Guild Wars 2

Tonics are worthless. You can’t fight in them, and you can’t dye them.

Please turn them into outfits.

I only just got this game a few days ago and have managed to get to lvl 35.
My guy was going well and in most things I was having fun. But now he’s only got one trait point (not 25) and I feel like I took a giant step back.
I really liked the speed increase trait I had but I don’t think I can get it again until lvl 50? Did characters who are under 80 just get mega nerfed?

What do you guys mean? Obviously I should say kitten my sleep for work and be up at 5:00 to be able to catch the world events. Because it’s not like i’ve played since launch and still haven’t had a precursor drop, and this won’t hurt my chances more.

What I really don’t get is back with the ancient karka the first time, anet said they’d stop doing one time events because some people might not be able to attend due to other reasons and that it wasn’t fair. But this is the same type of thing, why’d they change their stance on this? We’re already limited by account bound once a day rewards at world bosses, now we’re limited by when we play as well? Not all of us can play whenever we like.

I think ANYTHING else will be better than perma-closed waypoints :|

I hate to throw cold water when there are so many exciting things happening, but I do have to point out that I am very troubled by this issue.

“Waypoints—All contestable waypoints on any map you’re not currently playing in will always appear contested. When you arrive in the map, you will be able to travel to these waypoints pending their local status.”

I believe that this will make waypoint travel significantly more cumbersome. It will double cost, double load time, and make arriving at world events in time significantly more problematic.

What does everyone else think? If you agree, what do you think would be a better solution for Arena Net?

Tom Gore.4035:

True, but if we are talking about storytelling “plotholes”, what could be more immersion-breaking than lifting the player on a pedestal, with 2 million other players? That would be one helluva crowded pedestal. This is a problem with MMOs and while I agree with you that ANet dug this “personal story” hole for themselves, I think it’s good that they are now steering a bit off that course – or at least I hope so. In my opinion, in MMOs the players should always be just that – a side character who helps the heroes get the job done. Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense having 2 million “main characters” in the story.

Hmm, perhaps there is a compromise to be made. I think you make a very fair point, but there is still something to be said for letting the player feel like a mover and shaker of the world.

If they focused less on a single group of characters such as the current Scooby Gang and let the player meet and interact with many heroes in many smaller stories, they could combine it with a few Personal Story missions that allow the main characters to get their time in the spotlight. A journey home would be an excellent start, returning the player to their city of origin as a triumphant hero, and all the horrible guilt-tripped jobs that entails. Likewise, more Order storylines would be an interesting way to delve into new tales. The Living Story could spend its time allowing Tyria to grow and thrive, and a few segments of Personal Story per year could let the player keep center stage in their own saga.

panzer.6034:

I’m no video game developer but i’ve run tabletop rpgs (like D&D) for years and the one huge lesson i’ve learned as a gamemaster/storyteller is related to that #1 point: you can’t beat around the bush trying to lead your players along with subtle hints and obscure clues with the promise of a shocking reveal down the line. It simply needs to be interesting and engaging right off the bat. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of handing out tiny morsels of info or foreshadowing without giving enough to really allow the players to infer anything relevant because you, as the writer/gamemaster, are the only one who sees the bigger picture and knows it all leads to something big.

Well said. One should never take the audience’s attention for granted, and the initial hook should be baited with the juiciest intrigue possible. Tyria is full of amazing story potential, and any new tale is directly competing with all those exciting possibilities for the players’ attention. Hook ’em early, and reel ’em in.

iplayBANJO.9543:

You wouldn’t, by chance, happen to be a writer in need of a job would you?

I’m actually a geologist. Stories are just my passionate hobby in all their forms, be it reading books, paging through webcomics, listening to short story podcasts, engaging in tabletop RPGs, or binge watching television series. It just seemed like a better thing to use as a constructive criticism avenue than “Shriketalon Reviews Tyrian Geology. Today’s Episode: Southsun Cove’s Travertine Deposits.”

But thank you for the compliment.

Cormac.3871:

You guys do know that Lord of the Rings broke a lot of these rules. Just setting forth a set of things that you think make for interesting story telling doesn’t necessarily mean that anything that doesn’t adhere to them will be bad.

These narrative lessons are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.

