Guild Wars 2

I have mixed feelings about much of the armour and weapon skins in GW2. They seem to be extremes. Some are really good looking skins while others are plain ugly. But as others have said it is all a matter of personal taste.

That said I would love to see, and pay real cash for, remade skins from GW1. I would pay gems for elite & non-elite kurzick warrior and imperial assassin armours. I would also love to see Chakrams for dagger skins or something more akin to fist blade type weapons. I am a minimalist style of person, so anything sleek and minimalistic is a winner for me, even more so if it has a futuristic feel to it, like much of the Asuran skins. Oh and it has to be white .

There is one thing that really disappointed me about the new skins though. Before, you could get a full set of armour for your character (who is unable to change armour type btw) for 800 gems. Now however, it seems you will need to pay 1800 gems to get a full set. Now I am perfectly ok with having the option of buying each piece seperately, because you may not like all pieces of a full set, but why 300 gems per piece? Shouldn’t it be 100-150 gems per piece per armour type? What if I only want the skin for one character? What if I only HAVE one character? I really feel we should be given the option to only buy the skin for one armour type.

They have made them usable for all armour types so that they can slap a higher price tag on them, but this just seems very underhanded, and somewhat unfair on players who only have one character. The current lawless armour (head, shoulders, hands and feet so far) will set you back 1200 gems and is not even a full set of armour. I personally would prefer seperate payments for each armour type much more than having to pay more for a universal version. This new method of selling armour just feels like an money grabbing and unfriendly way of making a profit.

I know Anet is a business at the end of the day, but there are player friendly ways of making a profit without resorting to underhanded tactics. Giving us the choice of buying one armour type piece or a universal piece would be a good start and will gain a lot more respect from players.

Sorry for the rant, but this kind of tactic really annoys me and I feel there is no need for it. I’m just glad I find the lawless skins ugly.

Magister Greg.7169:

I am only disappointed in that I am forced to find events on a particular map instead of a region… the issue is that everyone is forced onto the same map so there are groups of people who wipe out the events very quickly. I am a veteran player, but even I am forced to spend 15-25 minutes chasing after events hoping to tag something and get credit. The fun of actually playing the game and completing events is replaced with hoping to get enough hits to get credit plus the frustration of finding a event, then realizing that it is almost done and you can’t reach it in time.

I agree with you here, and I think this is a valid concern. You, and others, are trying to do the daily as intended, but its not always possible to do and can sometimes end up being frustrating. That is why, a page or so back, I suggested adding 1-2 more zones to the event daily.

I do not think changing the zones to a whole region would be good, because it seems to me that they changed from regions to zones in the first place because regions were not achieving their purpose. Some zones were still remaining empty. By changing to regions again players will congregate to what they feel are the easy zones for that region and leave the others.

So while I agree, we need some way to reduce this problem, and I feel simply adding an extra zone or two would be enough to remedy that.

Knighthonor.4061:

If GW2 had a traditional Trinity system, what would the game be like?

A traditional MMO.

Thank the gaming gods it hasn’t! GW2 has a new and improved trinity: Damage, Control, Support. A far superior, more flexible and more complex system. A system that requires a lot more team coordination to really shine. But on a more negative note, a system that requires a better AI system than the one that currently exists. But overall, GW2’s trinity is a great system and I doubt I would continue playing it if it went all traditional on us.

Johje Holan.4607:

Fights with warriors are enjoyable.
Fights with guardians are enjoyable.
Fights with eles are enjoyable.
Fights with rangers are enjoyable.
Fights with necros are enjoyable.
Fights with engineers are enjoyable.
Yes, even fights with mesmers are enjoyable.
Stealthed thief, not.

Fights vs stun warriors were not fun, but I adapted now they’re fun to fight.
Fights vs bomb kit/turret knockback engies were not fun, but I adapted now they’re fun to fight
Fights vs condi necros were not fun, but I adapted now they’re fun to fight.
And fights vs stealth thieves were not fun, but now they are.

There are plenty of builds that are frustrating to fight against, but once you learn how to counter them you wonder why you got so annoyed in the first place.

If I cannot beat a stealth thief and he cannot beat me, I think ‘oh well’ and we part ways and carry on with our lives. I do not lose sleep over it and I do not get frustrated by it, because at the end of the game it is only a game. If I cannot beat an enemy player, that is my fault, not the games.

To be honest I think the game is pretty well balanced (not completely of course, but good enough). But the problem you will always have is that different players have differing levels of skill, and some players have found a build that fits perfectly with their play style, while others make do. The point is, stealth can be beaten, players beat it all the time, it is just a matter of the skill and build to player synergy that determines the outcome of a fight, not whether a mechanic is broken or not. If stealth was truly OP, no one would be able to beat it, yet I see stealth thieves, good ones too, get stomped all the time.

I still think though, that the revealed debuff should trigger everytime you exit stealth, rather than only when you deal damage. That small and acceptable change would make a world of difference my opinion, without it breaking the mechanic.

I do not believe the elite specs will offer any noticeable advantage in PvE.

Continuum Shift only effects you, so only really boosts your own damage/survival. And only for one burst every 60 odd seconds. Not a massive advantage.

The DH virtues are no more or less advantageous then the guardians. The spear no longer grants a benefit to your allies and resolve and courage now require more effort to use effectively. It is a trade off really, they may be slightly more powerful, but you need to work more to make them work. The guardian virtue actives are pretty much fire and forget skills, like shouts. They effect a large area, so need less aiming.

