forced you to do.

They may not have actually forced anyone to switch to playerstyles they dislike (or stop playing), but they are definitely encouraging that kind of behaviour with this new daily achievements design.

Rin.1046:

Seriously, is getting a small amount of AP and a few minor rewards really that important to you, that you feel you don’t want to play the game anymore?

No. Seeing devs be more concerned in teaching players pet tricks to improve their precious metrics than in providing a game that is actually fun is what diminishes my interest.

Also, the fact that the double fractal daily “event” wasn’t fixed yet, and was allowed to happen again tells me everything i need to know about how really welcome the feedback is.

Izaya.2906:

Why waste people’s time/gold to only end up with sub-optimal numbers?

It’s not a problem with crit damage changes, and the solution is not to give one-time stat change option. The problem here is (and always was, this is not the first time rebalancing resulted in people changing builds) that ascended gear is simply too costly/tedious to acquire. The solution (which would work not only for this single case, but for all the future ones – and there will be future ones) is to make ascended gear much easier to acquire. Or to make the stat change ability inherent to the gear (like it currently is with legendaries).

Giving people free stat changes after each rebalancing is simply not viable in the long term.

That is only one more proof, that if the timegating was supposed to slow down hardcores compared to casuals, it failed badly and is, in fact, having exactly opposite effect.

Allie Murdock.8152:

I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but I want you to understand exactly what that suggestion means. It would mean completely rebalancing the Ranger.

I’m pretty sure at this point it should be clear that nothing short of complete rebalance is going to help.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The Ranger is designed to have a pet. If the pet was taken away or didn’t do damage, then it wouldn’t be a Ranger anymore. Does that make sense?

It wouldn’t be the same Ranger as GW2 staff has envisioned, that i agree. Unfortunately, that class exists only as a concept. What we have in reality differs significantly from the original idea – because that idea turned out to be unworkable.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The only reason Rangers lose damage is because the AI is not currently what it ought to be. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should completely redesign the Ranger and get rid of the pet.

1.5 years of fixing AI didn’t improve the situation. Perhaps it is the time to admit that continuing on this path is not going to help in a foreseeable future either, and thus other options have to be considered.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Think of it this way: You’re building a house and a 2×4 breaks while you’re trying to screw it in to something. Do you scrap the house and completely rebuild it because that one piece broke, or do you grab a new 2×4 and use that instead? Which do you think would be more efficient?

It’s not a 2×4. it’s part of the foundations (the core class mechanic) that are cracking and causing walls to collapse.

Allie Murdock.8152:

What I’ve been seeing a lot of is that you guys don’t necessarily dislike pets. What you dislike is how they act and how they are controlled. It seems to me that these are feelings that have been built up over time, and have culminated into “pets have to go” because you guys haven’t seen the improvements that should be made to pets to make them desirable. I certainly don’t blame you for getting to this point, but I do want to know the core of the problem before we start talking about rebalancing an entire class.

Yes, i do like pets, and i don’t have problems with Rangers using them. That doesn’t mean i like the fact that the whole class is built around them. Maybe it’s because I have never considered pets to be a trademark of the ranger – or maybe it’s because i’d prefer the core mechanism to be centered about the player’s skill, not the npc ai.

As a side note, i’m pretty sure that by the time pet AI becomes good enough to make them a workable and dependable element of the class, it will also become good enough to turn pets into a balance nightmare.

lordkrall.7241:

Also keep in mind that there are multiple enemy mobs that have access to stability (and I would assume we will see more of them) and as such this change makes it easier to deal with the mobs as well.

I don’t remember even one occasion where i have thought that mobs having stability was a problem – 99% of them don’t have it, it doesn’t matter on most of the rest, and those on whose it would matter have Defiance. I do however remember many cases where i got told that the cc spam from mobs is okay, because i should have been using stability.
So, if stab is getting nerfed, i fully expect anet to seriously nerf cc from mobs in PvE as well. Which is the exact opposite of what they are lately doing.

Algreg.3629:

Yeah, yeah, and “elitism”. Funny how the self-proclaimed guardians of casualness always cling to that trope “play the way you want to” only in regards to themselves or “their” people. Good players who want teamplayers with good stats and gaming skills are denied that it seems. If you are so keen on offering raid or other instanced content for people who do not care about max/min, start the party yourself.

I don’t care about who other people want to play with – if elitist players want to play only with other elitists, it’s perfectly okay in my book. So long, as the content they play in does not require anyone to meet up those elitist expectations.
This extends to any possible raid-like content.

Nihilmus.2301:

Funny how the cultural T3 high-horses are getting away with everything. They are the ones that caused us, the skin owners, to be unhappy and rage in the first place.

No. If anyone was responsible for people to rage (i always maintain that the whole responsibility on people raging and flaming lies with them alone) it would be Anet for making a bad business decision introducing T3 reskin to the gemshop. At this point a dissatisfaction of at least a part of community was a given.

And if there’s any hypocrisy there, it’s in blaming other players with “getting away with everything” when you obviously would have no problem if you were in their place.

maddoctor.2738:

stof.9341:

maddoctor.2738:

No it doesn’t. Ascended doesn’t make as much of a difference in large scale WvW battles, sure it affects roamers and duelers a lot, but not large scale combat. Profession/build matters, gear does not.

I guess Ascended is completely useless then since it doesn’t matter in anyway. ANet should just delete it all and the game would be better.

