Guild Wars 2

Manasa Devi.7958:

Dreamslayer.7659:

We’re just a few weeks away from the 4th Anniversary and I would like to ask that whatever Anet decides to do, please consider everyone.

The 3rd year gift was a very cool dye selection but it was also not able to be used by many of the most avid dye collectors who already had all the dyes available in the selection.

Many of us held out hope that new dye collections would be added and that we could use the gift in the future, but that has not happened.

I realize that it’s a small percentage of the community, but it was disappointing that many of the players who are most interested and focused on dye collecting found themselves excluded.

Please don’t let that happen again.

Thanks

Some new dyes from those packages would’ve been nice, but the unopened ones I still have in storage would net me almost 2,000 gold if I were to just sell to highest bidder of the most expensive one of the moment. I consider that a very nice present.

You can’t sell them. They’re account bound. Hence the reason they’re worthless for those of us that have all the dyes already.

To answer the question:

Yes, it is a design decision to not give engineers weapon swap. This has primarily to do with balance and can be seen with elementalists as well (though eles have multiple attunements).

In general it has to do with balance as far as availability of skills, complexity of class and utility is concerned. Engineers and elementalists both have multiple ways of gaining access to different weapons skills (attunements for eles, weapon kits for engies for example). Giving them two weapon sets available in battle might create unbalance in previously mentioned areas (and/or make the classes to hard to balance).

Mea.5491:

I actually agree with OP. Ele and Engi CAN change weapons, out of combat. Which means the only thing they take away from them is convenience. It’s silly. Besides, not every Engi uses kits. I would sell my soul to play a Rifle/Hammer Engi with utilities like Rocket Boots, Ram and Elixir C. Screw the meta, that is my dream build but I can’t get it.

It’s not just about ‘convenience’ – Elementalists and Engineers can swap only when they are not engaged with any enemy. If you allow weapon swap, it’s more than just taking away the inconvenience – you’re also doubling the skill choice against the same enemy. Things would have to be seriously nerfed if Elementalists and Engineers were given weapon swap, and I think that would bring about a lot more uproar than is necessary.

As an engineer, I can swap to up to five different “weapons” (though in practice, I usually only use three or so) with no cooldown. The ability to have a second weapon set is fairly unnecessary (especially since our kits are better than our weapons) and would likely require nerfs in other areas.

As such, I would actually prefer to not have a second weapon set.

Asclepios.4295:

… yet another reason why engineers are so poorly regarded at the moment in game (aside from crap dps and mediocre support). I…

Though I personally dislike the engi, I must say I disagree a lot with it having “crap dps and mediocre support”. It’s all about how you play an engi, some suck at it – as me – and others can contribute greatly to a group as both great dps or support.

penelopehannibal.8947:

My ideas for roleplay support are as follows:
• Convert clothing tonics to outfits.

Repeating this until the end of time.

-

I’d love to see more RP support as well (except, y’know, cancelled legendaries…), so some other things to beg for:

• More emotes (Maybe not FF14 level, but we’ve got so few!)
• Butts in seats! We can’t use chairs.
• +1 to shard opt-in/out (I’d like to be able to duck away from cringe-worthy personal RP done in public, honestly.)
• Right-click menus on character names for emotes (as with /say /map, etc), to block those who spam or /emote inappropriate content

As a sample:
Last 7 days: Official Forums, 21 posts. Reddit, 91 posts.

They (development) can say whatever they want about the Official Forums being the ‘highest priority’, but the numbers speak for themselves.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

I think this game would be best with payed LS releases to keep the flow of content steady. As long as there would be a set standard what they must include and clear pricing model on it.

No.

This game was designed and marketed as B2P. The paid expansion was marketed as including ongoing content additions at no additional cost.

Furthermore, ANet doesn’t design to set templates. They iterate (perhaps too much, but that’s a separate debate) until they have something they feel worth releasing, and then they iterate it some more. What would you say they “must include?” One new map? Ok, so you want them to churn out a new map to meet a deadline and still have it well designed and original? That’s just not how the creative process works.

I do feel they’ve been a bit slower to add to the story than one might reasonably expect, and that they have iterated base systems at the cost of enriching and deepening the world lore, but I don’t feel the answer lies in a forced production schedule to make content players have to pay to experience.

Gwilym.4257:

What we see in the management of GW2 over time are developers attempting to learn from their mistakes. No grand plan, success, or failure.

Anet hasn’t learned anything. The only path they’ve chosen is to constantly re-write over what has already been established. They ram square pegs into round holes and cover it in glue hoping nobody cares about the final product. They’ve gone back on their word so many times and made a myriad of small to large changes that have either made no sense within the context of the game or were “solutions” to things that were never even problems to begin with.

While it’s admittedly easy to go about and pick out the individual positive changes made to GW2 since release in 2012, on the whole, the game has taken one step forward and five steps back from its original manifesto, its original spirit and its original roots.

The biggest issue is probably a heavy focus on time-gated grind rather than new content generation. It’s quite honestly offensive.

