Guild Wars 2

As a thief player I think if a stealth attack is blocked or missed due to blind it should reveal you. However, I do not think it should reveal you if it is evaded.

Here is how I rationalize it: If the attack is blocked, the attack connected with something and therefore should reveal the thief. If the attack misses because of blind, the thief effectively fumbled the attack and should be revealed because of it. If the attack is evaded, the attack does not connect with anything and the thief is not fumbling the attack because he/she is blind. Therefore he/she can remain in control of the stealth.

From a balance point of view, blocks are generally usable less frequently than evades, and therefore IMO should have some small advantage over evades when it comes to stealth. With blind, it really should be down to the thief to use his brain to determine when to attack and not attack, if he can simply spam the stealth skill without consequences then there is very little skill involved.

To be honest, the thief is still very squishy even in stealth, and those who know how to combat it can make short work of a stealth thief. But as it stands at the moment, stealth is very easy to use and very difficult to combat, when the user is skilled enough to get the most out of it. So something like this will mean an increase in skill requirement for all skill levels of player. Therefore, if revealed was implemented on block and blind, and evade, there really needs to be some balancing done in other areas or in other ways to compensate for this.

As an alternative suggestion, maybe instead of being revealed the stealth duration is reduced by 1 second for every block, miss or evade?

Damage stats provide a passive damage buff with active defense. It seems logical to me to have defensive stats give passive defense with active damage buffs. How that is done in a balanced way I do not know.

Kyzen.7452:

Profession change is out of the question but race change is still an option

I don’t understand, why is the profession change out of the question but race change is OK? Out of the two I would have thought the race would be the hardest to implement.

At the end of the day, so long as someone buying a profession changer is not effecting anyone else’s game, which I cannot see it doing, what difference does it make to you? People are saying they should not add it, but not really giving a decent argument against it.

If armour is a problem, then leave it as it is. If you change your profession, all armour (if not wearable by your new profession) is unequipped and you need to buy new gear. I’m sure many who would like this option would rather that then have to go through the WHOLE process again. Having to buy new armour is much better than having to level up as well.

As to race change, either make it so that you can only change it after you finish your personal story, or better still reset your personal story back to the beginning. With the later option, all they would need to do is stop story quests from giving rewards, until you reach an equivelant level of progression that you had reached with your previous race.

There are always ways to implement these things, so long as it doesn’t impact negatively on any other aspect of the game, which I cannot see it would, I don’t see any problem with providing players with extra options.

Some people don’t want points for dailies or want dailies to be limited in points, some people want all the points they can get from the dailies. The easiest way I can think of pleasing both sides is to reward the same points we currently get for completing all dailies, just by completing 5 dailies. Once you have your 5 dailies done, the rest gain no points, so there is no need to do them. But you will get the equivalant points as if you did do them all. Though for this to work the number of dailies required may need to be increased slightly.

Also, if you continue to do them, you still gain certain benefits. For example, say you do gathering, kill variety, ambient kills, veteran kills and revives, you will get the maximum daily achievement points possible, but what if you also want to do the LS daily to advance your LS achievement? If you do your dailies before you get to do the LS daily, you should still be able to get the point to advance the LS achievements, but gain no achievement points from the LS daily itself. If that makes sense. So achievement hunters, who will no doubt be doing the LS achievments anyway, can easily get their dailies done and the non-achievement hunters can still benefit from doing the dailies.

Another adjustment I would like to see done to the dailies, to improve them even more, it to remove the rotation and instead have all available dailies available every day. That way it doesn’t matter what you do each day, you can earn the dailies achievement points by doing the things YOU want to do, without having to divert off your path and do something else just to finish your daily.

I know the dailies are varied and often allow you to complete them quickly, but very rarely are there 5 things I like to do each day or 5 things I do naturally in my normal play. But then I guess part of the problem is that Anet is trying to encourage players to do different things in the game, partly to teach them and partly to get players experiencing more of the game. The problem with this is though, is that once a player has done all these things a few times, they will quickly learn what aspects of the game they enjoy and will get bored of the things they don’t. But they will still need to do those things to get the laurels, etc.

So, I would like to see a system that allows you to complete your dailies, by doing what YOU want to do, and once you get 5 (or more if necessary) dailies done you cannot gain any more daily achievement points. But you can still progress the LS achievement by completing LS dailies.

I hope that makes sense.

Welcome to the human race.

Toxicity in any game has nothing to do with the game itself, it is just the nature of some to be toxic when they don’t get their own way. Mix that mentality with the anonymity provided by the internet and it is always going to be a recipe for toxic behaviour. This is not GW2’s fault.

That said, there are certain conditions where these kinds of people thrive, and therefore you will find some games, or some areas of a game, will have more of these kinds of people than others. For example, PvP tends to have more toxic players than PvE, due to the competitive and adreneline filled nature of it. But wherever there is a challenge that can be completed faster, by playing a specific way, there will always be the impatient, arrogant and emotionally immature few that scream and shout and try to spoil everyone else’s game for their own gains. Not all players are like this of course, but the toxic players are often the loudest and most visible among us. I guess they think it makes them look big and important, kind of like how animals puff themselves up or colour themselves brightly to warn others that they are dangerous, when in reality they are the complete opposite.

At the end of the day, if someone is being abusive to you, report them. It is not worth getting yourself stressed over, and they certainly do not deserve your time.

