Welcome back!
A recap cinematic for the Living Story thus far has recently been posted. Check it out here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-the-living-world-of-guild-wars-2/
The Living Story has been on hiatus for the past month, but is about to pick up again for the finale, starting next week. The current story will end on March 4th.
For an overview of changes/updates to the game in the past months, check this link: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates
In short, a new dungeon path was added to Twilight Arbor, Fractals of the Mists were expanded, some world boss encounters were updated, and ascended weapons and armor are now in the game, available through crafting (which has received a higher ceiling to level up to).
The main reason to put that many points in water is because of the 25-point minor trait, which gives you 2% extra damage for every boon active on you.
Putting 30 points in Arcana gives you access to many minor and major traits the grant boons (especially on attunement switch), as well as increased boon duration and reduced cooldown on attunement switching.
By using this combination, you can have a playstyle with rapid attunement switches, which all grant boons, often facilitated by combo finishers, that may provide you with even more boons (most notably might). And yes, there is a trait that also grants you 2 boons every time you activate an aura.
Selling Karma Items Back for Karma! (Since you can't salvage or sell them for coin).
in Suggestions
Posted by: Jornophelanthas.1475
You can still get a use out of karma items once you replace them with better equipment:
Put them in the Mystic Forge!
(This is not a suggestion, this is already the case.)
Actually I did a thread about my mesmer and people actually was helpful, brought up weapons I normal over look.
Among other things, so no your way wrong.
People see my char and so say thing they think would look nice with it, and it help with my mesmer getting her the weapons and so pretty sure it will help here to.
If you don’t have an opinion of your own and want others to supply one for you, then I guess I am indeed wrong.
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
I also believe that Caithe wants to take the egg to the Pale Tree. Remember that Caithe was also present at the World Summit. Perhaps she received a vision of her own.
Or perhaps it has to do with the secret that Scarlet alludes to. In this case, perhaps Caithe has received a Wyld Hunt some time ago that she has told nobody else about, and Scarlet might have found out while she was in Omadd’s machine.
(If you are a sylvari, you will be told that only two sylvari have received a Wyld Hunt vision of fighting a dragon in their Dream. You are one; Caithe is the other.)
In any case, I believe Caithe is taking the dragon egg to the Pale Tree, either because it is somehow needed to restore the Pale Tree, or because the Grove is the safest place to nurture and hatch the egg without the risk of Elder Dragon corruption.
1. Elementalist
(opinion: larger number of weapon skills cannot compensate for lack of survivability due to low health and armor)
2. Warrior
(opinion: too easy to play in comparison to other professions because of high stats and all kinds of passive bonuses)
3. Engineer
(opinion: regular weapon skills are lackluster with few options, strongly urging players to equip at least one weapon kit into their utility skill slots, resulting in lack of options.)
In my opinion, the variance in base health and armor values between professions cannot be balanced by skills, as the base values are always active, while skills provide only a short, instantaneous effect. Continuous passive bonuses or penalties can only be compensated by other continuous passive modifiers.
For this reason, my suggestion would be to consider using both the rate of endurance recovery and the number of dodges available on the endurance bar as a balancing factor for base health and armor values.
For example:
High health professions have a dodge pool of 50 endurance (meaning they only have 1 dodge). Medium health professions have the current dodge pool of 100 endurance (2 dodges). Low health professions have a dodge pool of 150 endurance (meaning they have 3 dodges available to them).
Heavy armor professions have a slow endurance recovery rate, e.g. 2.5 endurance per second (meaning they can dodge less often). Medium armor professions have the current endurance recovery rate (i.e. 5 endurance per second). Light armor professions have a fast endurance recovery rate, e.g. 7.5 endurance per second (meaning they can dodge more often).
(And abolish the Vigor boon completely.)
This would mean for example that the Warrior has far fewer dodges available, forcing them to take more punishment. The Guardian has more dodges available, but they recover endurance slowly. The Necromancer has a single dodge, but a fast recovery rate, while the Elementalist can dodge easily and often.