Galtrix.7369:

Ryou.2398:

EvilTwin.4125:

The original box does say, “No Subscription Fee: Get the game and play. It’s that simple!” (Yes I still have my original box from when I bought it.)

Though there is no subscription fee even now, there is a charge for HoT and every subsequent expansion that comes out. (Assuming there are further expansions.)

So…does that mean ANet went back on its word? Or should we look at it as ANet “saving the game” by making more money off it rather than shutting down from lack of income?

To be honest, I don’t keep up with ANet’s finances. So I don’t know if the game was making money or losing money or what before they decided to do paid expansions. All I know is that I bought a game that was supposed to be buy once, play forever. Except now someone else can get what I got for free, and if they pay once, they get more content than I do.

I don’t think that was the best decision, but without knowing more about the specific reasons prompting it, I’d rather not express too strong an opinion. I’ve got the game I paid for, I’ll be satisfied with that for now.

How do you justify your confusion when it does not say never buy an expansion from us? And no one had to buy the expansion if they really didn not want to, but all it saids is no subscribtion which all of guild wars 1 games said as well and they had tons of expansions and no one complained.

You could of done more research if you really wanted to, if you are the type of person to expect an mmo without an expansion then you would think you would be the type of person to look into the companies game history. Anet still releases free content beyond just living story like any other mmo, but they always had worthy expansions anyways, whats the difference between paying for a 20 hour game for once 60 dollars once or twice a month and buying one expansion since the game has been out which offers far more hours?

Regardless, Anet’s made some pretty poor decisions. Making the core game free for new players was a giant one. Does it allow more people to join without having them pay an arm and a leg? Yes. Does it make the already existing playerbase angry because they feel they were screwed over? Definitely. They added injury to insult when they made the expansion $60. And then they added even more injury by making us pay for an “expansion” with about as much content as a free Rift update.

The difference with GW1 was that the expansions didn’t cost 60 bucks each and nobody felt like they got screwed.

I feel like I was screwed over by the fact that Anet didn’t buy me a new computer to play HoT on.

Nor have they deposited into my retirement fund.

Both complaints every bit as legitimate as feeling screwed over, after having played the game for as much as three years for a single purchase price, when the core game went free to play in order to lower barriers to entry with the addition of an expansion.

Oh, and some people did feel like they got screwed with expansion purchases in GW1.

Anet doesn’t have to communicate. Don’t expect it, no matter how obviously appropriate it would be.

Danikat.8537:

Behellagh.1468:

Well if GW2Efficiency represents a fair sample of players, the median (50% above/below) wallet gold is 115 gold. Even the 4000-4500 hour player median is just under 300 gold.

I think it’s unlikely GW2Efficency is a fair sample of players. You have to sign up to the site to be included, which means it’s mainly going to be people who see acquiring gold and valuable items as one of their goals and want to know how they’re doing at it and they’re likely to have more gold than most people. I’d bet the majority of players haven’t even heard of it, particularly the ones who just log in, play with their friends or solo and never visit the forums or follow the game in other ways.

But that’s the problem with trying to collect this type of data. It’s always going to only include a small sample of people and that sample may not be representative. The same is true of this topic as a whole. Even if everyone on the forum replied that only tells you what the type of people who visit the forum do.

Of course Anet have access to all the data. But they don’t share it with us.

Well 100K accounts isn’t all that small. But onto your point, if GW2Efficiency is used primarily for players who are interested in seeing their wealth, then the “low” amount of wallet gold really shows that 500 gold isn’t a paltry amount.

Ragfell.7594:

Iason Evan.3806:

I am really hoping something legitimately good comes from the skill splits. I have been asking for them since before the game was released. They have a chance to make each area of the game have its own flavor whilst still retaining each skill having the same function. I know that initially they won’t jump into the deep end with this, but they have a real chance of offering players diversity of game play with this. I wish they’d just dive into the deep end with it. It could be something great.

Sadly, the legendary debacle has really tainted my view of this game. Multiple times they have said they were releasing them and they failed. It’s bad enough they were supposed to come in 2013 and not behind an expansion pack paywall, but to put it as a selling point for the x-pac and then drop it after the x-pac was out is just heinous. Customers deserve to be treated better.

I am cool with the lack of communication I guess. They can’t over promise and under deliver. Heck, is the Legendary Armor even in the game yet? Like, can I go get a full set of Legendary armor right now if I owned HoT? How many months has HoT been out?

If you’re going to split skills, give professions back their mechanics. Help balance thief so that it’s viable in sPvP, and nullify the insane amount of powercreep that has grown the past year.

How do you think I feel? I still wanted to play PvP after HoT and they pretty much destroyed any chance I had of doing that by gating the best builds behind elite specs and HoT’s paywall while at the same time saying they wanted to grow esports. The best way to grow esports would have been to balance elite specs in line with core specs so that f2p players, core players, and HoT owners were all on a level playing field. This is precisely why they are being quiet about info. The words they say didn’t match their actions with anything in the hype leading up to HoT.