The big difference, I believe, will be noticed in PvP. Maybe not so much with the DH, but certainly with the chrono’s CS F5 skill. That said, I am sure once players get used to how CS works it will not be as big a problem as it seems on paper. And I am sure if it is, Anet will balance things. They said themselves that they do not want elite specs to be stronger than core specs, so I expect there will be a far bit of balancing during beta and post HoT release.

It seems wearing tanky stats is as effective as trying to express how ineffective they are.

I am assuming Demonts is responding to the high demand there seems to be for Cantha.

While I would be happy to visit Cantha again, unexplorable sections of the map have always annoyed me too. It bugged me in GW1 that we couldn’t explore the whole map. I hope they do not follow the same model in GW2, but I suspect they will.

That said though, it is only a small irritation and certainly not big enough to be annoyed if they release Cantha/Elona, if they ever get released. If they stick with the unexplorable map model and release Cantha/Elona, so be it, it won’t stop me playing. But I will always be thinking what a waste.

Zeldain.5710:

Am I the only one that sees this as a drip-feed to deviant behavior? GW2 is becoming more and more about explicit rewards rather than implicit, which seemed to go hand-in-hand with the spirit of the original manifesto.

“More rewarding” shouldn’t always equal a token, a badge, a point or an item.

I completely agree with you, but unfortunately the vast majority of players have been conditioned to want tangible rewards (as tangible as virtual rewards can be).

Personally, the experience is a good enough reward for me, but we live in a materialistic society and people want shinies.

I too would like to see more GW1 armours return in GW2, in the gem store (I would much rather buy armour skins than any other item currently in the store). I wouldn’t be surprised if Anet adds more at a later date though.

I’d like to see both kurzick heavy armour versions and the imperial assassin armour for a medium armour set, as that is what I had on my two mains. I’d also like to see a remake of the elite gladiator armour as well (the leggings at least as I am not keen on the GW2 version).

Zioba.6182:

And what other things do we get for this event?

A new dress -> In the gemstore
A new gliderskin -> In the gemstore
A new mini -> In the gemstore
A new mini -> rare in the gifts ~4gold right now
A new mini -> that requires 3 of the rare minis ~12 gold right now
A new mini -> that requires 3 of the minis made of 3 rare minis ~36 gold right now
4 old minis back -> one obtainable for the meta, all obtainable via the gemstore
1 old mini back -> obtainable verry rare from the gifts ~58 gold right now
1 old mini back -> obtainable by combining 3 of the verry rare minis ~110 gold right now
A new shoulderskin ->with every drink now worth ~10s just the worth of the 10k drinks is 1k gold. plus 2500 candy cane worth ~ 6s each, ~150 gold in total

For me it just feels like wintersday is only for rich ppl or for ppl with a lot of luck. I already opened about 1k gifts and didn’t get a single skrit or snowman mini…
There is no problem with things you can work towards. I rly liked the mawdry stuff. That was fun, that was not just a mindless grind.

That’s more items than I was expecting actually. And many of them you can buy for some gold? And some of them not that much gold? Thats easier to get than I expected too.

With the exception of the shoulders, the other items do not seem that difficult to get, so I’m not sure what your point is. I do agree that getting items like Mawdrey are more fun, and I agree that more items should be implemented this way. But the point I am trying to make is that the shoulders are not the only item coming with Wintersday and there are other items that are relatively easy to get within the time period provided.

Aomine.5012:

Rin.1046:

Two? What is the second Wintersday item they added that is hard to get? I am only aware of Wintersday Presence.

Nightfury doesn’t ring the bell?

Even though flax seed is easier now, the endless Bat Brew still worth a tons.

Plus 7500 flax seed is still alot of grind-fest.

You need to go back and read my post. I said they are adding one new skin with the seasonal events. Nightfury was not added with Wintersday, it was added with Halloween. I think one hard to get skin per seasonal event it reasonable. But it seems clear to me now that all you want to do is blow this all out of proportion, in the hopes Anet will listen and reduce the cost of the shoulders, so I see no point in continuing to discuss this with you.

lordkrall.7241:

I have seen plenty of people on reddit complain about the lack of support.

I think people need to step out of the box and see that boons is not the only way to support allies.
Chill is a great way to support your group, since it makes the enemy much easier to deal with.

Not only that but we do not have the full picture yet on how shouts and the GS skills work.

It doesn’t specify in the blog that the shouts are enemy only. It states ‘Reaper shouts differ from warrior and guardian shouts in that they focus more on harming foes than they do on bolstering allies.’, which doesn’t mean allies do not get some benefit.

Also, the GS may have a blast and leap finisher, allowing them to help stack might and heal from fields. And don’t forget, there may be traits that increase the supportive power of the shouts as well.

People complaining at this stage are only doing so because they have nothing better to do. We do not have enough info yet to make complaints.

Aretak.3826:

In what quantifiable way does it help, and in what game mode? PvE, not even remotely necessary. PvP, you’re facing people with a brain where condi cleanse/anti snaring traits are very prominent. In WvW soft cc is just sub-par to say the least.

Allow me to provide a couple of examples of how chill can help the team, in PvE:

- A boss will not use its one-hit skill less frequently, giving the team time to recharge skills or regain endurance for another block/dodge.
- Melee bosses can be kited a hell of a lot easier.

