Guild Wars 2

As a person who’s suffered skyhammer more than most, I can say with a straight face that I have NEVER seen a SINGLE person actually like skyhammer in the solo queue rotation.

Yet arena-net decides that a map that actually doesn’t really mean anything, a map you can CHOOSE to play on, needs to be removed?

Why don’t I get to choose if I play skyhammer or not? It’s been almost a year people, listen to your community.

This 1 hundred times.

Id rather have capricorn in soloq than kitten skyhammer

Yuogtar.4892:

L2P

Thats kind of you. I can feel with this poor guy. And you seriously can’t say l2p on skyhammer, it’s impossible to counter the insane nockbacks of some classes. Shame on me but I play decap engi, if Skyhammer shows up. Never lost skyhammer anymore after creating one.

Are there going to be any changes to Skyhammer and ranked solo arenas? Its ridiculous how much KB is abused on that map and while, lets say, engineers do have to expose themselves by actually being in the fight rangers can sit back in their safe spot, spam auto-attack while sending their whole zoo at you and just wait for their “Point Blank Shot” to go off cooldown. You can bring all the stability you want but when you have three rangers on the enemy team with access to a very powerful KB every 15s it quickly becomes impossible to counter that much KB.

Hotjoin used to be exciting. 16 maniacs blasting each other to hell and back. limiting to 5v5 means endless 3v2 matches. Boring and forces 1v1 specs. Please fix.

DoYourBestBear.6810:

You know – we had talked about that the other day and I agree. While some people will submit that the root cause would be online games, people, or our generation of gamers – I would disagree and submit the community size as the cause, along with everything else Steb said.

I came here from GW1 expecting another amazing community. IVEX and other guilds in GW1 felt like an actual team that was there to try, learn, and progress as players. The community had little discord (except for where a guild or two were concerned as the sole source of much aggression), players generally assisted each other in becoming better – even across different teams. Even at the top of the ladder, there was little, if any, BM.

Coming to the GW2 community was like going to McDonald’s instead of that really nice restaurant you love – just because they promised you good food.

I think it’s mostly the size (so small) and the tension and longing that the game is gonna see better days. Let’s be honest, we all log in every so often thinking for some silly reason that today’ll be when GW2 turns around and all that potential will finally begin to bear fruit. The game feels like being stuck at a bus terminal in a foreign country for seven hours. It doesn’t excuse anything don’t get me wrong, but it’s far from the healthiest environment especially for such a small community to stick in day in day out for too long.

Wolfey.3407:

Trash talking is fine

Not really, that’s what breeds toxicity, and people are fine with it until they lose and it happens to them, you won, take it with grace, rubbing salt in the wound just kittenes people off and they in turn treat others badly, perpetuating this bullkitten is what causes a toxic community to spread like wildfire.

Playfully messing with the other team in good fun is much different than telling people their trash, etc.

^That’s a fact? Tell us the evidence for that incredibly general statement.

TL;DR : Basement nerds are toxic.

I got it.

My spvp release

Structure:

1)No spirit and skyhammer in soloqueue
2)Queue pop like www queue to avoid 4vs5 at beginning and frozen system to avoid imbalanced numbers during the match
3)hot join converted in unranked soloqueue with spectator mode
4) exclusive rewards for teamqueue and soloqueue

Balance

1) less damage from air/fire sigils
2) less high might stack
3) better animations on critical skills (cc/high damage)

It would be enough for now

Justin ODell.9517:

Sorry for the trolls. :\

This shouldn’t be an issue after the next SPvP release.

You are trolling an entire community right after saying “sorry for the trolls”.

Masterpiece. 10/10.

SPvP release wishlist: (we can dream right?)
1) A ready button that works
2) A sound when queue pops (for people who alt-tab)
3) Standard models enabled for all pvp modes
4) Blacklion reward track
5) A pause button for tournament matches (controlled by admins/Arena owners)
6) Build templating that you can switch with one click (I don’t need sharing yet)
7) A better score board that include: total damage deal/total damage received/stomp/revive
…
99) Remove skyham from solo queue (now I realize it’s just a dream…)

Ugh, I wish everyone would stop focusing on Unload so much for improvements to P/P. The problem with the set is that a.) Vital Shot sucks, and b.) other skills already can’t compete with Unload.