There are many different kinds of stories, and a golden rule for one may be a preposterous pyrite for another. For example, Lord of the Rings faced the heroes off against an Ancient Doom sort of opponent, an opponent who is more metaphor than flesh and blood, the living embodiment of doom for their entire world. The struggle against The End is not necessarily meant to have a human component to the harbinger of ragnarok. But by choosing to make the corruption of Scarlet’s mind a key component of the plot, Arenanet chose a more personable sort of antagonist and must be reviewed accordingly. A more metaphysical opponent such as Sauron requires a different set of standards, as do living hurricanes such as the Elder Dragons. There are many different paths to brilliant characterization, for all that is gold does not glitter, and not all who wander are lost.

Thank you for the kind words and constructive criticism thus far, it is appreciated.

Tom Gore.4035:

#14

You do have dialogue with the NPCs. It just isn’t voiced.

Indeed, but the problem is the weight we hold in the story. With so much of the narrative driven by those cutscenes of dialogue, our character’s silence sequesters us away from being a driving force behind the action. Right now, characters keep referring to us as a part of the team and an honored friend, but the bulk of the story content’s cutscenes treat us as a common flunkie on the side bench.

For Dwayna’s delightful derriere’s sake, Frostbite has more spoken dialogue than we do! We’re not even in Snarf territory, and if we weren’t paying customers I’d but us front and center on the “dies horribly in the first act” category of minions.

Freeelancer.2860:

Nicely put and made with allot of care, OP. +1

However, there are several things I disagree with. For example I’d like that player character is moved back completely and serve as a witness (or a grunt) to the events, especially considering the complexities and effort of making PC into one of the main protagonists, but I’m sure my opinion is in minority (and even devs stated they’ll strive to improve communication between PC and NPCs), so instead I’d be content if ANet put more time in exploring the ways to improve that part of LS… and fast… because those scenes in Aftermath made me literary sweat from awkwardness (partly from implementation partly because of feeling they were forced)..

Perhaps, perhaps. However, we’re currently caught up in a weird situation where we are included as a valued member of the Scooby Gang, constantly interacting with them throughout the latter half of the Season. This is a very odd dynamic for a silent character with no major story impetus, and further highlights our lack of voice.

If they had a much broader cast and we bounced around from tale to tale, silence would suit us just fine. But to be “good friends” with five companions to the point of being included in their little guild without getting a single word in edgewise is very jarring.

DarcShriek.5829:

I disagree with point #13. Not entirely though. You see, game designers are constantly trying to push the boundaries of what a game is and where is the game space. Personally, I think articles on an official site is well within limits, as long as players are made aware of this.

To clarify point #13, the articles such as What Scarlet Saw aren’t the bone I am particularly picking here. I’m more irritated with things like this thread. The short version is that it is Angel McCoy giving the entire list of reasons why every race in Scarlet’s alliance works for her and continues to do so. While I don’t think that all of them fit (and I’d really like to see an explanation for how Scarlet found krait obelisks in the first place), it is a decent attempt to explain the motivations of each factions and what they get out of the entire endeavor. I would normally have kudos for such an effort, but there’s one major problem.

None of those cultural trends are part of the story Anet wrote. There is no discussion among Flame Legionnaires about why they are sticking with the band, Krait dialogue about a transformative experience, or anything else but blind obedience. It does not matter if the author knows the answer to a major plot hole. If they fail to address it in the story, that hole forms a massive blemish in the grand tale’s tapestry regardless of intent or introspection. As written, none of the alliances present any compelling reason why they stick with Scarlet Briar until the end, and the story they delivered is worse off as a result.

The mark of a brilliant artist is not the ideas they conceive in their minds. Everyone has ideas, many of them amazing and magnificent. An artist excels at their craft by incarnating those ideas in the reality we all share, creating art that expresses those brilliant concepts and sharing them with others. It does not matter if the writers have good ideas, they have to make them part of the story for them to have any merit.

Words unwritten tell no tales.

What I don’t understand is how someone can look at the Inspiration trait line, the “make phantasms awesome to provide the entire phantasm playstyle” traitline, the traitline with not one, but TWO shatter based grandmaster traits….

…and the first thing that comes to mind is “Interrupt healer!”

Who do we have to hypnotize to get a single Phantasm grandmaster trait in the entire Mesmer lineup?

Greetings and salutations.