Chill may not be as supportive as might, protection and the like, but it can still help a lot in some situations.

Also, I do not see how being sarcastic to someone for having an opinion different to your own is helping the discussion. Provide your reasons why you think he is wrong by all means, but please leave the sarcastic comments at the door.

Continued…

What I would like from a loot system is something like what Diablo 3 achieved. That feeling of occasional joy when you get an actual reward of worth. I could play a couple hours of Diablo 3 and get a handful of legendaries or set items. And even if I cannot make use of them (which I probably won’t be able to) it is still a good feeling because you might be able to give it to another character, or you might be able to transmute it into something useful. And even if you cannot make use of it at all, it is still a joy to get because it has the POTENTIAL to be useful. When I get blues and greens in GW2 I know, without checking the stats, that it will be worthless to me. But if I got more frequent exotics or the occasional ascended piece, even if it wasn’t the stats I wanted, it would still give me that moment of joy when I get it, because there is the potential for it to be useful.

I know Diablo 3 and GW2 are very different games, and I know that loot drops can affect the economy, but I do not think the games economy should impact on player enjoyment, and besides the economy can always be balanced around this change. I think that feeling of surprise and joy, at getting worthwhile loot, is very important in games like this. But for me that feeling just doesn’t exist at all in GW2. All I get is a bombardment of worthless rubbish that I have to frequently spend time processing to get any kind of worth out of it.

My wish for GW2’s loot system is for it to be based on quality over quantity, for rewards (the processing of) to not impact the flow of gameplay too much and for each game session to give you at least one item that gives you that feeling of being rewarded. I don’t know if this kind of thing is something that is currently ‘on the table’ at Anet (i’ve not really followed the forums that much these days), and I am sure it would take some time and effort to fix it, but I really think the excessive and worthless loot we currently get needs to be looked at. Sometimes less is more.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I rant because I care. I would love the game to improve more and I just wanted to voice my opinion on one of the bigger niggles that vex me about GW2. Feel free to voice your own opinions on this topic. I would be interested to know what others think about GW2’s current loot system and what you think needs changing, if anything.

Though it was nice of Robert to offer advise on this, it does highlight another issue I have with this kind of thing. Why should I have to pick a specific pet to run a dungeon? I want melee pets. That’s what fits my character and that’s ‘how I want to play’. It’s all very well saying we can switch to ranged pets, but I don’t want to play my ranger that way, I want to play it my way, and my way is with melee pets that are obedient and stay stowed when I tell them to stay stowed.

It seems to me that perma stowing would be a simple thing to add, yet they don’t want us to have it. Are they afraid we will never use our pets?! That’s just crazy to even think it. And even if a ranger did choose to never use their pet, 1) They’ll be at a disadvantage in most situations as they’ll be loosing out on some useful skills and extra DPS and 2) It’s THEIR CHOICE!

As much as I love this game I do sometimes get a bit fed up with Anet telling us how we should be playing, especially when they have said so many times before that we can play the game our way.

Sorry Robert, I appreciate your advise, but it is not enough for many rangers. We want better solutions.

Malediktus.3740:

I think the loot is very good considering each mob can be looted by upto 50 people.

My problem is not how the loot is acquired, it’s the quantity and quality of it. I think having 50 people loot the same mob and get equal loot is great and one of the best features of GW2, but it is spoilt by the amount of worthless feeling drops you can get.

Direct Damage
Advantages: Quick burst damage takes your foe down fast. Your damage is not shared with other players on your team.
Disadvantages: Is reduced by armour and toughness.

Condition Damage
Advantages: Ignores armour and toughness.
Disadvantages: Easy to clear via combo fields when fighting groups. Damage is shared with other condition damage team mates (hard cap on bleed stacks). Slower to ally full damage potential.

Both Damage Types
Advantages: Many can be spammed (both direct and condition damage).
Disadvantages: There are defenses to counter them.

Has anyone heard the rumour about Anet working on GW3? It’s set 1000 years after GW2 with laser gun wielding charr, driving plasma firing hover tanks. The final battle will be against the almighty toastedsandwichmancer!

I can’t wait!!!!

Personally I dislike either option, no offense. I have spent a lot of time getting all my characters leveled up and unlocking all their skills and traits, why should I have to redo that work when a new player can come along and not have to? If it is true that our maxed out characters will have to re-unlock some of our skills again Anet will have a lot of unhappy players on their hands. I can see this getting a similar response to the ascended reaction. It is not much different from a level increase, as it basically undoes some of the work you put into your character(s).

I hope Anet makes the right choice on this. I will carry on regardless, but others will not.

…

As to the meta. There has been and always will be meta builds. This is not an indication that there are pointless skills, it just indicates what is the most effective combination for the majority of the playerbase. Players will always strive to find the most effective builds, and there is nothing any developer can do to stop this without making all skills equal and boring.

You CAN create your own (non-meta) builds, and you CAN be effective with them. The biggest problem I see people make, when it comes to making builds, is focusing only on what skills, traits and gear to choose, so they can be as effective as possible. But there is often one element to build making that they miss or forget. And that is whether the build fits their playstyle. When I say playstyle I do not mean whether they prefer damage or control or support. I mean whether the build clicks with the way you prefer to move your character and use your skills.

