Guild Wars 2

Animism.9803:

Personally. If I’d complain about the difficulty in any way, it would be in regards to getting Mastery points. I do not find it fun to repeat story quests for all those achievements. I don’t even want to read a kitten Dulfy guide on full achievements for LS2, I would quite frankly rather not play.

It seems a bit of a joke that all the legendaries are being made with a requirement of max masteries.

But…they are legendary quality items. Being expected to go above-and-beyond the norm is the norm for legendary.

Dante.1508:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Dante.1508:

Lower Hot damage, add loot right through the mobs, not just giant zerg stupidity.. let customers solo all the content bar super bosses…

That would fix the hot issues..

The person I was when HOT first came out wouldn’t believe I’d be saying this, but I don’t want HOT changed. It’s great as it is. I’m hardly a great player – I can’t even see tells after a year of this game – but after a couple of months in the jungle I’m running around solo on a mes, finishing achievements, masteries completed, having fun. It’s possible. And strangest of all, I’m kind of wishing it was harder.

I’m just commenting on what would fix hot for casual customers.

I’m sorry but no one elected you spokesperson for casual customers. You’re one guy. There are a few people who agree with you.

But from my observations, even just on this forum, there are as many or more self-identified casual players who disagree with you. It’s human nature to believe if you feel something strongly others must feel the same way, but that’s not really the way the world works.

I have plenty of casual people playing in my guild who are fine with HoT. All you can really comment on is what will fix it for you. You can’t talk for other casual players because they don’t all agree with you…even just in this thread.

You might not be play well enough to solo hot, but please stop trying to push the point that casual = unskilled, because I’ve never read any definition of casual that means that.

YOU would like to see HoT made easier. Some casuals undoubtedly would too. But other casuals are okay with the difficulty of HoT.

Dante.1508:

Lower Hot damage, add loot right through the mobs, not just giant zerg stupidity.. let customers solo all the content bar super bosses…

That would fix the hot issues..

This was done in April.

Daddicus.6128:

Thaddeus.4891:

From what I can see, your problem seem to be about the storyline needing masteries than the grindiness of the masteries themselves.

YES! This is what I’ve been trying to say, so far not nearly clearly enough. Thank you!

My idea would remove that gating (mostly), but only toon-by-toon. You don’t get gliding account wide until you’ve earned the account-wide total. But, individual toons could progress.

Thank you, thank you!!!

Ok just a word of advice. Next time take time to put your idea together and focus on what you are trying to say, keep it simple and make sure that your title reflect what you want to talk about. Because right now for like 90% of people your post is a rant about how HoT is grindy, not on the presence of masteries that block your progression into the story. That’s a recipe for disaster as most people won’t even talk about what you wish and you only have yourself to blame for that.

Dante.1508:

Lower Hot damage, add loot right through the mobs, not just giant zerg stupidity.. let customers solo all the content bar super bosses…

That would fix the hot issues..

The person I was when HOT first came out wouldn’t believe I’d be saying this, but I don’t want HOT changed. It’s great as it is. I’m hardly a great player – I can’t even see tells after a year of this game – but after a couple of months in the jungle I’m running around solo on a mes, finishing achievements, masteries completed, having fun. It’s possible. And strangest of all, I’m kind of wishing it was harder.

Daddicus.6128:

Belenwyn.8674:

Arenanet should add 20-40 additional mastery points per region. This would reduce the grind in a dramatic way. Look at the hero points. The acquisitions is much more relaxed.

I agree and disagree. In my heart-of-hearts, I would all gating removed. However, I understand why they did it: to slow down progression long enough to experience the more complete story being told off of the storyline’s beaten trail.

Much of what they built is the multi-layered map, populated with stories that all relate to the main storyline, but not being required for it. This is the same with the core game, but many people skipped those entirely until they had completely forgotten about the story itself.

Go into Queensdale and run through a handful of events. About half of them relate in some way to the main storyline, but you would never know it unless you played in that area for a while. The same is true throughout core. There are even whole maps you would never get to playing just the storyline.

So, I’m not sure they need more. Perhaps they should add options. For example, I’m pretty sour on adventures, and many people have expressed a similar sentiment. I would prefer to never have to play them. But, that’s not an option if I want all the masteries. It would be nice to have other ways to earn those MPs.

But, that would cheapen the accomplishment for those who earned them.

So, I’m middle-of-the-road on this one.

It would be easy to add mastery points to bronze tier of the adventures. We had thid during beta and it felt right. Now it is pure grind for me : repeating the same activity over and over without no/insignificant progress. Grind in its purest form.