They really need to fix this forum bug!

As others and myself have said previously, I think if stealth was restricted to long cooldown utilities or a new profession mechanic it would be fine. Providing the Thief’s other defenses are balanced to compensate. It doesn’t have to be removed all together, as the Mesmer does perfectly fine with stealth, and the Thief can still have stealth attacks. It just needs to be fixed so that a Thief cannot spam it so frequently, then it would not be an issue IMO.

Rouven.7409:

Nice idea, but how would it work? We already have people AFK on the side. You could translate this practically to quick make DPS as needed (aka tag), then go to safety until others downed “the boss”, finish “the event”.

Professional speed runners get an extra in dungeons (which they already have because they are faster) while the others already have the incentive not to die because of the potential wipe and more time lost.

I’d like to be more positive about this, but I just see too much potential for abuse.

Edit: abuse is the wrong word …

I agree, if a positive reinforcement system was implemented wrong it could cause more issues than it solved, and that may be why most companies opt for the easier to produce negative reinforcement system. But I’m sure a good system could be created.

No deaths in an event with a decent amount of participation could be one way to judge skill. And having a short timeout on the activity check could be an easy way to stop AFKer’s getting rewarded, and to ensure players continue to play their part throughout an event.

Another way could be to have a score system, whereby you get extra points for healing (when players need it), successfully controlling bosses (failed or resisted attempts don’t count), successful evades/blocks and so on. This would reduce player rewards from just spamming skill 1 and encourage them to actively use their other skills (and successfully, not just spamming them).

I’m sure there are ways for a positive system to be implemented, without it causing any problems or getting abused. The problem is, for a developer, it is much easier to implement a punishment system into the game. For one thing they have been made before so the template is already there. Another thing that makes it easy is that the condition required is simple, the player just needs to die, while monitoring skill requires more checks being made.

But, if you can find a way to successfully monitor how much a player participates in content, you could easily implement a positive reinforcement system. The hardest part is finding a way to monitor participation (successful healing, support, control, etc, not just damage). I’m sure it can be done, it’s just a matter of whther the developers can/will.

I personally don’t see why objects cannot be effected by all DoT’s. Undead bleed and get poisoned, so they must rationalise it some how.

The way I see it, bleeding doesn’t necessarily mean losing blood, it could just mean losing something vital, such as oil in machines, or buildings could lose structural capacity. Poison could be different against different targets, it could be simple poison vs fleshies, but acid against objects. And I see no reason why burning cannot effect objects.

So really, I personally think all DoT’s should effect objects.

No capes!

Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids. November 15th of ’58! All was well, another day saved, when… cape snagged on a missile fin!
Stratogale! April 23rd, ’57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!
Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex!

No capes!

I agree with zinz, servers don’t make communities, people make communities. Whether Anet keeps the servers or implements a WvW megaserver, it doesn’t matters, so long as they provide a way for players to group up and play together. That is all that is important here.

Players are claiming that servers are the only way communities will stay together and that they somehow provide a level of server pride unattainable any other way, but there is absolutely no proof of this. So long as players can join together and fight together, and have something to fight for (server, faction, whatever), then it doesn’t matter how it is implemented.

The fact of the matter is, the majority of servers do not have large WvW communitites, so most of the good fights only occur on the higher tier servers. And those on the lower tiers who are interested in WvW will likely transfer to the higher servers. So it is clear that this large selection of servers to choose from is not working.

So lets stop with this idea that the megaserver will destroy communities, that is rubbish. The problem is not the megaserver. If it was large PvE guilds would not be able to function at all. And lets stop with this server pride rubbish too. All the server does is represent the side you fight for, which can just as easily be replaced by a faction/alliance. So that pride will still be there.

Providing the megaserver can be implemented properly, allowing groups to join forces efficiently, and providing the WvW mechanics can be adjusted to fit a multi-instanced BL set up, I see no issue with changing to a megaserver system. I and others have said many times, EotM is not bad because of the megaserver, it is bad because of the mechanics in place there. If they implemented the megaserver into the current WvW borderlands as they are now, they too would end up the same as EotM, because the mechanics in place there are not suited for a megaserver set up. So implementing a megaserver would need substantial changes to the WvW mechanics.

I don’t care if they keep the server set up or change to a megaserver. What I care about is player population balance, which is a big issue for most servers right now. I also care about how rewards are given out in WvW, not for me but for how it affects player behaviour. And I care about how games are fought and won in WvW.

Population is not the only issue with WvW, but it is one of the biggest issues right now. Whatever Anet has planned for WvW, I hope it is enough. Because in my opinion the changes required, to make it the game mode what it should be, will be more than just a few small tweaks here and there.

I’d also like to say kudos to you Anet. Great LS episode! Not just because of the story, but I have really enjoyed all the new systems you have been trying out, such as the WvW like mechanics and events that require real coordination to not only complete but to trigger as well. Great job!

Now if you could transpose the PvE elements from the Silverwastes into WvW I think you could improve WvW a ton also. For example, instead of simply having dolyaks appear and make their way to a tower, have an event that triggers where players can help to fill up the dolyak with supplies first (this would happen anyway via npc’s maybe, but players could greatly speed up the process). Then have PvE events that trigger along the dolyaks path so that there is a reason to stay with the dolyak and defend it.