Do you prefer reactive or proactive skills? Do you prefer evasive ‘always moving’ combat or more stationary blocking/blinding/protection builds? A build could be the best bunker block/protection build in the game, as per the current meta, but if it doesn’t suit the way you play and the way you like to control and move your character and use your skills, you will not be able to get the most out of the build. I am a true believer in the idea that a skilled player with a unique, non-meta, build that fits their playstyle well can easily defeat a skilled player using a meta build that doesn’t quite fit their playstyle. Having a build fit the way you like to play is very important and I see a lot of players ignore that.

This does however remain a problem for some. Some players, and this is not a negative comment about them, like to create a specific theme for their character, but cannot make a build that fits their playerstyle and that theme. For example, it will be difficult to make a good evasive guardian build. Not impossible, but no where near as easy as it will be to make an evasive thief. So because they cannot create a build to fit both playstyle and theme they lose interest in the build customization.

I am sorry that you do not get as much enjoyment out of the game as you’d like, and it is a shame that you see the game the way you do. But at the end of the day, and I hate to use this cliche, if you do not enjoy the game then it may simply not be the game for you.

Anyway, I hope when HoT comes out you find that spark again and get some enjoyment out of it. And if not, I hope you find a game that suits you better.

Seras.5702:

I abandoned my Mesmer around lvl 50 because my utilities were so situational and rarely used. I abandoned warrior because most of the utilities are passive/banners. I main Engi specifically because I use my whole skill bar and not just swap my 2 weapons and occasionally pop a stun break or reflect wall.

Combat in GW2 is situational yes, and that is what makes it so good. Because combat in GW2 is a bit more skill based (I say a bit because your build plays a big part in your success) and not designed around one rotation, like most of the strong builds in GW1, you have a lot more flexibility available to you.

Sure you had more build options available in GW1, but once you made your build all you needed to do was learn one or two rotations. There was not much else you could do with your build. Sure, you could make builds designed for various situations, but they lacked massively compared to the focused builds. And if that rotation was broken there was often little recovery. In GW2, while you have fewer overall skills, you can equip more tools to use in various situations and therefore can survive better if things don’t go to plan. And while you still get focused builds in GW2, they still have the ability to be adaptable to a certain extent, certain more so than they were in GW1.

I love that fact that your entire skill bar in GW2 is not built for one rotation or one purpose, and that you can do many things with it. So what if you cannot use all the skills on your bar in every fight. It’s that ability to change the flow of a fight and react to different situations that makes combat in GW2 so much better imo. I would rather have fewer skills with more adaptable combat than lots of skills and focused rigid builds that offer you limited options in combat.

I’m not saying GW2 has got it right, it hasn’t. It needs to be improved. But I feel it is definitely a step in the right direction and they have done a great job so far. They just need to refine it. If they can make all our skills and traits useful and equally effective, we will have the best of both worlds. We will never (I hope) have the same quantity of builds that were available in GW1, but providing we have enough to keep people happy I think quality is a much better thing to strive for.

Edited by Moderator

In some events ressing a defeated player is not difficult and can sometimes be more beneficial to res them. But in big events, such as Teq, ressing dead players has a negative impact on the event and the group.

Corpses clutter the ground, making it tricky to revive downed players (causing valuable seconds to be lost while you position yourself to avoid the dead players). You risk your own safety by ressing a defeated player, as well as taking your damage, control and support away from the group. And more often than not waypointing is safer and less impacting on the group as a whole.

I am all for finding ways to get players to res, but only when it is needed, safe to do so and a benefit to the group. The other problem, as others have already pointed out, is a lot of players are simply too lazy to waypoint and run back, even though it takes very little effort and time.

So while I commend your efforts in trying to encourage players to res, I would also say it is just as important, if not more important, to encourage/educate players to know when to waypoint. Both are useful tactics, it is not only useful to res, it is also useful to waypoint. Knowing the difference makes for a better player.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

“I don’t want to actually play the game, so give me the option to just buy everything”

That’s all I’m seeing here.

“But I did play the game! I just don’t want to do it all again!”

Then don’t make another character.

You’re obviously not reading everything. I do want to play the game, just not every aspect of it. If you enjoy every little aspect of the game, then I am happy for you, but not everyone does.

I love doing events, dungeons, and helping friends with their personal story. I have done the personal story one with my main, I get no enjoyment out of repeating it with another. I know there are some different choices and paths, but the majority of it is the same, especially later on. Besides, I have never really been into the idea of experiencing different paths of the same story. I like to run through it once and that is my story. I am the same with exploring, once I have explored all areas I do not enjoy doing it again.

There some parts of the game I do enjoy repeating, and I would like to be able to quickly jump to those parts with different characters, without doing stuff I don’t enjoy so much, because I like to experience things with differrent professions.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am not asking for the game to be completed on my alts. I merely want to be able to take an alt, leveling it quickly to max and be allowed to take it where ever I feel the fun is, without some time gated progression holding me back. You can do that with PvP and to some extent in WvW, but not in PvE, and to me that is not fun.

Some players play PvE for the story and the exploration, which I do at least once. But that aspect of the game is not something I enjoy doing more than once, so it would be nice to have the convenience of skipping it. I am not asking for them to make you skip it.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Some of the post in this place are just jaw-dropping…..

There does not seem to be a limit to what entitled players WANT…..

Please accept our apology for not wanting to play the game your way and for requesting options that, though do not effect your ability to enjoy the game, do offend your entitled sense of control over other players preferences.

We will try to desire changes only you find acceptable from now on.

