Guild Wars 2

Just let it happen. Just accept it. That is what I think about it.

ANet has an internal testing team, it passed. Does it make sense? I don’t know. I do not care.
But please, the whining about this is so bad, that the mesmer community is drowning in bad PvP players tears.

The last time I saw so much whine was when I went to France.

Bubi.7942:

Sorry, I didn’t know people actually liked standing in the corner, and mashing 1. Oh wait, In this case, it’s not even mashing 1, it’s summoning 3 illusions and standing still to win.

Never mind adjusting to the game/challange, no lord, heaven forbid. Ask for nerf, ask for unkillable phantasms, sure.

You know what, I think Full Nomad Guard should get a damage buff, cause it takes him too long to kill bosses. Seems only reasonable, no?

What is your point? Seriously

If I use full Nomad gear, my clones and phantasms will still die as fast as if I wear zerker, so they will still do zero damage, while it will take simply longer for me to auto-attack stuff to death.

What does your advise for defensive gear offer? If you are lucky and the phantasm gets a hit in, it will just be lower damage. If you shatter the phantasm, the shatter will do less damage.
Rolling a mesmer in anything but zerker/assassin in PvE (besides crit immun bosses) just artificially lengthens the fight, making it harder to win.

Pointless.

I kid you not, I once solo’d the old Tequatl. Took me over an hour, but I sort of enjoyed it more than Tequatl nowadays.

The problem is the following:

In a game that was advertised as not item centric, everything is about farming items or gold to buy items.

In fact, getting rid of all items would free people. But I do not think that most players in Guild Wars 2 would be ready for this. The carrot, it has to be hunted.

Riviriel.9718:

Games like these come in two forms: Television and Movie. TV episodes are released more often and you get more, especially considering you don’t pay for it; Movies come out much less often and but they are usually higher quality and they aren’t free. I enjoy both and I actually appreciate the effort Anet puts into all the additional content they are constantly releasing. I also played the first game since the beginning and saw how far they came over its lifespan and I expect the same from this game.

Wait, you tell us, that if we want blockbusters, we have to find some other games, or we should settle with mediocrity every two weeks.

OK, than this game is not for me.

Yeah, tailors are pretty much effed with the upgrade. Leatherworking is like how much cheaper?
Balancing was never a strength of ANet, be it classes, items or the market.

“Wealth of content” is nearly as funny as “an expansion’s worth of content”!

State of the game at the end of 2014?

Pretty much the state of the game at the end of 2012. Two no tiny maps and some repeatable quests. Less frequent updates to the game than ever.

Sure, we are all satisfied with where we are heading. Wait, somehow I got the feeling we never started heading anywhere.

Bugs? What bugs, I only see features.

If you run this build in high level fractals, you want less agony resistance to make it more efficient. Which is cool, this way you can avoid the horrible ascended grind.

You could probably solo Tequatl, but at least it is a warranted win, as long as a mesmer with your build is participating.

Sazdek.6830:

When leveling between 40 and 60 and then subsequently 60 to 80, what would you recommend in trait lines? Which Should I max first? Obviously greatsword training in 20 domination would likely be very important as early as it can be taken.

The most important trait is Dueling 20, Deceptive Evasion. Besides that you have some flexibility:

Level 40: 20 Dueling 10 Illusions.
Level 50: 20 Dueling 20 Illusions or 20 Dueling 20 Domination
Level 60: 20 Dueling 30 Illusions or 20 Dueling 20 Domination 10 Illusions

While Domination is obviously for raw damage, Illusions has some advantages too. All Illusions traits, minor and major are great. You also get faster shatters. If you get 30 into Illusion when you reach 60, you get used to your endgame playstyle faster, which will help alot if you have some practice.

I’d say, as retraiting is cheap, try both options and go with what feels more comfortable to you. I’d go with the Illusions traitline over the domination though.