With Season 1 of the Living Story drawing to a close, it seems appropriate to offer review and reflection of everything that has come thus far. Sadly, there is much to consider, as the brand new path trod by Anet has many missteps and mishaps along the way.

Rather than talk about individual flaws, I thought it might be best to take a stab at the overall writing style of the Living Story and the narrative flaws it continues to exhibit. Plot holes come and go, individual complaints will always remain, but the best way to help Season 2 is to consider the pitfalls of Season 1 from a writing and gaming perspective. And so, I thought I would offer up a bit of constructive criticism in silly infographic format.

For your consideration, Fifteen Lessons From Fifteen Months of Scarlet Briar.

I have played a lot of thief and must say I am always delighted to find elementalists on the opposing team. In WvW I have run into one or two that I have not been able to kill, but that’s only because they always escape to the safety of their keep first.

People aren’t playing bunkerish eles in pvp, usually valk or berserkers because they need to get something done before they run out of cooldowns. Problem is ele doesn’t have defenses like war or thief or even mesmer if they get focused without giving up dagger offhand (which comprises half their aoe and mobility). Armor of earth is like throwing a wet rag on a bonfire and mist form locks you out of all your skills, and let’s be honest, doesn’t make us curse like we do when a warrior uses endure pain.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been immobilized as ele and frantically cycled all of my cleanses only to die still stuck to the ground. Lightning flash is only half a shadowstep, doesn’t stunbreak or remove condi, yet has almost the same cooldown, and is still one of our best escapes used by a huge number of builds. That shows you how desperate the situation is.

Problem: It’s great for people who have 90 mins to 2+ hrs to spend in one straight session. It’s beyond awful for people who can’t spend that amount of time. Running dredge over and over and over and over again is just unfun.

Solution: Please reduce daily FotM runs to 2 fractals.

I currently have a little over 2 bank tabs full of ascended rings. This is one of the only relatively consistent “rewards” of doing fractals ( not going to address the lack of rewards in general ). This being said…you can not sell them, you can not salvage them, you can not forge them, hell, you cant even give them away. The only reason I havn’t posted about this earlier is because if for some reason ANET decided to make them salvagable im fairly certain they would turn into bloodstone dust, dragonite ore, or imperial fragments. which honestly most people are drowning in anyways. the lack of ability to forge them is annoying as well. my possibly short sighted solution

salvage-
non ascended rings

receive a decent number of ascended materials, +1 infusions, chance at vial of mist essence, glob of mist essence, or shard.

ascended rings

receive a large number of ascended materials, +1 or higher infusions, vial, glob, or shard, and receive a +5 infusion ( for the infusion already applied to the ring )

forge

( just ideas, do share if you have others )
ascended ring, t5 mats, 1 t6, philosopher stones ( for t6 conversion. i know there is already a conversion but i was thinking that this could yield a higher number of t6 )

4 rings non infused – lots of + infusions

2 of the same ring + ecto’s + crystalline dust + philosopher stones = infused ring

infused rings of the same kind will be forged together to pull out one of the +5 infusions.

infused rings could be put in also for a larger number of t6 conversion. similar to the clover x1 vs x10 recipe

selling

at this point…please just open ascended rings up on the tp and let the players decide what they are worth.

or let me merchant them for 1g each for non infused. or have them specifically priced as some rings are horrible anyways…sorry relaynas band.

gifting

i know we will never be able to send these rings to our lower level friends to help them out. but hey…it would be really nice to be able to help people.

I can’t kill an ele as a warrior. When we begin they instantly die and we cannot have a duel :/

I’ve tried to fight them without wearing any amulet and with only 1 weapon, but I experience the same issue. Even If i play traitless.

After restarting my computer and my game the same happens

Can anyone help me?

45g worth of corn cobs for a 20-slot box which would cost you about 10g.

400g worth of nougats for the RECIPE for a 250g staff.

First of all, unless someone was expecting the price of those materials to crash to nothingness, what were they thinking? If they do in fact crash to basically being worth nothing, then what did they expect people to do the events for? Fun running zerging around a bland and empty maze?

Second of all, why isn’t there achievements for the minigame or the clocktower?