There are many other achievements (story, exploration etc) that do not grant mastery points. Enough occasion to add MPs.

Earning XP was never a problem. It was even fast before the buff.

Following last post, I’d say it’s important you do the dragon stand meta BEFORE that part of the story. I feel like it was designed this way too.

Daddicus.6128:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Wow. Two sentences in and already showing your bias. I like your honesty.

I don’t think the masteries are grindy – BUT I think your idea would make them so. I used my mesmer to do most of my masteries because he provided me with good mobility, stealth and a portal that provided insurance where I needed it.

If I had to complete the masteries your way (as I understand it) it would have been tedious, unenjoyable and very, very, very grindy.

EDIT: Added the clarification “(as I understand it)”. It’s possible I don’t understand your meaning, but as it reads I think you’re trying to provide a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Do a few rounds of DS with food, crystals and other boosters. The XP flows in remarkably fast, even on the last tiers of the masteries.

My bias was intentionally shown. I have no intention of responding to any “it’s not grindy posts”, so why not say so up front? But, I didn’t make that clear, so I apologize if it caused any offense.

But, perhaps it is time for an example, because I don’t think I spoke clearly enough. All of the below is hypothetical. Also, I’m using round numbers; I can’t find a source for the exact mastery XP requirements as they progressed. I’ll be using the pronoun “I” as the player below.

This first example is how it is now.

I haven’t been in HoT yet. I have an account with Andy, Barb, and Chuck as my more interesting characters. But, Andy is top of the heap. He’s the guy I’m going to take into HoT, because I believe he’ll be the one I can perform the best with.

Further, I’ve been waiting for HoT. I want to know what happens to Mordremoth. I want to take him down, plain and simple.

So, my natural inclination is to start through the story with Andy. But, I’m almost immediately faced with a 250k mastery requirement. I remember well asking myself why on earth they stuck that in the way. But, I assumed it was some kind of tutorial process, so I wandered around until I had done enough to cross the line.

Then, I go back to the story. I get a couple more missions done, and once again I’m locked out of the story until I grind through now several hundred thousand more XP (than what the stories gave me, plus what I earned getting to the next story instance location).

That’s annoying. But, again, it’s new and I really want to know what happens next. So, I put up with it again.

So, I repeat the same thing, only with more dum-dum XP required this time.

I muddle through, but spending a smaller percent of my gaming time doing it. After all, I have other things I want to accomplish than just burn through XP.

Finally, I got through that, chose another mastery, and continue the story. Which is getting interesting, by the way.

But, of course THIS time, I spent quite a bit of time going through the missions, all the while going for the wrong mastery! They didn’t give me a heads-up: “by the way, you should choose XYZ mastery next because you’re going to need it.” So, now I not only have to earn a million XP, but I have to earn them ALL before I can continue. (This paragraph is NOT hypothetical — it’s the way it actually happened to me.)

At this point, the player running Andy through is getting very frustrated, and turns to the forums. There he learns that not only is the grind going to continue, it’s going to get MUCH worse!

It was about then that I got sick of HoT and personally gave up. It wasn’t worth it.

But, now lets see the new process.

Andy does the same thing through the first mastery, or maybe two. But, only Andy has earned these masteries, and he earned them in 1/3 of the time (XP). Barb and Chuck can’t use the actual mastery, because the account hasn’t earned enough XP yet.

But, Barb and Chuck, each being in a different order from Andy and each other (hey, this player likes completeness), they earn their own mastery usages. And, by the time they get to the same mission where Andy is, the whole account has earned the right to use the same mastery (or masteries).

Hopefully I’ve explained the idea enough to make things clearer. (I have a tendency to speak too much and say too little — maybe I should have been a politician!) But, I think it’s true both that this is less grindy. It cannot be more grindy, because you still have to earn the exact same totals for the account.

The only real difference is that one or two characters can progress through the story at their own pace, not blocked (as much) by artificial barriers to continuation. And, if the player really wants the masteries account-wide, he has to EARN them account-wide (or, more accurately, on three toons rather than one).

The only extra grind I see is for players who only have one toon they play. But, the grind they have to endure is exactly the same, so it’s not a change. They’re just given the opportunity to play more than one character while earning those XP.

NOTE: They COULD have done the same thing themselves: march three toons through HoT, each progressing to the same stopping-points. But, only when the third toon gets to that position will the account earn the actual mastery to move forward. Hence the partial-earning that my idea allows.