Have events trigger where mobs attack towers, to make it important to have players sticking around to defend them. Have events trigger/be triggered where players can gather supplies from local areas around a tower to speed up upgrading and repairing. Or events where players could find npc recruits to defend or attack towers. Give us PvE events to mix up WvW and make it more interesting.

At the moment WvW has occasional zerg vs zerg fights and the odd skirmish between roamers, but it mostly involves PvD and tower/camp flipping with very little PvE challenge. There is no real consequence or purpose for defending towers/camps/dolyaks, so very few people do it. However, by adding PvE elements, such as those in Silverwastes, it will mean players have a reason to get more involved in the supply chain and the defence of towers.

WvW is primarily a PvP game at the moment, when you’re not doing PvD, but I remember Anet saying they wanted it to be a mix of both PvP and PvE. By adding challenging and varied PvE events in to mix (both random and player triggered) I really feel WvW would be a whole lot more fun. And it would give players that are more PvE oriented a reason to join in and help the war effort. I would love it if you could turn WvW into the PvPvE gametype as it was originally intended to be.

Anyway, thanks again for this awesome episode. It has restored a little hope back to a long time GW fan.

Its a free level and/or skill point, so yes I find them useful.

Dear Anet, while we are on the subject of horrendous game breaking problems I would like to inform you of another that has plagued me since the launch of the game. I have tried to put up with it but I can take it no more.

Almost every time I play the game I come across characters that are simply a waste of space. They do not help me in events and often spam stupid comments in the chat window. Please can you stop them using chat and add in some AI tweaks to how these characters help in events and such. I am getting a bit fed up with them standing there only using one basic attack and nothing else. And that is not the only problem with them. If it wasn’t for these characters I would enjoy the game a whole lot more.

Advent.6193:

Honestly, I’m almost expecting Mantras at this point … especially if Thief gets the melee-Staff. Kind of a “Monk/Martial-Artist” feel?

Because of the datamined dagger kit I am expecting kits, but I can also see mantras, meditations, stances and gadgets working.

It all depends on the theme of the spec really. While it might look like a monk type character, it may not be monk like at all and simply be a shadowy martial artist with a staff.

Hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for the info. The anticipation is killing me!

Manasa Devi.7958:

Maybe you should consider that different people have different self-imposed “needs”. I haven’t cared about laurels for a long time. I did like the near-effortless trickle of 5-8 AP per day though, and a lot of people did too. Now I get the part of the rewards I don’t care for free and need to do stupid pet tricks to get any AP at all. And I consider that a bad thing.

I get what you’re saying, but when you look at the rewards, and there purpose in the game, the new system makes more sense.

Laurels, essentially, are simply time gated materials used in the acquisition of ascended gear and other items. Their sole purpose in the game is to time gate certain content. AP on the other hand is supposed to show your mastery of the game. Yes, it is also a time gate mechanism for certain rewards, but its main purpose is to show how much you have achieved in the game. With that in mind, AP should require at least some effort to acquire, while laurels shouldn’t, imo.

Auralae.7482:

As someone previously said, “It is your perception that this is forced they are counting on.”

Being forced or other such terms imply that the consumer is a powerless, hapless victim who must just go along with it. Not only is English fluid, it’s also powerful, and the appropriate choices can make a difference in perception. There is no obligation or being forced to buy. There is choice, and in that choice, the consumer has far more power to change Anet’s practices.

Very well put, and I agree completely. Though I don’t see any benefit in nitpicking about what each person means when they say forced, it is important to point out the psychological power of the word, and how companies make use of that ‘forced to buy’ mindset.

The consumer does have the power, and if we would all just realise that we would be able to ‘force’ companies to offer fair deals we are all happy about.

Jade, I can understand why this would upset/annoy you, it does me too from time to time. But I have my own way of dealing it. Where possible, when someone shouts some unconstructive rant at me, I use the opportunity to annoy them. We all need to let off steam from time to time and these ‘people’ are ideal candidates to annoy, in an effort to release pent up frustrations. But by this I do not mean being abusive back in return. No, I mean by playing a fun stress releasing game.

So, where possible, the next time someone shouts at you for doing something they think is wrong, but fails to be polite and/or constructive about it, simply say ‘Thanks for the advise bud, I will do that from now on.’ then proceed to follow them around and do the complete opposite. And every time they say something to you, reply to it as if they are saying the complete opposite.

If you are unable to action your response, sometimes simply intentionally interpreting the opposite of what they are saying can be entertaining enough. Or you could add extra rules to the game, such as seeing how many times you can make them say a specific word before they give up.

This will not work on all of them of course, but you will have a lot of fun doing it anyway. But if you do not have the time, or cannot be bothered, just don’t bother replying to them and have a chuckle to yourself at their expense. I always find it funny when people try to make out they are intelligent by failing to construct polite (or at least non-abusive) feedback.

How I look at it is: Unpolite and unconstructive ‘advise’ (used in the losest sense of the word) should be rewarding to the reciever only, while polite and constructive advise should be rewarding to both parties. So try to turn abusive rants around and make them as entertaining as possible, because they really shouldn’t be dignified by taking them seriously.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Rin.1046:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Brimstar.9036:

Clearly, you’ve gone past the Point of No Return, you’re within to the point where you’re actually labeling and name calling me like a someone would if they’re feeling threaten with logic and reason. Get a hold of yourself man, this isn’t productive for a thread at all. They’ve shared no concrete details of the expansion yet, the same reiterated details in every other interview. I’m done with this thread, take care.