Tutanchamon.2190:

Personally, i thing reward is good. Just imagine that reward will be for example 100g: Player A who is new to LS will complete his first meta, get liberator od Lion’s arch chest, and 100g from it. He will be happy. Now imagine player B, who is experienced and completed every LS meta, but from some reason he can’t patricipate in battle for Lion’s arch so he will not get 100g, but player A yes. Isn’t it unfair? I hope there will be some “final” chest, that rewards player with reward based on how many meta achievments he did. So player A will recieve small reward for BfLA meta, when player B recieve big one. This is fair.

It’s the bloody final of the living story, 14 monthes of missed chances and wasted opportunities. God forbid people true to the game would get something nice.

Other games reward their customers for playing. What an absurd strategy…

Best change ever.

Better loot for just logging in than for playing the game – check.
Leveling my characters without playing the game – check.
No more need to play the game, as you get all the stuff for free – check.

A genius move from ANet, the game now plays itself!

Did not even try it yet.

More random fractals? I will have to go through stuff over a year old to maybe see the new stuff? More RNG (fractal RNG so to say) just to see the new content?

More Scarlet? I will just take a break for this update. The last time I did so, I didn’t come back for about half a year though…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsa7dlwzipHVTgGa9IxpHQf5UnUBVX6Bu5duB-jwxAYLlZiSySeFRjtmVENW1CmqkIq2bUEtaA-e

might work

It’s a phantasm build though.

The Manifesto has been dead for years.

- BUT -

Every move towards the ideas and inspirations of what they had in mind back then is a move in the right direction.

The further they moved away from their own vision, the more generic the game has become. Sometimes a step back is two steps forward.

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This logic is flawed.

Two players with the same skill -> better gear wins.

What is your point in defending this?

And what kitten gap between exotic and legendary, that gap did not exist before they introduced ascended items… (unless you talk of a time gap in getting your hand on a legendary, which was meaningless statwise…)

Question: “How do you casual?”

Answer: “You play a game for some hours, you get bored by the repetative content, you log out. You never log back into the game. You just move on, for something new and exciting.
Casuals play what they like, not what some may think they might like in the future.”

It is sort of true though, that with a heavy phantasm spec, the phantasms play the game for you… ^^

Of all the things, ANet has done wrong in their mindless crusade to improve their world, killing the fun of defeating a dragon for the majority of the community in a mid-level open-world zone was probably the greatest crime.

- Players who are in the area, just because they have the “right” level for the playfield cannot beat the event
- Players who want to beat the event need to organize themselves in an open word zone with a limited amount of spots (else you are moved to an overflow)
- A few players can troll the event every single time (turrets)
- You need tons of players for the event, and have to be there when it starts, or else you will run out of time
- No scaling depending on players makes this one of the least varied fights in the game

I could go on, but I really hope, that ANet got a drawing board for christmas, as they missed using one for the first revamp.
Bad game design is bad.

But most of this stuff is just poor implementation. If you think people read the patch notes, you are overestimating the passion of most players. Most don’t even know that the forums exist.

But the point of this topic is not what has been implemented how and if it worked or not, it is about the long term planning, the concept of the game. Like I said earlier, ANet must have a business plan, an outline that will last at least for one year in what direction the development goes.
While it is wise to not share the whole thing, it is not a sign of trust or faith, to hide it all. The last two things left to be implemented from the former preview are ascended armor, that will come sooner than later, and the first real horizontal progression in regards of new skills and traits. But what is beyond that?

What is the actual Manifesto, the guideline which is forming Guild Wars 2 as we see it today and will see it in the future?

Vayne.8563:

I have people in my guild who played the WoW expansion, found they had nothing to do because of how dumbed down WoW has become and they’re back here. Imagine that.

Fighting fire with fire. Hard to imaging that anyone would come back to GW2 for its complexity…

GW2 is not a bad game. But this award is just too much credit for the very little we got.

Gord.8654:

The JP does not impact the PvP game. Since there is no tactical advantage or score associated in that area, camping it is greifing. If you want people like me to shut up, put it in a keep or tower so then we do have to fight for it and contribute to WvW or make badges available in a PvE zone.

No matter how often you call it griefing, it is not. Actually I do not want people like you to shut up, to put it in your words. A bit of nerdrage now and then is fairly entertaining.