Malediktus.3740:

If you improve the quality then quality becomes standard and feels worthless again. Scarcity creates value.
If you reduce quantity you need to make sure not everyone gets loot. If you improve quality you have the risk of making quality feel standard and it soon feels worthless again.

Of course, I realise that. Enjoyable loot is a balancing act. As I said above, I don’t want exotic drops every 5 minutes, but it would be nice if each play session it felt a little bit more rewarding than it currently does. And by rewarding I don’t mean getting a super useful ascended piece every time I play. It could be an exotic with stats I will never use, because it is all about that FEELING of it being rewards. Of course, if I got tons of exotics, useless or not, then that too would not be enjoyable either, as you rightly say. But GW2 is not balanced very well currently, and in my opinion, doesn’t FEEL rewarding at all. It’s all about the feeling.

Like I say, I can play the game for a long time and get no rewarding feeling at all, and that is what I would like changed (balanced). It doesn’t have to be every event, or every meta event. But if I put 2 hours in I should feel like I got some feeling of joyment from the drops I get.

Then there is the issue of the quantity being too great. I understand that rare (enjoyable) drops need to be outnumbered by the not so good rewards, I am fine with that. Diablo 3 does that very same thing. But the ratio is just too much on the crap side and your inventory fills way too quickly with the stuff. If I play for only an hour 30% of my time could potentially be taken up by processing worthless loot, and that is not fun in my book.

With all this ‘Stealth is OP’ stuff going around, I find it odd how that supposed fact melts away when facing skilled opponents.

Stealth is a very powerful defense for sure, and it is hard to combat if you are not used to dealing with it. But trust me. Once you learn how to deal with it, it is not that difficult. When you get two skilled stealth thieves fighting it is quite an intense fight. And I have beaten stealthed thieves with non thief characters before and been beaten by non thief players when playing a stealth thief. It is all about knowing how to use and defend against it.

There are things in this game I find difficult. And when I come up against those things I try to find a way to beat it. If I cannot find a way to beat it, I will ask for advise. I have not found anything yet that has not been combated somehow by myself or by others.

So instead of complaining about it, I feel a better use of your time would be to request advise on the subject. Because quite frankly, judging by the latest thief traits, stealth is here to stay.

Some like outfits while others want more customization. I am in the middle, I like to customize, but I also like some of the outfits.

I am sure Anet will make more armour pieces at some point, but to be fair to them, it is probably much easier to make a whole outfit than to make separate pieces. With outfits they do not need to worry about clipping issues with other armour pieces, so they can produce outfits in less time and therefore release them more frequently.

Hey NoobStar,

No need to apologize. We all need a break from time to time, that doesn’t necessarily mean the game is bad. I think GW2 is great, but I still need to step away once in a while. But like Vayne said, I have yet to find another MMO out there that can compete with GW2, so it doesn’t take me long to come back.

Glad to see you back in the game and enjoying it to such an extent

As a thief main, I am not worried about this trait. Its only 6 seconds of revealed and you have a window of 14 seconds to burst them down. Any decent thief, with a strong build, can get a few backstabs in in that time.

If it is too strong I am sure Anet will tweak the numbers a bit, but personally I do not think it will be as strong as many are making out. IMO, I think most of the complaints about this trait are simply a knee jerk reaction from those who rely on stealth far too much. Stealth should be a tool, not a crutch.

Edit: And can we stop with this silly idea that Lock On will shut the entire shadow arts line down? Chances are most thieves traiting into SA are going to take shadows embrace, shadow protector and shadow’s rejuvination. As Lock On will only trigger when you are already in stealth, you can still benefit from the initial application of stealth standpoint. When you enter stealth, you will remove a condi, gain regen and heal for one tick of shadow’s rejuv. And you will likely get 1 tick of extra initiative. So the only think you are missing out on is a backstab and maybe a tick or two of SR. Its not that big a deal, and does not equate to the shutting down of the entire line. It is merely limiting it for 6 seconds.

Rewards should be a bonus, not the goal. I think one of the big issues with adventures is the reward is the goal and the ‘adventure’ itself an obstact.

An alternate suggestion to this idea: Customized Outfits.

By this I mean you could buy Custom Outfit Slots from the gemstore, say up to a maximum of 3/4 slots. These outfit slots could then be set to look like your current armour skins. To set each outfit you use a consumable item that uses the armour pieces you have equipped at the time. This will then lock in the outfit to have your current armour appearance.

You could buy the initial Custom Outfit Slots (max of 3-4), then buy Custom Outfit Designer consumable items from the store, which will reset one of your outfits and create a new one based on your armour.

Not sure if this is doable, but I feel it would be easier to use (simply select the custom outfit you want, instead of each piece) and would provide another avenue of revenue for the game.

I think the best advise is to forget about leveling. Just play the game and enjoy the content, and the levels will fly by. Go explore. Jump into WvW. Play sPvP. Join events. Do your personal story. Do anything and everything that interests you, just try not to think about leveling at all.

I kind of agree that all sorts of effort should be made to gain a legendary, but PvP and WvW (which are both limited by the number of players that can participate at any given time) should only really be played by people who want to play that content. If you have a few thousand people (a conservative figure) in PvE trying to get legendarys, but you can only fit 500 per map in WvW, how many of those slots do you think will be taken up by players who have no interest in whether your world wins or loses at WvW?