So The ranger being able to turn into a druid through specialization is not a concrete detail to you? Might I add that the ranger will be able to use a staff?

I believe Brimstar used a poor choice of words. No one is arguing you are not using concrete information, they are arguing you are using incomplete information.

SO complete information would be to list all of the skills a druid has plus all other profession specializations. All of the fauna and flora in the new map/region. All of nooks and crannies in both the 1 single pvp map and single wvw map.

I mean come on. Its obvious that specializations and masteries will provide you with an easier or different way to kill things. Still clicking the same buttons though. Its like you are trying to make things complicated to make things interesting when these things are so simple and ahem “small”

I am not going to repeat myself, or others, because it has already been made abundantly clear what we don’t know yet. But I will just add the following:

What does the term expansion mean? In terms of GW2 it basically means to expand the systems of the core game. With this in mind I can see at least 4 features in HoT that have the potential to do that: Specializations, Masteries, the new borderland mechanics and the new PvP game mode.

All of these systems will allow Anet to add more content to these features in the future. We will get more specializations, more masteries, more improvements to the core WvW maps and more stronghold maps.

So while you are only seeing things like how many maps and skills we are getting, I and others are seeing that Anet are also expanding the core systems ready for future (likely free) content.

Chrispy.5641:

…On the 5 AP cap a day, there is a problem with that, because there isn’t anyone who is going to do something for nothing*, and the reason why alot of things get done in this game is bcause of the dailies that award something for doing it.

*If you did something for fun, then it wasn’t for nothing. If you did something that wasn’t fun and still got an AP, then it also wasn’t for nothing.

---

(4) – I want to suggest that Anet doesn’t touch the way Daily Achievements work in the game at all. Instead, I suggest that a Leaderboard get made for all Achievement Points, and a Seperate Leaderboard gets made for Permanent Achievements, Daily Achievements, and Monthly Achievements. The game tracks all of those seperately, and The Online Leaderboards Needs to be Expanded anyways.

Hi Cripsy,

Good points there and I think Point 4 is a good fix.

With regards to the 5 AP limit though, while I agree with your main point (people don’t do something for nothing) , I do not agree that having a 5 AP limit would cause a problem. The main point you make is that you do something because it is fun or because there is a reward. If you limited the dailies to 5, you would do those things to get the reward. You would then get no reward for doing any other dailies (other than perhaps advancing your LS achievements). This does not mean you would stop playing the game, unless you only play to get rewards, but then there are other avenues to get those. No, you would continue to play the game and you would go and do the things you enjoyed the most or gave you the best rewards.

That said, and having thought a while longer on the subject, limiting dailies to 5 ‘achievements’ does mean that the time gating would be effected. Gaining AP from dailies and monthlies is not just for the leaderboards, it’s also to get achievement chests. People who only do the 5 dailies will gain the chests at a slower rate to those who do them all. But then I ask myself, why can we not gain these things while doing what we enjoy?

I have always had a problem with time gating. Not because it slows you down, but because 9 times out of 10 it has been implemented badly. You are often required to do things you do not find fun, or to repeat the same content over and over again, in order to get something shiny. And I think the reaon for that is because it’s the easy option. It’s much easier to stick a kill 10 rats mechanic in game than it is to create some fun event that takes time to do. And to be fair, I can understand why companies take that option. When you are creating a game for so many players, each with different likes and dislikes, it’s very hard to go the creative route. The problem is, understanding that doesn’t help make the easy option more palletable.

All that said though, and again, I completely agree with your point 4. The leaderboard should be either seperated from dailies and monthlies, or the daily and month points should not be included at all, and should only be used to get the achievement chests (and also as an overall indicator to how much you have played the game). But for the completionists out there, there should be a fixed achievement leaderboard. As we will continue to gain more fixed achievements, from LS content, the leaderboard can still grow and change. However, like you say, I think having 2 leaderboards would be better, one for fixed achievements and one for total points. As there will be players in both fields that want to be seen on a leaderboard.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. That’s what happens when I’m board and unable to get in game So my basic idea is: Make dailies fun (by giving players many more options) and make the daily AP’s only count towards chests (not the leaderboard) or have seperate leaderboards.

I like that each class can build for different purposes. I like that a warrior can be built for support. It’s what makes Guild Wars 2 different from the hundreds of other MMO’s out there that already, and continue to, offer the style of gameplay you’re asking for.

I don’t want content that needs us to focus builds about the trinity. GW2 moved away from that playstyle from day one, and it needs to stay well away from it. You have plenty of options available to you if that’s what you want. We don’t have that many options available that offer the freedom of playstyles (on one character) that GW2 offers.

So, I say no to this. As much as I would like to see the monk as a playable profession, I would not want it to be any more focused on healing than the Guardian can be, and i would want it to have the same flexibility that the other professions have.

I know others have said similar things already but I just wanted to throw my voice in to the mix too.