(Special attention should be given to the Thief, as dodging could be seen as a profession mechanic for them. In the proposed system, the Thief keeps its current 2 dodges, but gains endurance recovery speed. Combined with the large number of skills that provide additional dodges, the Thief may still be seen as a dodging specialist.)
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
Also, there will be an epilogue on March 18th that should fill in some of the gaps.
I’m pretty sure ANet said that other people would be able to help out any guild’s mission. I’m assuming that means you’ll be able to fill your large group needs from the general public.
Not unlike LFG right now…except with better payoff. And a chance to meet new folks?
How about you give it chance before spouting off about what it “might” mean? No one really knows at this point.
Yes, other people can help in guild missions. But no, these other people will not receive any special rewards, just experience, silver and karma. Other people will also know that guild members will receive guild commendations, rares/exotics and a lot more coin for a mission. Some people have already stated on this forum that they will refuse to help if the game doesn’t give them equal rewards.
Of course, that is assuming that a (smallish) guild can even muster the 80,000+ influence necessary to level up Art of War and Unlock Guild Bounty.
Then again, a trade system does invalidate several advantages of the BLT, such as WTSpam
Since a trade window would get used to some extent, and would attract some use at the expense of sales that could otherwise have gone through the BLTP, I would say:
- The role of tradepost tax as a major goldsink diminishes —> increased risk of inflation of the game economy;
- Scamming increases as trade window offers more abuse opportunities than tradepost;
- Hackers/dupers try to abuse trade window to dupe expensive items (as has been done in other games) and sell these on the tradepost --> more damage to game economy;
- The efficiency of the tradepost server is that it only needs to connect to one player at a time for each transaction, which hardly interferes with the game server. Trade window requires simultaneous synchronized connection to two players —> cannot be done efficiently through a separate server --> more load on game servers;
- In addition to the above point, now add overflows/megaservers and people from different game servers wanting to trade —> separate game servers that need to synchronize --> even more server load (And you thought guild banks were sluggish…);
- WTS spam in chat appears, and pollutes chat channes;
- WTS spam in chat encourages more players to use trade windows instead of trading post —> snowball effect, strengthening all the above;
(Of course, all these arguments are illogical, for reasons already explained.)
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
Perhaps this topic would receive more attention in the Lore subforum.
The distribution of WvW rewards is the problem, and fixing it is probably a very high priority issue for the WvW team. I expect this to be a matter of days at most.
Holding hands in schools is frowned upon, because it is thought of as a sexual act.
Holding hands with skritt is frowned upon, because skritt have cooties (according t many asura).
Throwing snowballs at skritt is seen as a way to keep the skritt from spreading cooties.
Of course, since no asura researcher has ever proven the existence of said “cooties”, this practice is an act of blatant speciesism of asura towards skritt. Does Tixx (an asura) even give Wintersday presents to skritt?
The players on this forum will not be able to answer your question whether ArenaNet will refund you.
Submit a support ticket with your question, and see what response you will get.
In answer to your question 2 (in the first post):
If you explore a city for 100%, you only get a very small reward. That’s because there are no enemies inside cities.
An explorable zone will always give 2 good quality items (depending on the level of the zone), about 40 crafting materials, some coin and a gem shop item.
That’s because (unlike some other games), a patch in Guild Wars 2 does not require an hour-long maintenance period during which the game servers must be taken down.
You can just play the game while waiting.
@BIAJ:
I believe Gaile Gray’s response was more along the lines of: “I don’t have the answer myself, but it never hurts to ask.” She is not directly involved in the policy of what to do if a player loses an item through player error, and is encouraging the OP to pose the question to those who do know what can be done.
If the policy is indeed that such items will not be replaced, it is Support that can tell the OP. Gaile may not be authorized to make a final call on such individual cases. (However, she is authorized to rule on lots of other things.)
Don’t count on the current dialogues in the personal story to be “revamped”, if that was the question. The personal story (from level 1 up to Zhaitan) is a finished product, and reworking it adds little to the game. Players want new content, so slightly better-looking old content is not something they would want to invest their programming time into.