I just feel that people should be free to play whichever aspect of the game they choose, and get the items they want, without having to step into areas they don’t like, taking up slots from people that do like them. But then I have always had an issue with the carrot on a stick approach to game development. If I want to play WvW I’ll play it because I enjoy it, not because I can get a flashy looking sword. My ideal game would be one that rewards you with a standard currency, which can be aquired and spent in all areas of the game. It’s like the whole ‘You must do fractals to get your monthly achievement’ thing. Why must I? What if I hate fractals? They say we can play the game our way, then design the game to encourage us to play it their way.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this game, it is by far the best MMO on the market at the moment, I just don’t agree some of their design decisions.

I wasn’t intending to say anything more on this topic, but people seem to be comparing one time events with daily (repeatable) achievements. I’m really not following this train of thought at all. A one time event is something you can do/or not do once. When it’s finished you will never be able to do it, or gain the rewards from it, again.

The daily that was missed by some (myself included) can be done again, the very next day, and you will be able to get the exact same reward. If you missed out on something unique that you cannot get again I would understand this thread more, but it’s not, it’s a reward you can get every day.

The only problem with GW2’s combat is that most content can be defeated by zergs, which reduces the need to use any build other than DPS. Also, DPS builds often increase your chances of getting gold in events, because event achievements are often based on how much damage you deal (especially champ events).

I also agree with Morrigan, in that most players want the trinity and are trying to play the game that way and failing, so turn to the only build that works well for them.

One of my Guardian builds is support focused and I can see that I am contributing to the team, even though I may not get rewarded as much.

If rewards and events were improved to encourage and require more support based builds, I feel this would go a long way to improve people’s perceptions of the combat system in GW2.

Inimicus.7162:

This ultimately is why I’m asking they hold off on what appear to be staff plans with the Revenant in HoT and add the polearms later. I feel the polearm weapon type for both martial and magical use would be cleaner as a category of skins, while opening up more possibilities for some really awesome weapons and moves.

The stupid huge weapons thing, my personal feeling is that its a fashion born of far more cartoony media (more than just games). I don’t expect it to ever go anywhere.

What would be easier for Anet? Making existing staff weapons a melee weapon for some professions, or creating a whole new weapon for every profession, including a variety of skin options?

Not only that, but the difference between staff and polearm, in a game like GW2, would not be big enough to warrant a seperate weapon type in my opinion. I could be wrong of course, but it just seems like they are too similar.

The only new weapon types I can see Anet adding are things like greataxes, crossbows and whips, because they would be sufficiently different from the existing weapons. While greataxe is similar in design to an axe, they would be wielded and used very differently. A polearm on the other hand would not be wielded or used much differently from a melee staff weapon (in the game).

You could argue that polearms are designed more for thrusting and slicing attacks with a blade or spike, while staves are designed for blugeoning attacks, but in my opinion, polearms would just require too much work on Anet’s part for not enough return.

Ok, I understand when people complain about grinding for max stats, or items that are required to have optimal performance, but cosmetics have ALWAYS been grindy in the Guild Wars games, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion. It’s no different to obsidian armour in GW1, you did not need it to perform to the max as you could get the stats easily, it was purely a cosmetic choice.

Anet has always had the philosophy of making cosmetics hard/time consuming to get, this is nothing new. As others have said, if you do not want to do the grind don’t do it. You are only missing out on a skin.

Unfortunately, Anet have started making max stats harder/more time consuming to get, which IS a change of direction from their original philosophy. But claiming that grinding for cosmetics is a new direction is completely wrong.

I agree Ralkuth. Another reason why the best build ideology doesn’t work is because we are all different. We all like different playstyles and have different capabilities within those playstyles. A meta build may work wonders for one player but feels very awkward to another.

Generally, meta builds are popular because they are more effective for a larger group of players than other builds might be, but that doesn’t mean they will be effective or the best build for everyone. Your hybrid or unique build could very well out perform a meta build if it suits your playstyle perfectly and your skill is greater than your meta build opponent.

Anyone who believes that simply having a meta build equipped guarantees a win is fooling themselves. Even meta builds require an element of skill to master and an element of synergy with your capabilities to utilize to the best of your ability.

One size does not fit all.

You paid for an expansion and got new maps, new elite specs, new weapons and armour, a new game mode for PvP, a new borderlands, guild hall stuff, etc, etc, etc.. You paid for content and in my opinion the content given was worth the price tag.

Now they add more stuff in the gem store, because you know, its a business and they need to make money to: pay wages, pay for equipment and server upkeep, pay for building and general business running costs, pay for marketing costs, pay for future development costs, and err… oh yeah, make a profit. None of the items added to the gem store give you an advantage and therefore none of the gem store items are required. They are cosmetic or QoL improvements, nothing more.

People are complaining because they cannot get the nice shiny thing in game, but Anet has given you the option to buy it with in game gold (something not many MMOs do). There are in game rewards for doing stuff in game, but they need to keep a revenue stream going so add more skins via the store. This is nothing new and Anet are not adding anything that is game breaking, unlike some games I know.

All it boils down to is you can’t get it for free, or for little effort, so you complain about it. And for those who want to earn it, there is nothing stopping you from doing that. You can do whatever you want to get the gold to convert to gems. You DO have the option to get the gem store items for free.