All that talk of “grind” you are mentioning is self-imposed. It is like a new player starting out in the tutorial instance and saying that all he wants to do it fight in Orr, but he has to “grind” 79 levels to reach it without being at a disadvantage. That on-the-way experience isn’t meant to get in your way, so much as to flesh out the content between plot-points. It is there to incentivise you to explore the world provided, rather than rushing to the end and suddenly feeling like there was hardly any content.

Think of it this way: your character didn’t just hop from instance to instance in 0-time to follow the story. In truth, the events, enemies, and npc’s you encounter between instances are also apart of the story; they are situations you encounter in an open world, rather than an instance. It takes opposition and effort for you character to attune to the jungle and learn tricks and skills to better transverse it. The story instances are just where those skills are truly put to use.

Daddicus.6128:

I see what you’re saying, but it’s simply not true. There was a storyline mission early on that you could not do until you got the first mastery. Yeah, it was something like a tutorial, but then they continued the same tactic: require masteries in order to progress the storyline.

It IS grindy, and there ARE gaps.

From what I can see, your problem seem to be about the storyline needing masteries than the grindiness of the masteries themselves.

The problem is that grind is subjective. No matter how not grindy something is, there will always be some people complaining that it’s too grindy. And no matter how monstrously grindy something is, there will always be people saying that it’s not.

Because grind is subjective. Grind is only how frustrating and unpleasant the progression is to you. And that’s different for everybody.

Razor.9872:

Daddicus.6128:

If you don’t think they’re grindy, don’t post.

Hmmmm…I think I can translate this.

Daddicus.6128:

If you disagree with my position then go away, because I am unable to support it in a reasonable debate.

Fixed.

This

If you don’t want a discussion you shouldn’t post in a forum.

Daddicus.6128:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The OP’s argument is almost entirely based off the first mastery.

Incorrect. When I gave up trying for 3 months, the reason was yet another mastery needed (Nuhoch or exalted something or other). It happens throughout the process, at least as far as I’ve gotten so far. Who knows? Maybe I’ve hit the last one and just don’t know it. But, it’s awfully frustrating to just be getting into the story again and have to drop back to more random monster killing.

Exalted is needed. I reached it on day two. It’s the last one needed for the story. It’s one mastery point. I’m not sure how you can spend three months on it. If I played 15 minutes a day, I could probably have gotten it in one month.

Either you’re exaggerating or you’re just really bad at the game, but there’s no way in hell you should take 3 months to get gliding, mushroom jumping, updraft use and exalted law trained.

I’m not even sure how it’s possible.

The OP’s argument is almost entirely based off the first mastery: it’s really horrid to play in the new zones without some form of gliding and you can only earn XP for the first point of gliding by playing in the new zones. I have to agree — I hated that. (On the other hand, unlike the OP, I experimented with different builds until I could walk more than 10 feet without dying to ankle biters.)

I still think ANet should have made the first 30% or more of the zone safer and more easily accessible without gliding. Since they didn’t, I’d be perfectly fine with ANet granting the first point of gliding to everyone who steps into the new zone.

The rest … I only once had more XP than mastery points in the new zones; I never felt any pressure to grind (although a lot of the content was fairly dull without certain masteries).

Daddicus.6128:

This is an idea which could reduce the grindiness of HoT masteries. If you don’t think they’re grindy, don’t post.

Wow. Two sentences in and already showing your bias. I like your honesty.

I don’t think the masteries are grindy – BUT I think your idea would make them so. I used my mesmer to do most of my masteries because he provided me with good mobility, stealth and a portal that provided insurance where I needed it.

If I had to complete the masteries your way (as I understand it) it would have been tedious, unenjoyable and very, very, very grindy.

EDIT: Added the clarification “(as I understand it)”. It’s possible I don’t understand your meaning, but as it reads I think you’re trying to provide a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Do a few rounds of DS with food, crystals and other boosters. The XP flows in remarkably fast, even on the last tiers of the masteries.

@OP
From a game design perspective, which masteries would you make account bound vs soul bound? Also, the mastery points will need to be overhauled too: either way, way more sources of MPs be added or some need to become endlessly repeatable.

Personally I rather they not use the system you’re suggesting because in essence you’re replacing a one-time XP “grind” with a repeated XP “grind”… plus they’ll have to pull resources from other areas to change the MP system. The current system is daunting in the beginning, but is less punishing in the long term.