Loot only drops from enemies that also give XP. Typically, enemies that respawn infinitely do not give XP, and therefore no loot.
Magic Find will help increase the odds of rare drops. A cheap way to boost this is through food.
My impression is also that the OP was more looking for commiseration (“Oh yes, people are so rude these days”) than for critical feedback. Although I could be wrong here.
They are not soulbound, and they are tradable on the tradepost.
Those that are on offer throughout most of the game’s existence so far probably fall into one of two categories:
1. People who accidentally bought a training manual that they were not going to use, and try to sell it a tad cheaper, in order to recoup some of their losses. (Better to pay tradepost tax and listing fee than losing the full cost of the item.)
2. People who try to profit from naïve players who don’t know where to get manuals. These try to offer training manuals at prices higher than the trainer sells them for.
I wonder what will happen to the item after the patch. Will all buy orders be cancelled and the funds returned? Will all sell orders be cancelled and the manuals returned?
My personal hope is that the code for all existing manuals will be rewritten so that they may be consumed in order to recoup their original cost.
You do this in the Gemstore, which is part of the Trade Post.
While in-game, press O. This opens the Trade Post. On the top tab of the left-hand menu (Gemstore), select the rightmost tab on the upper menu bar (Upgrades). This one should include extra character slots for 800 gems each.
The Mad King Chest is only awarded once per account. So if you already got it with your thief, your warrior can no longer receive it.
It is only sensible that the chest will only give the 20 Empyrial Fragments once per day (just like other jumping puzzles).
Still, I believe it is unfair that the chest no longer gives Trick or Treat Bags on repeats.
In practice, the label “botting” covers all forms of cheating.
(In fact, I find it doubly appropriate when applied to a siege golem.)
ArenaNet has responded to some of these suggestions, that have already been made many, many times on this forum.
1. Inspecting other players
They are undoubtedly aware of this request already, but have not issued a formal response, to my knowledge. They may or may not do this. However, it will be low priority, because it does not improve the stability or playability of the game.
2. /follow
I’m fairly sure this is intentionally left out, similar to click-to-move. ArenaNet wants to discourage players from receiving XP and rewards while being AFK, and they do not like botting. Like it or not, but adding a “/follow” command to the game is basically allowing players to enter “bot” mode. It is making the game too easy.
Additionally, “/follow” can result in harassing and griefing other players, by just following them around an area while they don’t want to. The designers have always stated that they put player fun first, meaning that they don’t want anything in their game that allows some players to bother other players.
3. Dueling
It has already been stated that they WILL add this at a later stage. Getting the game to run smoothly gets priority, though. (Like removing all the bugs from personal stories, balancing WvWvW, and ensuring account security.)
4. Friend login notification
This has been suggested before, but I don’t know if they have also responded to it. However, again, it is a “polishing up the game” issue, and will therefore have low priority. Especially if you can already check whether your friends are online by pressing a single key.
5. Player trading in person
This was deliberately not added to the game, because every MMO that has ever used this system, has been flooded with issues of players scamming other players. ArenaNet’s philosophy is that the Trade Post is a method for trading that is far more secure, and far less easy for scammers to use than any direct trade window. Sorry, but this one will not happen in this game.
Oh, and the game does NOT start at maximum level. Take your time to get to level 80. It’s not a race.
Is it worth leveling an elementalist to 80?
Yes.
If you use a staff in dungeons, you should be aware of the following ways to stay alive:
1. Your skills have range and have a relatively slow attack speed (especially staff auto-attacks). So stand in the back, do not let enemies get close to you. Also, make sure someone else pulls, so you don’t get all the aggro.
2. Many of your AoE skills in Fire, Air and Water are combo fields. Learn what these do, and deploy these for maximum effect by letting other players make combos with their finishers. Also, Earth has 3 combo finishers, so you can even combo with yourself.
3. Never stand still, except to cast channeled spells that require you to stand still. Just moving around (while still trying to keep distance) will prevent many enemies from hitting you.