The BL chest gambling is not something I agree with, as I do not think it right to put real money gambling in any game (I guess because you can buy keys with in game gold they feel they can get away with it, but I still think it is not morally right to encourage it) and I was not happy about the sniper bundle not giving you the choice to buy the items seperately, but in general the gem store is ok in my opinion.

It was an interesting post and I am looking forward to all the things that were mentioned, but is anyone else concerned over the following comment?:

‘…we don’t want to force our players on endless gear treadmills for new tiers of gear we add every 6 months. You won’t see another tier between ascended and legendary in 2013 for example.’

That to me reads ‘We will not add new tiers in 2013, but may add more from 2014 onwards.’. I hope I have read this wrong, as I am really not keen on power creep.

Everything else that was mentioned sounds good though and I am looking forward to it.

I know what you’re saying runeblade, but mini-dungeons aren’t quite the same experience as full dungeons. Personally I think dungeons should be scaleable, with a team size of say 2-10 players. They have the technology to scale content base on player count, so why not in Dungeons too?

I know that the dungeons we already have are probably balances for a team of 5, but I would really like to see scaleable dungeons added at some point, whether it’s existing ones or new ones. It just gives more people more options, and that is always a good thing in my book.

The problem is not with healing power. The problem is with how events are designed and rewarded. Most, if not all events, can be done by 100% zerker builds, and reward zerker builds more readily than healing builds. When there is no real reason to have healers in events, and when you reward them less, people are less likely to want to go the healer route.

Healing builds do work, and they do help your team, but they simply aren’t rewarding enough and in the open work or speed run meta, they simply aren’t needed. So it wouldn’t matter how much you buffed healing, if a full team of zerkers can do anything faster and for better rewards, what is the point in going support?

Anet needs to fix events and reward systems, to make healing and support builds more attractive and more necessary. Otherwise they will only ever be used by those who enjoy the playstyle, regardless of the negatives.

It has to be Zaitan, hands down. It’s cute smiles, the way it flicks it’s heads back when it’s flirting, those seductively curvy tails. Who wouldn’t want to kiss that with all it’s many tongues?

H… o… t!

TheRealShaunsred.4928:

Nobody likes Trahearne. He’s annoying. He steals our thunder, and our rightful place as leader of the pact. His voice actor is painful to listen to. He’s clearly demonstrated that he’s a failure as a leader. He’s a walking cabbage.

I like Trahearne, and it seems many others do too. I did not find him annoying and I do not think he stole our thunder by choice. He had leadership forced upon him due to his knowledge of Zhaitan. As a player character I did not want to be locked into the position of leader of the pact, so I really appreciated Trehearne’s sacrifice in this regard. If he was able to pass the leadership down I suspect he would have done, but with his success vs Zhaitan I expect he was strongly encouraged to stay on as leader.

His voice to me suited his character. He is a scholar not a natural born leader, and the way he spoke and the sound of his voice seemed to go well with his background. It is easy to forget the truth of a person when they are forced to step into the view of the world and do something extraordinary and out of character.

Personally, I feel Trehearne has receive an undeserving bad press. Sure he may have taken the limelight from some players (personally I did not want the attention), but it was not his intent. I have a vague memory of him even saying to us that he did not feel he would be a good leader.

It may well be that Trehearne is already dead or has turned into one of Mordremoths minions. And if that is the case I will be sad but will accept that. My only hope is, that if that is to be Trehearne’s fate, it is not because some players disliked him and only because that was their plan all along.

There’s a reason why Wharf was outcast from Klingon society.

TheDaiBish.9735:

I think ‘skill-based’ is a misnomer.

Every game is ‘skill-based’. They just require different skills.

This right here is the truth of it (have a +1). Any other comments are based on preference alone.

You make of the game what you will. If you run with zergs and only use auto attacks then sure, I can see why it would get boring for you. But if you choose not to run with smaller groups, and tackle content that requires more than just auto-attacking, then that is no-one’s fault but your own. People run with the zergs because it’s easy, and that’s what they want. I take on champs solo or with small groups, because it’s more challenging and more fun.

I will say this though. I do think Anet needs to beef up the champs against zergs. Make every player fight to succeed and not get missed amongst the crowd. Make combo fields far more effective against them than normal attacks and force people to interract with each other and coordinate. Then zergs may be a bit more interesting. Especially if the champ really scales up in a big way.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Maybe your MF is super low, or the kinds of events you prefer don’t offer many Champion-tier chests, etc.

For two hours of play, I usually end up with several Rares, and maybe 1-2 in 5 times an Exotic. I usually throw the Rares (unless they are super valuable) in the Forge, where, about 20-25% of the time I get an Exotic.

Now, often, the Exotics aren’t worth a whole lot, but it is nice to see them. Ascended Armor/Weapon drops are only about 1 every 3 to 6 months. Which seems ok, as Trinkets are so easy to acquire in other ways.

I think my MF usually sits at around 250%, but I haven’t checked recently, so it might be a bit higher now. I know it’s not maxed, but it should make some kind of difference at least. As to events, I have been running the big meta events in Bloodstone Fen and previous to that I often did the big events in the HoT maps. I cannot remember the last time an exotic dropped for me. But maybe my account has been cursed with bad luck, I don’t know. But what I do know is that GW2 is the worse game for poor rewards (from my experience). I don’t suffer from this much poor luck in any other MMO I have played, and in some of those games there is no magic find buff mechanic.