The trick about masteries is that they were never a grind when it came to playing through the game. They were however balanced on the assumption that the player would actually play through all the content. If you legitimately explore the maps and participate in the content, you’ll find that most achievements are naturally obtained, along with the mastery points and experience required to unlock your masteries as you need them. Adventures are however a huge chunk of experience, and can easily make the difference between a casual experience and a grind. After the nerf for example, unlocking one of the first tier masteries (500k exp) is as simple as doing 2 adventures for the first time.

What they do need to do however is force a specific mastery path at the start, so that players don’t unlock the useless stuff first, only to find that they’re stuck. The mastery level should also be dropped as it’ll only turn out like achievement points and people get hung up on it as they see it as a level cap, turning a casual experience into an impossible task.

Daddicus.6128:

If you don’t think they’re grindy, don’t post.

Hmmmm…I think I can translate this.

Daddicus.6128:

If you disagree with my position then go away, because I am unable to support it in a reasonable debate.

Fixed.

Moyayuki.3619:

runeblade.7514:

I disagree because:

• They’re not grindy.
• I do not want character-based mastery grind ever. This will be much more of a nuisance.

I suppose you missed the part where the OP said that if you don’t believe them to be grindy, then don’t post.

Everyone is allowed to post though. One poster cannot determine who can or cannot post in a thread even if they were the one to create it.

I disagree because:

• They’re not grindy.
• I do not want character-based mastery grind ever. This will be much more of a nuisance.

Aidan Savage.2078:

cptaylor.2670:

Just curious as to what the purpose of this is. It seems a little archaic to me. I assume it was originally to keep people from having full sets of celestial gear at ease, but with them being in the game for so long and so many guild upgrades large quantities of items like celestial inscriptions and ley-line infused tools, the daily cooldown seems to only further time gate a system that is already reliant on so many other things that also take time, such as large amounts of pvp potions etc.

Is this not a system we can put to rest at this point? Or at least be more lenient with? Such as a higher max number of charges a day?

Even if it’s timegated, there’s very few things that require them in a large quantity that a SINGLE player is meant to accrue. Guild hall upgrades need a large number in total, but with the number of players in guilds, it’s a small amount for each player.

Maybe, but how many people are typically active in a large guild? And why should a small guild be penalized by this logic? I mean, my active guilds have about 30 or 40 on at primetime, but that isn’t taking into account who all has crafting high enough to make celestial inscriptions or ley-line infused tools. Add that to the fact that the celestial inscriptions take 5 days for 1 person to complete due to daily cooldowns, and with upgrades requiring 200 or more ley-line infused tools, even with 30 people all depositing their 1 a day, that’s still going to be almost 8 days for the full supply. But that’s including everyone, not just the weaponsmiths that can actually craft the tools, so then if you’re lucky you might have 10 dedicated people making the tools and depositing. At which case it would take 20 days, which is longer than it takes to accumulate the aetherium needed to finish the upgrade.

It just seems like an outdated system. Would be a huge help if we could even charge 5 crystals a day as the cooldown. At least then it makes it more manageable for smaller guilds while not inflating the supply.

The game can’t cater to everyone all the time. Having them at set times means people can plan for them. You have to do laundry? Do it before X hour for Y event? Going out shopping, well, try to be home 15 minutes before Z event starts.

Sometimes if you are so casual you are barely on, you don’t get to do everything in the game. That’s life sometimes.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Seera.5916:

Because due to the megasever system and how events that aren’t on fixed timers work. If they weren’t on fixed timers, it may be very hard to find maps with active world bosses as the maps don’t spawn at the start of the window. They act as if the boss was just defeated.

So in order to let the world bosses actually spawn with any amount of regularity, they have to spawn at specific server times.

Not entirely Seera. There’s been days where I’ve gotten to teq late, as in “it’s started already” late, and have hopped onto a brandspankingnew map that started teh teq meta event nearly 10 minutes late. I BELIEVE that as long as a fresh map spawns within the event’s natural time, those maps will spawn the event even if it’s say, XX:14.

A window of 15 minutes starting from a specific time is still a specific time.

Seera.5916:

Because due to the megasever system and how events that aren’t on fixed timers work. If they weren’t on fixed timers, it may be very hard to find maps with active world bosses as the maps don’t spawn at the start of the window. They act as if the boss was just defeated.

So in order to let the world bosses actually spawn with any amount of regularity, they have to spawn at specific server times.

Not entirely Seera. There’s been days where I’ve gotten to teq late, as in “it’s started already” late, and have hopped onto a brandspankingnew map that started teh teq meta event nearly 10 minutes late. I BELIEVE that as long as a fresh map spawns within the event’s natural time, those maps will spawn the event even if it’s say, XX:14.