Also, use your dodge to avoid enemies’ more dangerous attacks. Generally, the more the enemy uses to “signal” its attack, the harder it will hit. Don’t get hit.
4. Use all of your attunements as necessary. Do not limit yourself to “I’m a fire mage, so I only ever use fire skills”. Instead of weapon switches, elementalists get 4 attunements. this means you have 20 skills to choose from.
It’s fine to have a preference for 1 or 2 attunements and to spend most of your time in those, but there will be times when the other attunements will be needed, so you had better know those skills.
5. Glass cannon builds (i.e. those build with none to very little Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power or Boon Duration) generally do not work well in dungeons, because the enemies just hit too hard. That Power/Toughness/Vitality gear is usually a lot better than Power/Precision/Critical %, because even if you deal fewer damage per hit, you get to spend more time actually producing hits, rather than spending time downed or defeated.
It is possible to do well with a glass cannon build in dungeons, just not advisable. The main reason is that a character without any real defenses will have to rely on other group members to not go down. Some groups can handle that better than others, and some players will not tolerate players that need help to stay on their feet all the time.
A high skill level with the elementalist (i.e. being good at not getting hit) also helps in succesfully running a glass cannon build.
6. Do not underestimate Boons. Know which skills and combos at your disposal give which boons, and what each boon does.
7. Use consumables (such as food prepared by a Chef, or oils prepared by a Huntsman) for additional bonuses to your abilities.
@LordByron:
It is not just about economy, but also about enjoyment.
Champion trains in starter areas were removed, because it was unwelcoming to new players. This is (rightly!) deemed more important than any contribution it may have to the game economy’s health.
Also, ArenaNet is not actively regulating the game economy. Their actions are limited to placing gold sinks (and item sinks, like ascended crafting) and managing loot drop tables. The prices of items on the tradepost are not controlled by them, only by supply and demand. ArenaNet’s resident economist, John Smith, appears to be monitoring the game economy more than anything else; all market interventions are indirect (for example, by compiling reward tables for festival events).
When circumstances change (either through players behaving differently or outside influences, such as e.g. Crown Pavilion opening), the possibilities for making profit shift. When this happens, economic agents (i.e. many players) will likely adapt their behaviour, in order to maximize their return on (time) investment. And in response to this, prices may shift and other players may start changing their behaviours, and so on.
You complain about this, yet it is only normal, healthy economic behaviour. An economy in which nothing ever changes and all prices are fixed is not a healthy one, and ArenaNet is not actively trying to do this. If one avenue for making profit closes, you have to go looking for another one. This is not punishment, this is market dynamics.
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
I do agree that it would be nice if there was a large reward given away because the Living Story reached it’s end of season. However, I do not believe that it should be tied to the amount of LS releases a player has participated in. It should simply be a happy handing out of an extra gift (e.g. a unique skin, or a free Ascended weapon of the player’s choice of type and stats, or modest gift of gems, or a free set of Black Lion Keys) for ALL players.
Alternatively, perhaps a kind of wardrobe system could be included that allows players who have gotten any unique skins from the various LS meta-achievements to withdraw as many copies of those skins as they like. This system could simply check whether the account has the achievement associated with the given skin in order to allow the player to obtain a copy.
This would (1) allow players who threw away or already used their unique one-time skins to still obtain one in the future, (2) save up bank/inventory space for those who saved their unique skin items and (3) reward players for the number of LS events that they actively particpated in, without any hard feelings.
Frankly, the March 18th “Living Story epilogue” release would be a great opportunity for celebrating “end of season 1”. With gifts.
So what was the point of Marionette?
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: Jornophelanthas.1475
The weapon was the Aether Megalaser that we had to keep from charging during the Marionette fight, not the Marionette itself. The Marionette was intended by Scarlet to lure all her enemies close enough to blast them with the laser (which was aimed directly down from her airship).
In Lion’s Arch, it is heavily implied that the megalaser firing down the drill shaft is the massive energy burst that aggravates the ley lines.