I played GW1 actively from it’s launch till EOTN without taking any pause from it.

GW2 played from launch to february/march 2014 then decided to put it on hold till new stuff comes in. So about 1,5 year in this game till getting bored’burned or whatever you’d call it.

I’m still same player with same kind of attitude, hunger for exploration in fantasy worlds, lorefreak etc. than I was back in launch of GW1.

In my humble opinion GW2 as fantastic as it is in the varied crowd of MMO’s, it would benefit a lot from meaty old-school expansion like there was in the original GW.

My view on expansion:

- New continent, consisting of 8-10 zones with 2 of them for new class leveling
- New class, tied to lore of expansion
- New skills to existing classes + 2-3 new weapon types tied to expansion lore
- WvWvW improvements what players have asked in forums
- sPVP game modes and 4 new maps to rotation
- GvG introduced with 8vs8 and CTF/Boss elimination gametypes
- Factions introduced or similar type of PvP that ties to PvE for example like Urgoz & Deep in GW1, elite areas that open up to your victory in conquering that spot on map
- Guild Halls
- Polymock + other activities like Bar Brawl, and return Keg Brawl from that random rotation
- Few new dungeons with paths and unique armours & weapon skins

Hah. That’s a wishlist for sure.
But yeah old-school expansion isn’t necessary so bad idea even if Anet philosophy dictates otherwise.

Swish.2463:

What qualifies as a 40 to 60$ (USD) paid expansion? What should it contain and add to the game?

Seafood! I would pay $60 for an expansion that added seafood recipes. There are so many fish! Why can’t we cook the fish?

More seriously, I’ve always assumed that the first paid expansion would include the third heavy armor profession and a new race.

Which, if it were the Japanese-themed Tengu, would make it the perfect time to also add… some kittening seafood!

Elsdragon.5109:

I must say your post sounds very selfish and close-minded. Those are simply your opinion that you somehow consider a fact. I am a former GW1 player and I will disagree with your points completely. Though I am a “veteran player” if you consider the time factor, I would still consider myself a casual player based on the play-style as well.

Your expectations are not for what the game is but rather for how long it can keep you entertained. They’ve said that there wouldn’t be boxed expansions for GW2 when they released it and yet you still had expectations that it would. That is what I call delusional, believing something will go your way despite being told it won’t.

You claimed that your passion for the game came in huge part to expansions in GW1 (which were campaigns as stand-alone games really, there was only one expansion and that was Eye of the North), but all that tells me is that your passion isn’t about how different or wonderful the game is but rather that it gave a lot of content to play with. If that’s all you’re after, you’re better off playing multiple games rather than expecting one game company to crank out tons of content to keep you pleased. The longevity of GW1 wasn’t due to the added campaigns I would argue, but rather its uniqueness and deviant from the standards of what an MMO was back then, but you either failed to see that or conveniently left it out of your statement.

As for how the LS is, that is also a matter of opinion. I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is a far better option design-wise to implement this sort of LS content rather than a boxed expansion to go with their model of a living world. If your idea of content is simply “new races, new classes, new weapons, new skills, new maps, new dungeons, new pvp modes” then you’re missing out on a lot I have to say. The races and classes they have now are fine; adding any more may be more harmful to the game than you would think. The new maps and dungeons bit, we got a new map that kept extending as the LS progressed, who knows they may just release a new dungeon as well.

actually, pretty sure they started off saying they would definately be expanding the game through expansions. Shortly after release, they decided they were unsure how they would deliver it. Then they later decided they would see how living story does at delivering content.