Because due to the megasever system and how events that aren’t on fixed timers work. If they weren’t on fixed timers, it may be very hard to find maps with active world bosses as the maps don’t spawn at the start of the window. They act as if the boss was just defeated.

So in order to let the world bosses actually spawn with any amount of regularity, they have to spawn at specific server times.

Danikat.8537:

I realise this isn’t an ideal solution but considering the bosses are on the same schedule 7 days a week, and the timings are listed online couldn’t you make time to do them on one of the days when you’re not working?

It might take some planning but it should be possible. Maybe explain to your wife in advance that there’s a particular thing you want to do which only happens at certain times of the day so you want to make sure you’re on the computer when it happens and ask her to help organise things so you have that time free.

Or just arrange things yourself. Like today I got out of work a bit early and I knew my husband was going to be busy all evening so I made sure I was doing something easy for dinner (and luckily it was my night to cook instead of wash up) which left me plenty of time to do the entire Dragon’s Stand meta-event.

At least the world bosses (minus Teq in some cases) are pretty quick, so once you commit to a day and time, it won’t take up too much time. It’s all about figuring out what works for each individual’s circumstances. Honestly, I am really glad that bosses are on a set timer, even if it’s frustrating when I log in and a boss won’t spawn again for another hour and a half. :P

I realise this isn’t an ideal solution but considering the bosses are on the same schedule 7 days a week, and the timings are listed online couldn’t you make time to do them on one of the days when you’re not working?

It might take some planning but it should be possible. Maybe explain to your wife in advance that there’s a particular thing you want to do which only happens at certain times of the day so you want to make sure you’re on the computer when it happens and ask her to help organise things so you have that time free.

Or just arrange things yourself. Like today I got out of work a bit early and I knew my husband was going to be busy all evening so I made sure I was doing something easy for dinner (and luckily it was my night to cook instead of wash up) which left me plenty of time to do the entire Dragon’s Stand meta-event.

Winterbay.1785:

As a, pretty casual, player with playtime limited to specific times of day (30-60 minutes before work and an hour or so in the evening when kids are asleep and wife is watching some series I have quite often been sad to see the big events being on the same time every day.

Would it be possible to get the events on a rotating schedule instead so even though you log in on the same time each day you can still have a chance to participate in all events?

As an example of my situation, I’ve been able to play Tequatl once since launch when I got some extra playtime…

I can’t say anything in regards to the events, but world bosses such as Teq always run at exactly the same time every day. Teq usually is best to do during the Daily reset. You can find websites that show boss timers for specific servers.

World bosses used to be almost completely random when they happened, but were changed to this new system so more people could make it to them on a regular basis. Honestly, I think this system works better for the majority of people.

I know that sucks for the few like you that cannot make them on a regular basis, but for the majority of players, this seems to work best, so it is unlikely it would be changed.

Tekoneiric.6817:

When I signed in a bit ago the price of 400 Gems was 139 gold which is about double what it was a bit over 2 months ago. Has anyone at ANet said anything about the crazy inflation in gem prices?

There is nothing crazy about the current gold:gem ratio — if anything, it’s surprising that it’s taken so long for the ratio to hit this level, since so many people (including myself) won’t (or can’t) buy gems with cash. Each day that passes, veterans have more gold that they can spend on luxuries and usually an increased willingness to pay more for the few things they really do want.

If you look at the rate curve, it shows clear spikes and dips and plateaus — the rate was stable for ages and even went down regularly during Wintersday (until 2015). ANet was terrible about refreshing the list of items offered, which suppressed demand as people got out of the habit of checking what was available.

The high rate is really good for people willing to spend extra cash on the game. It’s also good for the game as a whole, since it puts extra pressure on gold sellers to offer better rates and extra pressure on gold buyers to choose the legit market instead of the black market.

The high rate is really bad only for people, like myself, who aren’t spending RL dollars|pounds|euros on the game.

Donari.5237:

Quarterly means every three months or so. We got one in January, one three months later in April, so it seems reasonable to expect the next one in July (three months after April). They don’t have to wait for the anniversary. Heck, last year’s anniversary didn’t have much happen to mark it.

I surely hope they will release it in July and not in August or September.
I am however looking for some more information on its content. Some sneek preview or points that they want to tackle.

With the next Raid wing starting next week, the next quarterly update likely in July and these micro content drops we’ve been getting every two weeks or so … I’m going to guess LS3 will start with the next quarterly update. We know that episodes won’t be dropping every two weeks so maybe once a month.