@kta:
You are not being helpful. A returning player wants to know what changed in the game. He/she is not asking for your vitriol or your shameless self-promotion. If you don’t like recent developments, that’s fine. But your opinions are off-topic to this discussion.No, what I said is not off-topic. The OP asked about changes to the game, and I’m saying the truth. I’ve played this game for 12 months straight because of my guild’s attendance requirements. Gw2 is still the same game in terms of content and gameplay with changes that decimated the community.
Well, I did forget to mention that we have a new map called Dry Top that makes use of the Zephyrite crystals, Scarlet died back in April, and all 4 LS episodes will cost $2.50 each to unlock since this player missed the free unlock period when the episodes were initially released.
I would love to say great things about the game, but I’ve got to be honest here.
The OP’s question is about changes to the game in the past nine months. It is not about everyone else’s opinions about these changes. Not even mine.
Please do not present your opinions to the OP as if he/she is unable to make up his/her own mind. Pressuring strangers with your opinions about the game is not a good way to find support for your cause.
Before saying something’s a mistake, why not wait and see how it turns out?
These kinds of conversations are important to have in the community since it helps the Developers see what direction the game is going and how their community reacts to their development.
It’s very beneficial for ArenaNet as a company to know were their customers/players are coming from as well as how they can improve or learn from their past mistakes to succeed in making fun and enjoyable contents that expands.
We’ll see what happens but that doesnt mean we cant discuss about it.
In theory, your point is valid.
However, ArenaNet is unlikely to appreciate topics/statements that are as unconstructive as this topic title. What they can use as productive feedback are rationally argued statements, and not emotional rants.
As you must have noticed, most of the statements arguing against Season 2 amount to little more than variations of “I hated season 1, and season 2 will be exactly the same, so I will hate season 2 STOP IT NOW!!!!!”
ArenaNet is unlikely to put much stock in this, because they have already admitted that Season 2 will be different from Season 1, and that they will incorporate lessons learned from the feedback on Season 1. If you choose to criticize the upcoming Season 2 in a constructive way, you have to take this claim into account, and argue a strong case why Season 2 will be bad no matter what.
What I see as the major problem of both Tequatl and the Tri-Wurm can be summed up in one sentence:
A very small number of people can make the event unwinnable for all the rest.
At Tequatl, players standing AFK in the wrong place will scale up the enemy count to such an extent that the turrets cannot be defended anymore. Additionally, there is no way to stop a player from occupying a turret if they don’t know how to effectively use it.
With the Wurms, players who don’t know what to do can also sink everyone’s chances at success. If too many people die inside Amber Wurm’s stomach, not enough people with harpoons come out. A single misuse of the harpoon (once outside) may be enough to prevent Amber Wurm’s shield from dropping. If too many people are just running around at Crimson Wurm, they will lure large mobs of enemies onto the collection stations. And at Cobalt Wurm, uncoordinated powder keg runners will just fruitlessly drop kegs that get removed before they add up to 20, wasting everyone’s time. At all three, those who don’t know (or don’t care) when to stop attacking to co-ordinate killing time can sabotage the event for everyone, as well as those who prefer attacking champions over unhatched wurm eggs.
And there is simply no way of correcting such untactical or counterproductive behaviour, except to explain it in chat (in the middle of a 15-minute timed event) and hope they even read it.
The title says it all:
Please add collectible bank slots for karka shells (under fine materials), passion fruit (under cooking ingredients) and passion flowers (under gems).
It is perfectly understandable that the Halloween crafting materials do not receive such collectible slots, because they are only available during Halloween.
However, the Lost Shores crafting materials are permanently available, and the crafting recipes they are used in reflect added general utility to crafting.
And as a bonus suggestion, I would like to suggest creating an entire collectible bank tab for rare crafting materials (e.g. pirate doubloons or glacial/destroyer/corrupted shards/slivers/fragments/lodestones, as well as globs of ectoplasm). Perhaps as a bank upgrade that can be sold for gems?
What Guhracie said. Go play Zelda or Skyrim if you want your accomplishments to be reflected in the game world.
MMOs have something called an “Open World”, which means that all players, regardless of their progress share those environments. Which means that those environments won’t change much.