As to ascended items, I think they are just a complete mess anyway. Trinkets are in abundance but weapons and armour your better off crafting, from my (unlucky) experience at least. It doesn’t feel very well balanced and seeing as they are the top tier gear, and grinding should (according to Anet’s original philosophy) be only for cosmetic improvements, I really feel ascended weapons and armour should be a lot easier to acquire. They are trying to improve it a little, with the ability to change the stats on ascended gear, but it is somewhat cumbersome in my opinion and not enough to make it feel better.

I am sorry if I am coming across as a spoilt brat who want’s everything now. That is not my intent at all. I’m totally ok with having to work for things, I just want the loot I get to feel a bit more rewarding a bit more frequently, with less time spent separating the wheat from the chaff. The salvage all is a useful work around, but I think the loot balancing needs to be looked at. But maybe I am alone on this front.

I really like GW2 and have been a fan of the GW franchise for a long time, but from time to time they use marketing tactics that simply put: stink. And this to me is one of those times. Don’t get me wrong, I WILL be getting the pre-purchase because I enjoy the game a lot, but I think this kind of marketing tactic is unfair on existing players.

I have no problem with them bundling the core game with HoT. It makes sense to do this. But I also think they need to make things more fair for players who have already purchased the core game. We have paid Anet money for the core game, so why can we not make some use of this supposedly free gift? We have given Anet more money then the new players purchasing HoT, so why do we get less?

I can only think of three solutions to this so far (one of which has already been mentioned here):

1) Offer customers, who have already purchased the core game, a free character slot. At least that way then, they do not need to spend more money to get an extra slot or delete an existing character to play the revenant.
2) Allow existing core game owners to gift their ‘free’ copy of the core game out to a friend, or to use as a second account. A gift is no gift at all if we cannot make any use of it. If we, or a friend, can make some use of our gift that would at least be something.
3) (the best option in my opinion) Offer a reduced price upgrade option for those who have already given Anet money for the core game. I am not suggesting a big discount. Something like $40 would be better than $50, and would at least allow us to purchase an extra char slot.

I hope Anet considers the player feedback here, because this is not a fair practice in my opinion.

I also think we need to stop using the word free. Anet can use it all they like, but all it is is a marketing ploy. It is not free. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The price you pay includes everything in the bundle. End of story. They can call a part of it free until the cows come home, but it doesn’t change the fact that you pay $50 and get the core game as part of the bundle. Therefore, EVERYONE who pays that price should be able to make use of every item in the bundle.

I find it funny how, for a while now, we have had huge weapons and backbacks in the game, but everyone seems to be screaming and shouting about the wings in particular. Maybe its the width that does it.

Personally I have no problem at all with other players having the wings, or giant backpacks, or colossal weapons. However, I also have nothing against an option to hide these things, so long as it doesn’t affect other players at all, which is what I think most people are asking for in their round about sort of way.

Hi Merchant,

Firstly, here’s a link to my build: Linky

I use it in WvW and PvE. I have not run with another thief, so am not too experienced in this regard, but it is something I am keen to try and is something I have pondered on. So here are my thoughts:

The build I linked is not as hard hitting as a full on glass cannon build, but it still hits hard enough to defeat players quickly and has a lot more survivability included. This allows me to roam with relative ease and confidence. It also allows for permanent stealth so as to scout and escape. It is a stealth heavy build and with this in mind I feel 2 similarly specced thieves could cause mayhem to small groups if played right. It would be very easy for 2 thiefs to keep themselves hidden until they chose to engage.

In a PvE sense, you still have Black Powder for defense and quick access to stealth for when things go bad. With two thieves running Black Powder most PvE content becomes trivial and when fighting champions it is easy to swap agro at your choosing rather than relying on the champs agro mechanics. Though dagger lacks the AoE benefit of sword, the shortbow more than makes up for that. That said though, I have equipped Superior Sigil of Flame on my dagger to periodically blast all foes surrounding my target, so it is not completely without AoE, and with careful positioning and target swapping you can whittle down groups quite quickly.

Now for support. Stealth is not only your friend, but it is also your ally’s. With the Shadow Protector trait selected Shadow Refuge becomes a true safe haven in PvE and can push out some nice healing to boot. Not only that but ranged allies get to life steal with their attacks when firing through it. You can also run to troubled allies and hit Blinding Powder to help them lose agro and grant regen. And of course their is the support potential of all those blinds.

Though there are some good thieves out there that can run full glass cannon builds, the biggest issue is when they get CC’d. When a glass cannon thief gets CC’d, it is very likely game over for them. But this build I run, so far, has given me enough defense to survive many surprise attacks and sometimes turn the fight around. As an added measure of defense, when running solo I will often swap the Shadow Protector trait for the Shadow’s Embrace trait, to provide some much needed condition removal when things go pear shaped. And if both thiefs have the same build, there would not be too much need for Shadow Protector unless you are running with other allies.

Anyway, I hope that helps. In case you want to go full GC, here is a link to the GC build I used to use in WvW. The utility skills are open to change though. It is a fun build to run, but you really need your wits about you or you won’t last long.

I haven’t completed it yet as I have been kind of casually exploring and trying the puzzle/maze, but I would just like to add that this area is incredible and the best zone yet. Every time I thought I’d seen how big the place was it got bigger!

Great work Anet!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Moon.7310:

Thank you! Pre-Purchased just now :-)

Thanks for your support!

Thank YOU for your support.

Thanks to all at Arenanet, for continuing to be awesome.