Step 1: Join a PvP map
Step 2: …
Step 3: Profit

You have obviously trouble to figure out Step 2, as you seem to get no profit. I give you a hint, it starts wit Pv and ends with P.

The great thing about playing the non-existant druid specialization is, that – compared to other specializations – you still earn loot and achievements.

Clearly overpowered and unfair – but as we all know this follows rule #2 of MMOs:

“Exploit early, exploit often.”

30 in illusions is fairly common to get Illusionary Persona. It is a big boost to your direct damage, especially if you go full berserker.

If you want you can check my guide (signature), great burst, bulletproof utility.

Braham is a shame for all beings with a brain.

Stupid kid should have learnt to shut up when adults are around. He makes all Norns look bad. At least I cannot blame his mother, she is cool, but I would like to have a word with his father. No wonder she didn’t want to take care of him.

As a mesmer it is fairly difficult to level as pure range, as you miss the punch to kill mobs before they reach you early on. That’s the reason why I have chosen a combination of ranged and melee in my leveling guide.

When you are getting close to 80, things change though, and you might want to give a look at my “Go Go Power Ranger Build”, which can be found in my signature… ^^

“According to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly was seen in Japan as the personification of a person’s soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you. However, large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens. When Taira no Masakado was secretly preparing for his famous revolt, there appeared in Kyoto so vast a swarm of butterflies that the people were frightened — thinking the apparition to be a portent of coming evil.”

Just so you know, butterflies are awesome.

Here, I write it down for you:

To have an equivalent, the loot from the final event in LA would have had to be:

- an ascended trinket
- a 20 slot bag
- 1 or more random ascended items (armor or weapon), tradeable on the TP

Maybe some people in full ascended would have had no use for the stuff, but for most, this sounds better than a helmet skin and a lesser vision crystal.

I would just like something that is less situational, like human doggies. You can use those every time the timer is up and they will always be awesome.
Every Single Time.
Just imagine, animal forms would be awesome every single time they were off cooldown.

Colin left the company, that is how much HoT was a 100% product.

Probably not enough in-house testers to actually test the encounter on live conditions.
No PTR to test the encounter.

Releasing content untested.

ANet should hide in shame for the worst QA if this is true.

I see it as what it is. Maybe because I am old and I have seen so much before.
Maybe because I work in QA, so I have learnt to see what things are promoted as and what they really are.

Maybe it is my super power. I just don’t try too hard to make something a thing that it isn’t.

This game is a grind for the best gear. This games bosses in the living story (replacement for personal story that failed) respawn every few minutes. Nothing you will ever say will change it.

When I play a themepark MMO like GW2, lore and story are the most important things to me. Immersion is what I am looking for.

While I like the lore, the story in GW2 is abysmal. It makes the lore futile anyways, as it is just set up on something random and new.
The story offers no immersion – only the old gods know why ANet is trying to avoid the rich lore they have…

I think copying other games is just not the greatest feature, even though, copying other games is fairly standard in MMOs (well ESO has treasure maps).

Anyway, most people want more real content instead of a gimmick like this. It is all nice and stuff, but it won’t entertain people for too long.
Dulfy will have all answers in a day.

And btw, why do you want to force more people into dungeons?

My guide has been around for four years. It is still up-to-date as far as I remember.

Might help…

If this game is going somewhere, it is good in hiding it.

Unless its target destination is south.

The life is where the Zerg is. The Zerg is at the current LS zone, Queensdale and Frostgorge. That is what the games living world has shrinked down to.
If you are lucky, you can find some other players in Orr, but outside of these zones, even meeting an other player is sort of a rare thing, and finding someone to do group events with is fairly futile.

Walking around the desolated maps with all the contested WPs and dead guards at overrun points, it looks like the dragons have already won.

Meanwhile, in a totally safe zone, Queensdale, heroes unite to defeat weaksauce champions for the best available loot and riches.

This game has some serious flaws.

BlackDevil.9268:

Casuals Win

I wish this game was as “casual win” as it was adverised.

Depends on the way you want to level your mesmer.