There is a huge difference between “not make much of a difference” and being completely useless.

So now we’re moving from “doesn’t matter at all” to "not much oaf a difference? So there is a difference, after all?

And in WvW it does matter also for reasons that have nothing to do with it’s stats.
Seeing a zerg train waiting patiently at the camp till the enemy group finishes flipping it, or hearing voices “don’t reinforce walls or build siege, we want them to be able to take it” in chat is something i see quite often now – and it has started only after people counted how much dragonite and empyreals they are going to need.

foxcat.4096:

I have zero interest in raiding and most likely will never set foot inside one .The strength of the game lies in accessible open world content that you can drop into and enjoy at any time.

An anet post (probably on reddit) mentioned that raids are only being made by a small group of people like 5-8 and doesn’t effect development from other parts of the game. I am happy for raids to exist if this is the case but don’t lose sight of what type of content made the game a success and in which the bulk of players are interested in.

Not quite. Salvation pass has been done by 5-6 people working on it for 4 months. And only some of that team worked on other wings. And there were people from other teams assisting. And many things are being done by interteam cooperation.

In short, it’s a bigger strain on development resources than you may think.

Vayne.8563:

If a meta map is going on, we can fill 10 maps for the meta in AB. Filling ten maps is not no one playing.

That’s not “playing”. That’s the most farme event in the game. and 10 maps is around 1000-1500 people at most (that assuming all those maps are full, which they are not).
On the other hand, there are days when, even at the peak hours, you can’t find even a single map doing Gerent. Or VB meta above t2. AB maps 15 mins after te multiloot has ended are also generally empty or filled with afkers waiting for the next chest run opportunity.
Also, multiloot is going to get killed one of these days. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened yet – Anet was usually faster to kill (or at least diminish in some way) such farms before.

In general, i really, really hope Anet has really took the lessons to heart and is going to change course for the next expac. I don’t think i’d be able to stomach a second HoT.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Again ill say; YOU CANNOT HAVE EVERYTHING.

And yet, what i hear is “You will have nothing”

That’s going to impact PvE players’ interest in PvP rather severely, i guess.

morrolan.9608:

Grant only mentions currency from PvP and Fractals. What about WvW?

They haven’t mentioned it, so if it’s coming, it won’t be anytime soon. Notice, however, that they haven’t mentioned Raids either.

Anyway, before they implement it, they’d better fix the leather problem first.

Justine.6351:

Ascended gear is becoming too easy to aquire just like exotics were when the game launched.

Well, if Anet’ll want for new people to get into raiding, while at the same time keeping to use sledgehammers as a skill balance tool, that gear should really stay that way.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

LOL dueling can be implemented in such a way that it will have zero impact on people who will never want to duel.

It already is. It’s called “custom arenas”. But, you have to be willing to use the tools given to you.

Obtena.7952:

I don’t think it’s Anet’s logic or any inconsistency that leads me to conclude that you aren’t the kind of player suited to make ascended armor.

No kind of player should be “unsuited” to make ascended armor (assuming of course they are not unsuited for the game itself). I vehemently disagree with the idea, that the BiS armor is not for everyone.

And if some aspect of the economy promotes this way of thinking, then it needs to be changed, no matter how well it works otherwise.

Sky.7610:

Your missing the point. You become rich by enriching others.

No, actually, you don’t. You become richer from the work of others. And you don’t make them richer, because no matter how those 99% of players work, in the end the remaining 1% will still keep getting richer at a faster rate, only increasing the wealth spread. In the end, all that money either gets destroyed, or ends up with you, so no, you do not help anyone besides yourself.

Sky.7610:

no, I’m saying if you are upset about inflation and things being too expensive (which you have a right to be), you need to attack the root of the problem rather than the hand that is trying to fix it.

The root of the problem, for many things, is that those things are expensive because prices on them are not set by average players, but by those top 1%.

Sky.7610:

for example, you would be stating to ANet as a possible solution that you as a player would like to see less intervention on the part of ANet by scaling back liquid gold as a reward in the free market and let the market correct itself via the invisible hand.

The “invisible hand of the market” that i so often feel pilfering gold from my pockets?

Sky.7610:

Printing money in masses might seem like a good idea in the short-term but you are the one to get hurt by it in the end.

Existence of a small number of people that control 90% of the game’s wealth hurts me far, far more.

Ursan.7846:

Simply pointing out that objectively, getting less achievement points have far less significant consequences when compared to not eating or not breathing. Hence (my original point) the comparison of “Getting achievement points in GW2” to "Breathing is optional is quite silly.

Nobody said anything about breathing being optional, so please don’t strawman. Now, everything above the basic needs is a luxury, and optional. Consequences of not getting “optional content” (like warm weather, electricity or basic education) in real life are lowering your quality of life. Consequences of being unable to get achievement points due to a bad design decision lowers your “quality of life” in the game.

“It’s optional” is not an argument. It still makes the game less fun.

After all, if PvP/WvW itself was completely broken, an argument that “it’s optional” would not satisfy anyone.

Star Ace.5207:

How can it be fair to ANY game developer to accuse them of not letting them “play the way they want”, even if they promised it, because they want the game to be something else it wasn’t designed to be?

If they didn’t mean it (and it is obvious they didn’t), perhaps they shouldn’t have used that phrase in advertising.
It’s not “play the way you want, within the constraints of the game”. It’s “any color you like… as long as it’s black”.

You can also buy quartz off TP.