As for content, yeah its important, most games, even good games, cannot continue to thrive with their initial content. That is why there have been like 100 streetfighter games, and demon souls, dark souls, and dark souls II. MMOs generally deal with this concept by continuing to improve and expand the same game with new content. Keep in mind most people are willing to pay for this, So its not as if they want something for nothing.

new races/class/proffesions would not be any more harmful to the game than anything else. FFXI was like 10ish years ago, and they managed to add 11 jobs without destroying the game. Gw1 added 4 proffesions, whom as far as i can tell attracted many players, and are still some favorite classes for many people. Assassin, dervish, ritualist were highly popular classes, and people still ask for them today.

No, gw2 has not truely captured all playstyles.
Keep in mind each job is firmly attached to its proffesion mechanic.
mesmer will always be tied to illusions and shatters
ranger will always be tied to pets
theif is always going to be controled by initiative, steal and stealth abilities.

point is, they may have hit some broad archetypes, but they are all limited in their playstyle by their class mechanics.
a thief cant really be a monk/martial artist, because he is dependent on stealth for defense, his mechanic is based around stealing, not combos, and initiative is made to front load his damage rather than build it up.

A warrior cant be a death berserker type because his mechanic is about 1 special attack he builds up over time, and his theme is to be highly variable with weapons and generally to buff enemies

necro is tied to 4 skills on his life bar, which favor one playstyle.

point is, they have a lot of room to grow when it comes to proffesions.

Bhima.9518:

Stooperdale.3560:

The problem with an expansion is that the accountants in charge of the content will always decide that there must be “must have” content inside the expansion. It makes financial sense for the company to induce all players to buy the expansion. So whenever people talk about an expansion I know that I will probably stop playing because I will not buy the expansion and I will not get the “must have” content.

At the moment we receive updates to the wallet, trading post, cosmetics, etc through free updates. If an expansion is released then all quality of life improvements will be put into the expansion instead. The best cosmetics will require the expansion. New skills would be put into the expansion. However the big “must have” content that is usually put into expansions is a level cap increase (or some other way of boosting character power through gear treadmills and grind). Virtually all MMOs do this. Any claim that a GW2 expansion would not include a level cap increase, power creep, gear grinds, gear treadmills, is unrealistic speculation. These are the most favored tools of the accountants to make players expansions. That is what you ask for when you ask for an expansion.

You are also forgetting what expansions also give their players: A big chunk of new content to play. This game is the cheapest form of entertainment in this industry. Full stop. If you can’t afford a $40 expansion after 3 years or don’t like to spend money in the game, you may not be the target demographic for the game.

Maybe some people can’t afford after over-spending on black lion keys. Just saying. lol

Arcadio.6875:

I know the Living World updates have added a couple of new maps, a story, and many new skins. But two years of this doesn’t compare to what we expect an expansion would have added.

This.

For right or wrong I expected more, after 2 years. Maybe it’s a false expectation or my personal bias as a GW1 player at fault but…..a handful of hours content most nailed in two sittings at most….with a side of grinding out a backpiece in recycled content and mat grinding as a “reward” hardly constitutes substantial or rewarding content for me personally.

In this regard the LS is a huge fail. Drip-feeding content is not the way to go thus far, I’d rather nothing for a year and then a serious dose of awesome….but it’s already been 2 years. If this is a test bed and we get a massive hit of content in 3-6 months all good but I’m not holding my breath.

I love the franchise but boredom is quickly setting in.I’m having more fun and surpises in terms of content playing Skyrim for the upteenth time. Sheesh.

Expansion:

1.) New Race (Tengu) and access to their home behind the wall in LA
2.) Access to one specific storyline that grants:

• a title
• an ascended weapon

3.) New dungeons
4.) New Fractals

Free to players:

Map expansion (PVP, PVE, WVW)
Armor expansion
Weapon Expansion

The concern that most may not buy the expansion I think is fairly limited. The fact is for everyone still here after perhaps 3 years time when one does pop the vast majority would purchase it because they stayed here that long because they like the game. The other factor people need to understand is that the large cash influx is usually timed to re-invigorate their coffers for their shareholders and used to draw old and new back to the game while increasing profits.