I enjoy this game immensely, and the things I enjoy doing have nothing to do with getting gear. I love doing events and helping players with Personal Story quests, I loved doing my own PS quests, I love taking part in WvW, I love doing a lot of fun things in this game. What I didn’t enjoy doing was grinding for the best gear. That is not fun to me, but it is necessary. So I bought all mine from the TP. Now, two of my lvl 80 characters are sitting pretty with what I thought was max gear, and I was content with this. I no longer had to worry about working to get or using all my gold to buy any more gear, I could just get on with having fun in the parts of the game I enjoyed the most.

I didn’t spend my time grinding to get legendary gear, because it was purely cosmetic. I have a look I’m happy with and I have max stats. Now I simply have fun. It’s what games are for right? But now things might change for the worst for me. If I want to remain competative (for dungeons, wvw, or whatever) I will need to spend a massive amount of time to get these now almost compulsory legendaries. I do not see why I should have to stay at lower stats because I don’t want to grind for the gear I need. That is not fun for me. It’s not that I’m lazy or incapable of getting them, it’s that I just don’t enjoy grinding the same content over and over again, just to get the materials needed to get max gear. Exotics are affordable for those that just want to enjoy the game. Legendaries are not. They are expensive. Very expensive. And that is just for ONE legendary. Imagine trying to equip 2 or 3 characters in full legendary gear. And I imagine Ascended gear, if it can be bought, will also be very expensive. I will have no time to do the things I enjoy, because all I’ll be doing is grinding for years to come.

I know I could probably do ok with lower stat gear, but why should I have to put up with that? What about players who cannot invest as much time as others? Are they relegated to lower quality gear? That is not the philosophy that created this game. It’s not the attitude that brought a lot of players to Tyria. I love the Guild Wars games presicely because they are not like this. Is this about to change?

Why couldn’t they have just added an extra infusion slot to ALL gear rather than creating new armour that we have to get. It could still be a progression mechanic, if that’s what they need, as you would still need to grind to get better and better infusions. You could simply replace an older infusion with a new one, eliminating the need to get new armour. I’m all for some sort of progression mechanic, but am really against ‘better then exotic’ stats. Exotics should stay the max and they should just add different upgrades or infusions to all gear.

They say it’s not going to be a gear treadmill, but then say that they want to add content to bridge the gap between exotics and legendaries. Well, I’m not sure if I’m missing something here, but legendary gear is IDENTICAL, stat wise, to exotics. So what gap is being bridged here? The grind? The cost? I thought that was the whole point of cosmetic prestige items. To give those that want to progress further something extra to do. Why add more stats? They could just add more skins that require a great deal of effort to get. And as I said before, if they want a progression mechainc, then surely infusions would suffice?

I really hope that Anet get this right, I still have faith in them, but this sounds like a very dangerous addition to me and I am worried they will lose a lot of players over it.

Roll on this weekend. My fingers are crossed.

Leaping Death Blossom’d off a bridge. Looked cool, ended badly.

An alternative suggestion to this would be to add another evasive roll to the second part of the skill, maybe rolling back the other way. Because you need to hit with the first part to get the boon stripping second part, I don’t think that would make it too powerful, and would give us a more reliable evasive direct damage weapon set. Though the ini on the second part would need to be increased to compensate for the evade.

Regardless of whether you like doing the dailies or not is irrelevant. The fact is we do not need to do them anymore. And I personally find that very liberating. For ages now I have wanted Anet to give us more freedom, to stop forcing us to do things we don’t want to do. And now, strangely with these very specific dailies, they have. I no longer feel forced to do them, so if I don’t want to do something in the dailies list I don’t have to.

The problem is many people have been conditioned to feel they have to do them, for fear of losing out on the laurels. But now the only real thing you miss out on are the achievement points, which due to them having a cap doesn’t really matter.

The system we have now is optional, and that is a step in the right direction imo.

My initial reaction was similar to others, but my opinion has changed quite a bit since then. I now no longer see this as a big issue, and have bought the ultimate edition. Some might call me a fool, but I am convinced I will get my money’s worth.

Is the expansion worth $50 (£34.99 for me)? From what I have seen, read and tried, yes very much so. The way I see it, if it keeps me entertained for more than a few hours then I will be satified with the price. I never had an issue with the price to be honest. For an expansion that will potentially keep me happy for days, weeks or more likely months, I think £34.99 is a very small price to pay.

Is it a fair price to pay compared to how much we paid for the original game? I think people are looking at this the wrong way round. I personally think the core game was very cheap, considering how much content it gave us and how much entertainment I got out of it. If anything I think the expansion is moving to a more appropriate price range, while the original game was way under priced.

Should we get a free character slot if we already own the game? No, I do not think so. What we should get is exactly what new players are getting (i.e.- a free copy of the core game). However, the main problem with that is, we existing players will then have access to two sets of login rewards and will be at an unfair advantage vs new players. I know a lot of you will say, well I have paid money for the original game, they have not, so I deserve more. But the fact is, you paid for content, and you (should) have got your money’s worth. The money you have spent has given you something. Yes, new players are getting that same thing for free, but that doesn’t devalue the money you have spent at all. Also, we exisiting players have experienced some things new players may never get to experience. We got to experience LS1, the original skill and trait unlock system, we got to see the game grow and change in many ways. We have gained things that new players will not.