I can answer Question 5:
Auras are four specific weapon skills, found on different weapons.
- Fire Shield (Focus 5 fire)
- Frost Aura (Dagger 4 water)
- Shock Aura (Dagger 3 air)
- Magnetic Aura (Staff 3 earth)
What they have in common is that they do something to foes who hit you during their duration. Traits that refer to auras always refer to these skills. It is also possible for anyone (not just elementalists) to gain Fire Shield or Frost Aura by using a Leap Finisher in a fire or water Combo Field, respectively. (See http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo_field for more information.)
I assume there will be more ways to kill these creatures during the next few Acts.
The achievement page suggests that we may be able to enter the Mad King’s Realm. I expect this will involve fighting more of these creatures than the Haunted Doors provide.
HoT Price Feedback + Base game included [merged]
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Jornophelanthas.1475
I think this person nailed it:
Just give a choice: extra slot or base game
Seems like a simple solution. I’d happily pay $50 for expansion +1 slot as a vet. A new player gets great value by getting the base + HoT and has 5 empty slots to work with. But let me choose!Personally, I will get the ultimate because I’ve gotten far more than $50 of value out of the game over the years and I have no problem giving ANet my $. But I think they’d quickly quell the concerns of the masses with the above solution.
And by “many many years”, you mean “one and a half years”, right?
@Gibson:
Agreed, if being presented with content that disappoints can be considered “to be bitten”.
What many of these angry, disappointed or scared people are claiming is also that [NEW HYPE GAME X] will “kill” Guild Wars 2. However, what they fail to realize is that Guild Wars 2 does not aim to be the next “hype game” the way other MMOs are with all their annual expansions.
Instead, Guild Wars 2 tries to be the “home game” where players can safely return to when whatever hype they have been following recently runs dry. After all, it’s easy to just start up Guild Wars 2 again. You’ve already paid for it, and due to the gradual but continuous addition of new content, there will always be new stuff to discover if you haven’t logged on in a while.
So Guild Wars 2 does not try to shackle its players as frantically as the “hype games” do, but instead tries to create a memorable enough impression that the players will return later. Do not underestimate the “I’m bored. Oh yeah, I still have GW2 installed. I guess I’ll check it out again” vibe.
(Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 also continually tries to attract new players, because ArenaNet knows that not every player will return from any given “hype”. Which is why much effort is expended to keep the game accessible and welcoming to new players, perhaps even moreso than it was at launch.)
If a character has no redeeming value, they cannot be a tragic figure by definition. Classic tragedy involves characters who have a redeeming value (love, loyalty, pride, etc) that ensures their downfall (Antigone’s loyalty leading to inability to relent, Oedipus’s intelligence leading to him actually fulfilling to prophecy, Jocasta’s steadfastness leading to her actually try in failure to avoid the prophecy).
Scarlet’s only potential tragic quality would be her intelligence or curiosity leading to her marching to her demise with each plan. However, each plan violates simplicity of binaries seen in tragedies, the plot does not emphasize order, she’s not clear-cut, she does not elicit emotional response. She’s just…a bad tragic character. So then she should attempt to be comedic, but the problem is that the story they tell is serious. She’s not comedic by any stretch.
And the reason Shiro, the Lich/Vizier, and Varesh work is that they all have these tragic flaws. Shiro’s loyalty in the emperor leads to blindness and self doubt which then leads to his murderous actions, his death, resurrection and loyalty to himself, and eventually his destruction due to hubris/flaw.
The Lich was intelligent and knowledgeable leading to, again, his downfall as he read the scroll, destroyed his people, and then sought to avoid the Flameseeker prophecies…which he merely ended up confirming.
Varesh is the same. Her anger and arrogance led to her downfall as she sought Nightfall and eventually her own destruction. Varesh had her name behind her. She was known. She was feared and loved by virtue of being an Ossa. That brought good and bad for her.