If you want to spend some time in PvE for leveling, you may want to read my guide in the signature. It will include a basic rotation with dodge clones.

For PvP though, you might want to ask some more experienced players in this content.

The clones and phantasms vitality will not change with your stats, they will still die as fast.

What is this defensive gear good for? The bit of more armor will not safe them.

You mean like ever zone would be an endgame zone? And no zones would have been wasted as progression areas (even though ANet thought people would come back on their own, but they just didn’t so they put the LS in the game)?

GW2 would probably have been a better game and closer to GW1, so it was something many people were hoping for before release anyway.

This is no new topic though, it pops up every now and then.

Nightarch.2943:

They need to end this temporary content train as soon as possible. The hole they dug for themselves is starting to look like an abyss.

The only thing that looks like an abyss is the grave that this thread has been necro’d from.

Waiting will cost you nothing and will only make this mess of an expansion better.

A clear win/win!

Send me your money. Problem solved.

I still believe ascended gear was implemented to troll all players.

Those who believed in the “we want everyone on the same gear level at 80” talk, for adding better gear that is hard to get.
Those who believed in horizontal progression, because there was hard to achieve vertical progression now.
Those who believed in vertical progression, because for all the grind involved the progression was pretty much worthless.
Those who like skins, because they were terrible.

Well played ANet!

Read the quarterly NCSoft reports, and you will get your answers.

The game is pretty much dying in Europe (financially) after a massive loss in the last quarter, in the US it was at least stable but the numbers are less than satisfying.

The big hope is/was the china release, but we will have to wait a bit longer for the second quarter report.

In the end, every single game is a grind. Because it is the nature of a basic game mechanic to do the same stuff over and over again.

The problem with GW2 actually is, that ANet seems very bad at hiding the grind behind interesting stuff.

Look, play any Mass Effect game. Take cover, shoot stuff, take cover. Till the game is over.
That’s pretty much it. It certainly qualifies as grind.
BUT, you are actually distracted by the story sooo much, of the suspense and of the curiousity, that taking cover, shooting stuff and taking cover again does not feel repetative.
In the end, it is more or less what you do for 20 hours straight and at the end you are sad that it is over.

Now try to get the accound bound stuff needed for a full set of ascended gear for a single character.
There is absolutely nothing distracting from the grind for the stuff. The grind is just simply that, a plain grind.

People telling other people that they got the stuff for an entire ascended set by just playing must be spending thousands of hours in game. Which is like neglecting that playing a game for close to 10,000 hours is not what the reasoning behind item aquisition should be.

So the grind in GW2 feels more grindy than in any other game, because there is no distraction from it. It is emotionally unrewarding, boring and uninspired.

That’s why it sucks.

Curunen.8729:

Well I don’t anymore – or GW2 at all for that matter.

However it is still the most unique and enjoyable class in GW2, been a pleasure to play despite all the bugs and nerfs, and if I was given the choice of going back 2 years and starting over I would do exactly the same thing, no regrets.

Hopefully Anet realises the beauty of the mesmer class they have created, and how unique it has the potential to be – for any kind of class in any kind of rpg or mmo – and that they manage to bring it into a good position in the future.

Yeah, I moved on to a sub based MMO. Finally letting this case rest.
It is not the game itself, it is the developer. Noone wants to wait two years for simple bug fixes ever. Or some quality content. Or at least something new and exciting to toy around with.

I am a very patient person, but enough is enough. See you on the other side, maybe… ^^

Druid has a crappy mechanic with crappy uptime.

Druid doesn’t feel like a druid at all. It is an astromancer with one or two skills on the staff that are sort of nature.

Druid is useless in most all of the content, and as long as raids are not available what is it good for being maybe useful there.

The concept of a druid in GW2 is pretty much a total fail. And I was so looking forward to it when they first announced the elite spec…

Unhappy with the direction GW2 is heading?

Since when has this game been going anywhere since launch? It is like this game is frozen in time, while evering else around it evolves.

Two years and we still wait for any meaningful thing to happen. At this rate of events, we see the final elder dragon in over 10 years. Sounds like a joke to me.