To players who bought the core game due to the changed FAQ, I am sure that if you submit a ticket to support they will arrange a refund. So long as they provide refunds to any player purchasing within the period the old FAQ info was visible, I do not see this as an issue. That said, I do think Anet should be more vocal about this, and communicate that people can get their refund if they bought the game based on the old FAQ. Changing it and staying mostly silent is only going to make people suspicious.

Should we get a new slot so we can make a revenant? No, I don’t think so. This again will put us at an advantage over new players, seeing as we have already benefited from spending money on the core game. If any change is to be made, it needs to be fair for both sides, new and old.

So what does need to be done? To be honest, I think Anet have done the right thing by giving the core game for free, and do not need to change anything. It feels like we get less value for our money, but the truth is we get the same.

Like I said, my initial reaction was the same as others here, and I think that is the only problem with this offer. It is perceived by many to negatively impact existing players, but, with the exception of those who are genuinely entitled to a refund, it doesn’t impact us at all.

When I ordered my first laptop, I got a free PDA with it. The PDA was only basic and was no where near as good as the one I already had, and there was no one I knew who would benefit from having it. So while it was nice of them to give me a freebie, it was ultimately useless. I now look at the HoT offer in the same way. There is no point to having the core game, because I already have it, and as stated above, I shouldn’t get the extra login rewards from a second account because new players do not get this.

Lots of people have reacted and commented on this, and if Anet changes things based on that feedback, then fair enough. That is up to them. But personally, I think they should stick to their guns on this. The loss to existing players (not veterans, that is an entirely different thing), is non-existant, and not an issue like I first thought. But it can be very easy to overreact sometimes, especially when money is involved .

Boreas The North.1892:

Well this seems like nothing but a whine post, so I guess I will throw in my two cents.
Thank you ALL Anet employees! I can’t even begin to imagine how tough it must be to activate and event right in the middle of LA and simultaneously trigger npcs/events appearing all over the world. I think its really cool and brings a new level of immersion to Tyria. I LOVE the “catch you offguard” cinematics, please keep them coming for all the holidays and new content! I’d also like to thank you for trying your best to do damage control while working under such a tight deadline. I can’t honestly say I ENJOY the idea of “one time events”, puts a lot of pressure on folks to show up or miss out on something REALLY cool like the Karka invasion. I know that my buddy is gonna be heartbroken when I tell him what he missed, but he had work at that time. Just keep up the really good work, you guys are doing and incredible job of making us a part of how the world we love to play in grows and evolves.

Nice post, but was the ‘whine post’ thing necessary? Do you really think it would be a good thing if a forum, you know that thing where people can express their views and discuss stuff, was only good comments? So if people have issues they should just keep quiet and say nothing? So, a forum to you is just a website where you can post compliments?

I’m sorry, but it annoys me when people try to control others like that. Everyone has the same rights to post their comments on here as you, and if they have a negative view of the game then they should be allowed to express it. Saying it is a whine post does not add anything or change anything. The only thing people should have to do is be civil, and that effects people on both sides of a discussion.

So again, nice comments towards Anet, but please leave the snide comments at the door if you don’t mind.

There is already a penalty. You need to pay for a server transfer, which I believe is more expensive for popular servers. While this may not put everyone off, it will deter some. I am not sure they can add any more punishments without running the risk of it becoming unfair on people who want to transfer for other, more understandable, reasons.

I think it would be far better to incentivize players to stay than to punish them for leaving. How that would be achieved I do not know.

As to my adjustments, does anyone think they would help? If not why not? I am interested to see if anyone has any ideas on how to improve WvW, without requiring any drastic or big changes. I believe with some clever tweaks WvW could be substantially improved.

Good feedback Jekkt, and very similar to my own findings and feelings. Looks like our suggested fixes are very similar too.

I hope Anet reads all our feedback and looks at how to improve the revenant, because right now it is extremely poor in PvP. I know we are all new to the profession right now, but many of us know how to play the game, we know how the combat system works, we know how to analyze our build options and after a few days, many of us should be able to create a half decent build with what we had. But the fact is, the revenant struggles to be anywhere near as good as the other profs, in terms of damage and survivability at least.

I think the problem is down to the following three issues:

1) A lot of the cast times are way too long.
2) Damage and healing is not scaling very well on some skills.
3) The revenant needs more reliable (instant and on demand) stunbreakers and more reliable defense options (blinds, evades, blocks, etc).

I think the profession has the potential to be a lot better, and I am sure the other legends will add to the profession, but the options we have at the moment need improving, and it seems most players agree. I look forward to hearing Anet’s review of our feedback and seeing what they do with it.

Could you please explain what you expect the devs to take from your post? All I got from it was: Anet, you screw things up and you’re egotistical.

Not really a shining example of constructive feedback is it?

If there are not enough similar ranked teams available the system will eventually search for other ranked teams. This can sometimes mean being faced against a vastly superior or inferior team.

If it is an inferior team, enjoy the easy win and seek comfort in the knowledge that the opposing team will hopefully have learned from you.

If it is a superior team, take the opportunity to learn from them. Having to compete against tough competition is often the best way to improve your own skill, as an individual and as a team.

It can be frustration at times, but try to make the best of it and use it to your advantage and you will start to enjoy the mismatched games more.