Also those who say they won’t buy it are likely those who are not spending money in the game to begin with hence it is not in the best interest of GW2 or Anet to cater to that crowd. As many have stated and history proves it there is a ability to do both the LS and QoL features in a limited capacity in between the actual expansion like content. This formula has worked so far and I believe there are valid reasons for the formula.

Also as many have pointed out already just the LS is not cutting for many players at this stage.

If it was a GW2 expansion I’d pay $120…hands down.

I know for a FACT I’d get value for money when compared to other games or subscription models. I just don’t get this LS thing. Crap rewards, content done in a few hours at most, same talky head to talky head cut-scenes that we have seen since day one with a few exceptions. Tiny zones with a mechanic based purely on people repeating the same content quickly, repetitively and most importantly consistently to get “Tier” rewards or discounts.

Repetition of insubstantial content.

fireflyry.7023:

I agree to disagree.

This game has many faults, and many awesome features but if LS is the future it will die a slow death.

Expansion please.kthxbye :P

Well, if Anet isn’t working on expansion content, I’ll eat my hat. However, just to be safe, I’m going to get a hat made of chocolate.

I agree to disagree.

This game has many faults, and many awesome features but if LS is the future it will die a slow death.

I have money and I desperately want to spend it on this game. I don’t want to spend it at the gemstore on minis or gathering items. Expansion please.kthxbye :P

This over-analysis is BS imo.

It worked in GW1, it will work here, and on a tangent many like me expected this to be the format. $60 for a years fun, heck yeah GW2 players will pay that. I’d pay a lot more. I was a passionate GW1 player for 8 years, due in not large but huge part to the expansions. It ended up releasing my fav class, Sin ftw, and was so instrumental to the longevity and success of the franchise.

Anyone who disagrees is not a former GW1 player.

The excitement, speculation and gratification in both the PvE and PvP realms was what separated this game from the other games on the market.Sure no sub but we all couldn’t wait to hand over our coin for the expansion.

I’d class myself a casual player in GW2, played 6 months PvP on release pretty fiercely but that got way boring way quick, then got sucked into PvE mostly thanks to my guild and have had a blast but…..it’s stale. No I don’t have ascended gear or any legendary weapons, I don’t have the time or inclination for such things….which is why I used to play GW.

Now that’s all it seems to be about. 2 friggin years later. Either grind out gear, re-roll, or play a stale one format PvP. I guess my biggest question is are my expectations at fault?

In conclusion I do know one thing, the LS is a poor excuse for new content and if that is a substitution for an actual expansion I won’t be playing this game for too much longer and I would hate to see the game go that way.

Bhima.9518:

Honestly, GW2 is the cheapest MMO to play so, I don’t really see the issue of fracturing the player base since, for over 2 years all anyone had to do to play all the content was buy the box once. An expansion likely wouldn’t be released for yet another year so… that $60 got players 3 years of having the current content. I don’t see an issue with adding a $40 expansion, and I believe it would have a greater impact on motivation for people to play and for former players to return. Plus, some of the changes to the expac would likely also be included as patch download for the original game.

What should be in an expac of GW2? My wish list:

• 2 new weaponsets per class (doesn’t need to be entirely new weapons like a halberd or 2-hand axe… but take the existing weapons and give other classes new skills with them like an Engineer with a Hammer for instance)
• 4-6 new zones
• Bring back the Heart quests for the new zones. I know they get alot of flack, but I actually enjoy doing them on my alts
• 2 new open world raid bosses to start with (more as time progresses). Maybe allow guilds to open a personal overflow of the fight so they can get their guild in there first, and then bring in non-guildies to fill out the ranks
• 2 new dungeons with 3 wings each
• 2 new fractals
• Re-vamped WvW system that combines two servers on one team based on active wvw server participation. The WvW maps would have to either be increased in number, or increased in size/objectives to deal with the influx of players per match. This would allow the really low pop servers to be joined with Tier 1 servers like BG, JQ and TC. The middle servers like Yak’s Bend would be paired up with another mid-level server in the hopes of evening out the playing field.
• add 2 new battlegrounds that are NOT conquest (ie: A Capture the Flag battleground). Also consider making those battlegrounds optimal with larger numbers of players (ie: 10v10, 15v15)
• Revamp hotjoin sPvP to allow partied players to queue in together. Take Courtyard out behind the paywall (freaking horrible decision to do this in the first place)
• Increase level cap by 10 levels (I’m on the fence about this… though, I am still conditioned to enjoy level based progression)
• Increase the ways in which players can obtain ascended gear. As of now, crafting should not be the only truly viable option to get ascended weapons and armor. You should be able to get, at the very least, tokens from fighting Teq or Wurm or high level fractals to then save and spend on ascended weapons and armor

gonna pull your post here as it’s a good example.

I think if we take a cutter and chop up your wish list we can still come up with an expansion that has aspects that are free and some that would feel worth a payment.

Things sPvP and WvW related should remain free imo.

So thats the new skills/weapons/maps there.

PvE could use an incentive and Fractals is already in the core experiance, so lets make those additions free as well

Now, if it were me, I would place 2 or 3 of the PvE maps as free allowing for 1 of the dungeons to be played by anyone (but in story mode only maybe?) while keeping the others behind the pay wall.

World bosses could also be Split or kept in the Paid only maps depending on player count required.

What if the Hearts were also only available to those who paid? They don’t offer much beyond unique recipes or maybe a skin set or something.

the level cap and other suggestions I’m not going to really comment on, it’s not a discussion the thread needs to hold.

So to break it down.

All players Recieve – some new maps, a new dungeon, maybe a raid boss, new skills and weapons (at least in sPvP) and basic QoL improvements.

Paying Players gain – A few more maps, a second dungeon, a unique raid boss, new skills and weapons guaranteed in all game modes, Access to new Karma armor sets and recipes and items (skins and food etc…)

Anyone got better ideas or thoughts on that?

I don’t think anyone really believes that Guild Wars 2 isn’t due for a big dose of content. Even people who don’t play as much as I do have basically done what they want in the game that isn’t a huge grind to get done.

The question becomes how should this content be delivered.

The advantages of an expansion are clear. It brings a lot of excitement back to the game. It brings in a lot of money in very short order. And it gets people playing for a period of months.

The downside of an expansion is that not everyone will pay for one and it would divide the player base.

The problem is one of finances. If Anet can afford to release an expansion through the living story, with new weapons, skills, professions and/or races, then that would keep everyone playing, because there would be nothing to stop them from playing.

If they do the boxed expansion, then some people wouldn’t move on to that content…which is how most MMOs do it.

There is a middle ground most people don’t discuss and that’s not a big boxed expansion but smaller DLC packages, that include possibly races and stuff. If they do it that way and put it in the gem store, people can farm gems to get it, people can buy gems to get it, everyone can move on, but that would possibly make the game feel more like some of the other free to play games. It would no longer feel like buy to play.

Only Anet knows Anet’s finances and what is and isn’t practical though. All we can do is theorize.

I’ve been playing this build for the last few hours, it’s really good! Thanks for sharing, best one I played since patch. And thats coming from someone who barely knows the d/f skillset.

Ive done a lot of testing since the patch came out, this build seems to be extraordinarily effective. Here is a video explaining the build and showing a little bit of game play.

After I made the video, I spent the rest of the day dueling, and have not lost to anybody.

For a quick look, the build is 4/0/2/2/6, battle sigil, doom sigil, strength runes, and celestial amulet.

This…..this is what we have been begging for. “Changes” not just tooltips and visuals, but attempts to evolve and update the class.

Now are they good or bad changes? Are they OP or UP? That is to be determined, but I appreciate any honest attempt at looking at the class and trying to make fixes and changes, not just the junk we have seen over the last year.