While all three of the stories have the underlying prophecy concept, Scarlet doesn’t. She’s just smart, cool, and totally CRAAAAZY. They’ve made her needlessly complex and comedic while trying to tell a tragic story of a woman who hates predestination yet keeps running to losing. That’s not tragic. That’s just lazy writing. She’s everything to everyone, but that makes her lack any compelling nature.
Scarlet is not tragic. She’s just boring, and it’s time for her to go away. I know I have no interest in her story, and she’s actively the reason why I’m not logging on. When the story is compelling, I’ll log on.
You are right, I used an incorrect formulation. Scarlet does have the redeeming quality of her brilliance and charisma (in uniting sworn enemies), but this is overshadowed by her obsession with walking her own path, as well as her general insanity.
What I meant to say was that she is an irredeemable villain, because she is so hard to understand, and therefore nearly impossible to empathize with. And if you can’t empathize with the villain, you won’t love hating the villain, and you will not be invested in the story.
The main mistake made with the introduction of Scarlet was that the game did not offer us the means to understand her. All we got from in-game text was her resume (“Birth name: Ceara, studied at College X, College Y and College Z, interned with Inquest, foreign exchange with Hoelbrak and Iron Legion, etc.”). The short story offered only a little bit more, and I think only a minority of the players actually reads those.
The writers tried to pull us in with “She’s a mystery. Don’t you want to know?” But without giving us a proper reason to care. We need to know either what she is trying to achieve, or why she is trying to achieve it. One must be given, so that we care about the story, and the other can remain a mystery, so that we will be intrigued and become invested in the story. As it stands, they gave us neither.
Having said that, I still don’t mind Scarlet. She is a fun, crazy villain-of-the-week. I can imagine people growing bored with her, but that is in part because she is also the only villain in the villain-of-the-week rotation.
(Seriously, would all the Harley Quinn fans still like Harley Quinn if she were the only villain Batman ever faced? “I wonder who is behind it this time? Oh, it’s Harley Quinn again. What a surprise.”)
Drooburt is not meant as a gold-sink, he is probably just meant as a joke. You should laugh at the idea of a quaggan in a desert, and the option to give him money is there to express pity for this useless character.
It was never intended for masses of players to remove thousands of gold from the economy. The absence of an event bar should be a clue. (And I do find the suggestion interesting that donations to Drooburt could have a tiny effect on the Zephyrite Merchant tier. I wish I had an answer there.)
Not everything in this game has to be functional, or dedicated to “making loot”. Some things are just meant to be entertaining.
There is and will be no race change.
It is a design choice that is coded into the game from the very start. It cannot and will not be changed.
The only way to fall and die is to run right past the reward chest and out of the exit.
Adding a new class that can't be played
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Jornophelanthas.1475
Should I trademark BreadPlus and lifetime bread subscriptions?
Leveling up is not something you need to rush in this game. If this is your first time, just explore PvE, do some crafting and participate in events all around you.
If you think the “real game” only starts at level 80, you will be disappointed. All game options and features gradually become available as you level from 0 to 80. There is comparatively little “this-is-not-for-you-if-you-are-not-max-level” content. (Although the upcoming expansion will be aimed at level 80 only!)
Instead, all lower level content can still be played and will remain challenging, because it is not possible to “outlevel” a lower level zone.
Getting to level 80 as fast as possible really serves no purpose on your first play-through of the game. Stop and smell the roses.
Condition Damage is not a very good idea. You’re better off using Berserker or similar with your Staff.
It would help if you also explained why focusing (exclusively) on Condition Damage is not a very good idea. For example:
- Conditions only use a percentage of the Condition Damage score to calculate increased damage (which differs per condition).
- The elementalist has a good number of condition skills, but is still hard-pressed to keep a given condition on an enemy at all times in high enough stacks.
- Condition stacks are currently limited on 25 per condition per enemy. If you are in a party with more than 2 people who use a lot of conditions, the condition damage dealt will reach its peak. Also, burning and poison only stack duration.
- Conditions can be removed. Direct damage (Power) can’t.
However, conditions do ignore the enemy’s Toughness and armor.