My wishlist:

- More tasks or objectives in WvW – More reasons to defend towers, dollies, etc. More stuff for small groups and scouts to do. Keep some zerg gameplay but break it up a little so there is a reason for players to spread out and find each other.
– More sPvP game modes – Conquest is good fun, but for me (and many I am sure) it can get dull quickly. I would really like to see some more core game modes added, specifically games that require more players and can last longer than 15 minutes. I would love to see games like Fort Aspenwood (GW1) added, where there is a set attackers and defenders scenerio. We just need more variety beyond unique map mechanics, which IMO aren’t enough.
– More mini games – Polymock, Archery, Permanent SAB. We have some mini games already, but these are very PvP focused. I would love to see some more PvE oriented minigames, like SAB and the wintersday event where you had to fight off waves of toys to protect the dolyaks. Maybe some kind of tower defense mini game or something.
– Open world mini pet fights – Kind of an extension of Polymock, but with more limited skills maybe. Just a fun thing to have to pass the time while forming a dungeon party or something, like costume brawl, but with mini pets.
– Many more Dynamic Events – I would like to see a LOT more dynamic event variety added to each zone. Make zones feel more alive, and not feel like a CD stuck on a short loop like they currently do. Dynamic events are great and they can bring areas to life, but they are often under utilized or very limited in variety. Many repeat so frequently that it can get boring quickly and seriouslly breaks that living world immersion. The DE’s should make a zone feel different each time you go there. Maybe not totally different, but it should feel like mini stories are occuring that change each month or based on player actions. Add some random events in there, to make it rewarding when you chance upon those events.
– Customizable Guild Halls and GvG – Nuff said, I think most people want this. Whether it is part of WvW or a separate game mode in sPvP, I really think this needs to happen. And not just a basic GvG fight. I would love to see Guild Halls that can be customized with defenses and restructure to create strategic layout. Make the GH a strategic part of GvG battles, not just some arena for players to learn. Make each guild’s GH potentially different. Also add merits, influence and other GvG based rewards, such as points towards upgrading your GH. Have match tiers based on the level of your GH, so as you upgrade them and they get stronger so does your GvG tier rank..
– Home instance activities – I sense Anet wants us to use our Home Instance more, but I hope it is not just for gathering stuff then buggering off. So I would like to see some extra things we can do there. Maybe a home instance mini game, scrimmage with invited friends, random mini events that sometimes occure when you enter your home instance. Make it more than just a gathering location. Make it so we want to go there, not feel we have to go there.
– New Race – I would love to see another race added, and I (like I am sure many others) would like that race to be Tengu. I would also love to see Centaur as a playable race too, but that might be too much of a tall order.
– New Profession(s) – So long as balance was Anet’s primary concern I would love to have a new profession or two to play with.
– New zones – I would like to see more of the current map opened up for exploration. I know we are starting to push into Maguuma more with the LS seasons, but would like to see an entire new region or two opened up. I really hope that Anet does not go the way of GW1, in that sections of the world map remain unexplored. That always bugged me, so I would really like to see more of the map used this time round, before moving to Cantha or Elona. As much as I would love to see Cantha and Elona again, I would prefer to have more of the current map explored first.

I’d like to add more, but I think that is more than enough to be going on with.

Zaklex.6308:

As long as WP’s are part of World Completion you’ll never get an Unlock All WP’s option…end of discussion.

As for running from L.A. to Orr, try this if you don’t like the scenery, open your World Map and navigate it that way, try it, it’s fun and you don’t have to see anything.

People said that about WvW being part of the world complete achievement, but that was changed. I see no reason why unlocking waypoints would be out of the question.

Unlocking all waypoints will not stop you from getting world complete, nor will it make it that much easier. You will still need to explore each zone fully to get poi’s, sp’s, hearts and vistas. Out of all of the things required to clear a map, waypoints are often the easiest ones to get, so unlocking them all with an item will not have much impact on how difficult or time consuming the achievement is.

There are only two questions you need to ask:

1, Do you enjoy playing the thief?
2, Do you perform well using the thief?

If you answer yes to both, ignore everything else anyone tells you. It is 100% irrelevant what others think about the profession, if you enjoy it and can perform well with it then there is no reason to play another profession (unless you want to of course).

I’ve not really looked into it much before, as I don’t do a lot of underwater combat, and the build I use doesn’t change that much. But I was just looking on the wiki to see what our options are and it turns out that the thief has the lowest number of underwater utility skill options out of all the professions:

Thief – 13 utility skills (including 1 elite)
Necro & Ele – 14 utility skills (including 1 elite)
Ranger – 16 (2 elites)
Engi & Warrior – 18 (2 elites)
Guardian – 19 (1 elite)
Mesmer – a whopping 24 utility skills (and 3 of those are elites!)

So it seems in terms of underwater options, things are not too balanced and thieves have the worse of it.

The thing is, I don’t understand why some of our skills can’t be used underwater. For example, why can’t blinding powder become ink bomb or something? And the same for Smoke Screen. Dagger Storm is kind of understandable, but it’s not too hard to believe a skilled thief can throw daggers in all directions underwater, if we can spin round that fast on land I’m sure we could do the same underwater. And why can’t we use Thieves Guild? Am I the only thief in my guild with a breathing mask?

Now I have looked into it more I can see that the thief really is lacking in options. Like I say, it doesn’t effect me too much, but it is a problem and will no doubt effect others. I hope this gets looked at.