It might be helpful for some members of the Anet staff to read this :http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/

It is now more than one year after release and this bug still persists. The elementalist under water skills Rock Blade and Forked Lightning sometimes fail to hit their targets. When the bug strikes

- the projecticles fly straight past the target, usually above them, very closely,
- no “miss” floating text appears,
- if you are not in combat, you do not enter it
- you do not pull a mob that is not in combat, or generate any aggro otherwise,
- both skills are always affected together, i.e. either both work or both don’t.

Steps to reproduce: log in as an elementalist, go under water, attack some mobs with Rock Blade or Forked Lightning. It is nigh impossible to do Daily Aquatic Slayer without encountering this bug several times.

It appears to be completely random when the bug happens. Changing positions generally does not alleviate it. Sometimes it seems that the projectiles start hitting again, but I have not found any pattern as to when they will hit and when they don’t.

The two skills have in common that both shoot three projectiles in a spread pattern, which is what I assume is connected to whatever causes the bug in the first place.

Sorry this might seem like a very small issue, but why on Tyria can we not SORT by armor type (Light, Medium, Heavy) in the trading post ?

It can’t be that hard to add it into the game, i am so sick of having to look through hundreds of pages for armor that my character can’t wear.

Maybe others can add some minor issues that seem like a no brainer that should be in the game ?

Okay, I’m not crying about it. Difficulty increase is good. However this is a full map of people that genuinely tried for 15 minutes. Look where his health is at.

Ok. Now the pro-text notifiers are showing their cards en masse. They want to “play the game instead”, while making sure they have the highest bid out there on any and all products on which they are bidding. What. The. Kitten. This is kittening me off again, and I promised myself to stay away from this toxic mess. You know who use that argument as well, each and every time? Botters. They’d rather create a program for the not-so-fun stuff. So that they can “enjoy the game instead”. Well guess what, you’re not the only ones.

And it’s always the same programmers that enter these threads, too. The persons that created the notifiers.

You, mister programmer/notifier user, have a MAJOR advantage over normal players who (1) presume a notifier is against the TOS + code of conduct (which it is, don’t make me show you again) or (2) don’t know about these programs because, and here is the real deal they shouldn’t have to.

Don’t deny your in-game advantage while stating it in the same thread. Just don’t go there.

From my perspective, a challenge is based on a player observing a pattern, or seeing stimuli/tells, and reacting to it, a challenge tests their reaction timing, their memory, their strategy, and their ability to improvise and recover from mistakes (if the challenge allows for recovery, some are unforgiving), and their dexterity at playing the game.

MOST of Liandri’s fight involves that, there’s strategy in mauvering around the clones, since you can’t just dps her down, there’s a pattern to he AOE’s, quite obviously the unforgiving nature of the fight tests dexterity and reaction time, and that’s all fair good challenge, I wish I could enjoy it.

However I’ve always considered things like low or no visibility, unhelpful UI, poor cameras/angles and RANDOM instant kills to be Artificial difficulty.

Now some people will even say that shadowfall is random and hence artificial difficulty but there is a pattern to it so I will throw that out.

However, I consider the bad camera in the arena (if Liandri spawns a white vortex at the edge of the arena, good luck, you’re going to need it), along with the wire floor making the aoes difficult to see to be artificial difficulty and I ESPECIALLY think that Liandri’s attack that blurrs the entire screen (unless you turn off post processing) to be straight up artificial difficulty and INTENTIONAL artificial difficulty at that.

I do want designers to have a take home message that this is not a good source of challenge, if you pay attention to your players, almost across the board they recommend turning off post processing. You might even consider that cheating (like turning up the gamma in a dark jumping puzzle room, now, dark jp rooms can be legit challenge IF you have a mechanic involved in them to use a torch, or a timed lighting up of the room that is on a distinct pattern, as long as the area is done in such a way that you don’t HAVE to jump while it’s dark but can in fact wait for the pattern to bring the light back).

If players are looking to EXPLOIT a challenge, they’re not finding the challenge fair or fun. Remove the blurred screen attack, it’s pointless to leave in because people turn off their post processing to avoid being affected by it and it is raw artificial difficulty (since it prevents you from seeing something that will instantly kill you, and you can’t just wait it out, you have to act, and act blind).

Personally, I’d also like the arena floors to not be wire, but solid, so the aoe rings show up better, and I’d like the walls of the arena pulled back from the edge of the actual playable area, so tha you can get a decent FoV, either that or make the walls of the arena invisible to players in the arena, so the camera never gets obstructed.