It would help if you also explained why Berserker or similar is a good idea. For example:
- Power, Precision and Critical Damage % have a synergy, because the extra damage added on a critical is a percentage of regular (Power-based) damage. Therefore, the higher your Power, the higher your critical damage. The higher your Precision, the more often you hit a critical. The higher your Critical Damage %, the higher your critical damage.
There is a downside to Berserker gear, however:
- If you have little to no bonus to Toughness, Vitality or Healing Power, you may go down very easily, sometimes in only 2-3 hits. Party members generally do not like to revive you over and over again.
- If a battle is short, you can outdamage an enemy and win. If a battle goes long, however, the enemy becomes likely to outlast you. If you cannot succeed at keeping battles short, you will have a real problem. Champion battles and dungeon boss battles, for example.
Here is some general advice:
1. Your current armor is green. You should be saving up to upgrade to Exotic (orange) armor eventually (either through crafting – you need Gossamer, Ectoplasm and at least 1 insignia recipes from the crafting vendor – or through collecting dungeon tokens for dungeon armor, or through collecting Karma to spend on one of the karma merchants at one of the Orrian temples). The difference in armor rating is huge.
(Also, you can consider upgrading to rare armor (yellow) as an intermediate step.)
2. Also, do not put any Superior Runes in your green armor, unless you are willing to use Fine Transmutation Stones or a Black Lion Salvage Kit to transfer them to the Exotic armor later. Superior Runes are quite expensive, and green level 80 armor is decent enough to start out with, but easily upgraded.
3. Carrion is a balanced stat combination. I agree with Intigo that you should not focus exclusively on Condition Damage, but if you also focus on Power, then I do not see the harm. Also, with a good Vitality boost, you will stay alive longer in battles that go long.
I’m on the fence.
This is my opinion too.
I do not despise the character, nor do I particularly like the character. She is amusing enough to me, but not really engaging. She is presented as an arch-nemesis, but she functions like a villain-of-the-week.
One of the basic rules of storytelling is “show, don’t tell”, which means that actually demonstrating what a character is about is a far more powerful way of telling a story then just explaining what a character is about. The problem is that Scarlet has a disconnect in this regard: what we get to see from her is not the same as what we are told by ArenaNet (through NPCs in-game or by staff out-of-game).
What we are told (and what ArenaNet wants us to experience) is a brilliant sylvari mind that has gone over the edge and become dangerously unhinged, resulting in a destructive mad scientist who will stop at nothing to realize her mysterious-but-powerful agenda. She is also reported to have a wicked sense of humor that causes her to make an immediate and powerful impression on us.
But what we see (and what sticks with us) is a raving lunatic with hordes of improbably minions, who does not appear to have any well-defined goal except for causing chaos for the players to mop up. Her signature move is appearing out of thin air, pulling many tricks out of thin air, and disappearing again, all while laughing uncontrollably and making bad puns.
These two accounts do not appear to tell the same story.
While I do kind of like the story about mopping up messes left by a raving lunatic, I see little of the story ArenaNet actually appears to want to tell about Scarlet, making her a missed opportunity.
I would second a vendor where you can spend excess Bloodstone Dust, Dragonite Ore and Empyrial Fragments, because excess supplies cannot be sold for coin.
Okay, there are a few Bloodstone Dust sinks already (Mawdrey and a few crafting recipes for a consumable item come to mind), but we need more outlets, especially for the other two.
Even if it’s just for generic random loot.
But I also would not be averse to being able to buy 1 Obsidian Shard for 100 Dust/Ore/Fragments.
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
It depends. Prices are not set in stone.
If buyers have enough leverage to convince a (monopolistic) seller to lower their price, then the price goes down.
If sellers have enough leverage to convince buyers to pay a higher price, then the price goes up.
Sometimes buyers and seller haggle, until they find a price they both agree on.
The base game has not always had the same price from launch until now. As products get older, their market value tends to decrease. Heart of Thorns is a way to renew the value of Guild Wars 2 as a marketable product, starting the cycle again, which keeps ArenaNet in business and allows all of us to continue playing Guild Wars 2.