That fact that this Guild Wars has the number 2 at the end of its name should suggest that it is a sequel to a previous game called Guild Wars. So what you should be asking yourself is ‘Why is the first game called Guild Wars?’. And I think you will find a sufficient answer to that question.

Edit – kitten , Ninja’d by a Gnat!

Hot Join is ok in some respects, as it allows you to jump straight in without having to wait in a queue. Another advantage to hot joinable games is when players leave a match mid way through, as it allows other players to fill those empty slots. However, I do not think hot join should be a defining factor in whether you create a game mode or not, which is the impression I got from Hugh.

Hot join should merely be a connection option, one that can be added to ANY game. I am struggling to find any reason why any of the ideas suggested in this thread cannot be made hot joinable.

For me, having open world duels provides opportunities to have battles in interesting locations and set up your own tournaments in these areas. I would love to duel around certain jumping puzzles for example (if an invisible option is possible of course, as I would not want to annoy other players trying to complete the puzzle).

However, I think Linnael is right. It may only be down to technical limitations as to why we haven’t got it yet.

As to players harrassing, I have experienced idiots calling me chicken in chat and trying to coax me into a duel, but to be honest I just find those players pathetic and funny. I just laugh emote and carry on with my day. I have never been annoyed by dueling in games and 9 times out of 10 they often congretate around certain areas.

Maybe a special 1v1 dueling area can be added to the mists hub as well, so there is a dedicated zone just for dueling and invisible dueling can be added to PvE so players can have fights in interesting locals.

I know we have custom arenas, but I only duel on occasion and the gem cost of custom arena tickets is not worth it for the amount of use I get out of them, so I don’t bother. Also, using a custom arena for dueling needs to be organized (which is not always an easy task) or you will just get random people trying to play the map as normal (which is not a complaint at them btw). With an open world PvP system, or a dedicated dueling area, players can pick and choose fights as and when they want, quickly and easily.

As mentioned, I do not want a system that gets in the way of anyone else’s enjoyment of the game, and I am sure Arenanet feel the same way. If they can add some kind of dueling system in the game, be it invisible open world or dedicated area, I think it would please a lot of players, as it is obviously a much requested feature. Personally I would be happy with just a dedicated dueling area, but if they can make open world dueling work, then even better. So long as PvE players are not effected by it.

You make some very valid points OP, but for me the only issue I have with Legendaries is the gambling aspect of getting a precursor. It should not be a gambled or traded item, but one aqcuired from completing an epic quest. A quest to put your name in the history books. A quest to make you a living legend.

I’d also like to comment on the idea that a legendary is a PvE only weapon. I do not believe this is the case. A legendary weapon is supposed to represent your mastery of almost all aspects of the game: WvW, dungeons, gathering materials, gathering wealth, exploration and more. Within those aspects there is already a large element of luck involved, so again I feel the precurser aqcuisition needs to be changed.

Anet has already stated that they would like to add some kind of scavenger hunt to aqcuire the pre-curser, so we just need to be patient and wait for them to implement this idea. Hopefully, by the time this has been added we will have some more legendary skins to choose from, as many of them do not suit my tastes (many of them are far too toy like and not serious enough for the effort IMO).

The trait auto casts that particular skill without you having to slot it on your skillbar, it just happens to have the stun break component to it, which the trait is unlikely to use. I am not sure if a well targeted and timed steal+mug trait would trigger the stun break, not tested that myself, but that might be possible.

Really, the trait is more for the quickness and fury than the stun break. It also (currently) has a shorter cooldown than the utility skill, and I am wondering if that is intentional due to not being able to fully utilitise the stun break?

The things I really appreciate in GW2 are as follows:

1) Truly cooperative PvE. You welcome other players rather than shun them. You do not have to compete against other players in PvE, which is a feature the genre has been needing for years, and it always surprises me when I see new games not following suit.

2) WvW and PvP that you can access almost straight after character creation and from anywhere. For PvP, the fact you do not need to progess in order to compete on equal footing, with higher level players, is just the best. And I love how you can jump into PvP and WvW from anywhere. No need to go to a special hub or specific city to join a game. Hell, you can even jump straight into a PvP match from PvE!

3) Freedom to customize the look and colour of your armour. I would love to see dyable weapons too, but the transmutation system alone is very much appreciated.

4) More and more account bound rewards and systems. For an altaholic like myself, account bound is music to my ears. Very few games have an account bound focus, so I am very happy that Anet are moving in this direction more and more.

5) While the fast paced combat is not unique to GW2, it is by far the best there is at the moment. No other MMO I have played since playing GW2, has had a combat system that felt as fluid and fun. GW2 is now the gold standard in combat with which I rate all other MMOs by.

I think out of everything the combat offers in GW2 the thing that I miss most in other games is the dodging. While other games have implemented dodging, none (so far) have got it right. They are either sluggish and unsatisfying to use or no where near as effective as the dodging in GW2. Dodging in GW2 just feels right, and no other game has got it feeling that good yet.

6) Waypoints. While some feel this breaks immersion or makes the world feel smaller, I love how you can quickly join up with friends to do any activity you want, without having to travel for hours trying to meet up or get to the activity. The total freedom of movement across the world is a brilliant feature, and one I really miss in some MMO’s.

There are lots of other features in GW2 I miss in other MMO’s, but I would say the above are the biggest things for me.