I agree with you. Heck, I’d take it multiple steps further with the skill splits. I’d make it so different weapon sets were more viable in different formats. Take Elementalist as an example. In WvW, make staff really attractive. Tone it down for sPvP where 95% of the fighting happens in a tiny area and AoE can be really strong. You don’t want staff as strong in sPvP as you would in WvW where the size of the fight area is totally different. Make S/D, D/D, and focus really attractive in PvP or something. Elite specs can be tuned higher in HoT where they can be used by the people that bought them.

I’m not saying there isn’t a chance they implement this poorly, because there is. The type of build diversity I am talking about in the above paragraphs can be applied to all professions. Different weapon sets being strong in different formats would actually make me want to play all the different formats because of the build diversity. It’s supposed to be fun to have a lot of options. As someone who refuses to buy HoT because of the gross market speak and it just doesn’t look fun to me, I am kitten in PvP because of HoT and don’t play it. There are only a handful of core specs on very few classes that can barely tread water next to Elite Specs. That isn’t ArenaNet trying to grow esports with their actions. Their actions are only concerned with the amount of money they are pulling in at the expense of esports.

Where’s the a la carte, PvP only, elite spec purchases? I’d pay $5 each for a few of the elite specs in PvP. I ain’t spending $50 on an x-pac to use the elite specs in PvP when I have zero desire to play anything in HoT. The lack of a la carte elite spec purchases in PvP is a gross oversight on ArenaNet’s part and speaks to larger blind spots they have as a company.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Iason Evan.3806:

It’s bad enough they were supposed to come in 2013

I challenge you to find ANY dev post that specifically states as fact that anything related to legendaries was supposed to arrive in 2013. Do you mean precursor crafting? Pretty sure they said something along the lines of “if kitten doesnt happen and/or change, precursor crafting might be out by the end of the year.” And guess what? kitten DID happen and/or change and those plans changed along with them.

How are there people who still see statements of potential possibilities (“this may or may not happen at some point”) and somehow twist it so hard in their head it comes out as an inviolable Word Of God Fact (“this WILL happen by the end of the year”)?

You mean like this:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/

“On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013”

If Chris Farley could do cartwheels, I can suspend my disbelief enough that a fat man with a giant sword in a magical fantasy realm could kick monster tush.

Thelgar.7214:

Fat-bottomed charrs you make the world vs. world go round…

This made my morning. Thank you~

Haha @ people arguing physiology in a fantasy game where, for example, a tiny Asura can wield a massive two handed hammer and smash a giant. Forum PvP because reasons.

WORLD VS. WORLD
General

Added a new reward track that contains Tribal, Stalwart, and Apostle armor skins.

This has been such a popular request for so long, I figured I should call it out for anyone who doesn’t read the update notes, or doesn’t look at the massive Tribal Armor thread.

THE PROMISED DAY HAS COME AT LAST?

Edit: Khani says they’re available in PvP as well!

If we wanted raids, we would have played something raid focused, if we wanted esports, we would go to a moba.

If we wanted to play something casual with a good lore then this was the game……was.

1) There is no need to get HoT until you get to level 80. You might want to get it before completing everything in the base game because it includes mastery tracks that have to be trained by getting experience points in the base game, so any experience you get from level 80 onwards can contribute to those.

There’s no cap on total experience points you can get, but you don’t seem keen on grind and this reduces the risk that you’ll have to repeat content to get them.

2) You’d have everything except Season 2 of the Living Story, which is a kind of introduction to Heart of Thorns. You can play the expansion without it but the story will make more sense if you’ve done it. It can be purchased in-game for 200 gems per episode or there’s a complete pack for 20% less. (You’ve also missed Season 1 but that was temporary so it’s not available any more, unfortunately.)

All the other in-game purchases are novelty or convenience items (like outfits for your character or extra inventory space), no actual content.

3) Any class can work solo and there’s a lot of debate on which are best/easiest to play/can complete maps fastest etc. My advice is to go with one you find fun because you’re hopefully going to be spending a lot of time playing them.

4) I don’t think anyone could tell you exactly in hours as it depends a lot on how you play. I think it took me around 100 hours the first time but I spent a huge amount of time doing things that didn’t contribute at all to levelling up or were terribly inefficient (like spending 2 hours trying to complete 1 jumping puzzle).

One thing I can say for sure is it’d be impossible to complete everything in the core game without reaching level 80. I think even if you just explored the open-world maps you’d hit 80 before you finished. Add in the story, possibly dungeons, crafting, gathering materials and all the other things that give XP and you really don’t need to worry. My most recent level 80 has just 33% map completion and has done at least 1 full map after reaching max level.

Also just so you’re aware grinding kills is never a sensible option in this game. It’s actually actively discouraged – kill too many enemies in the same small area and you’ll stop getting XP or items. When people talk about grinding in this game they’re usually referring to things like running dungeons or doing huge map-wide event chains in places like The Silverwastes multiple times in a row. Grinding in the conventional sense just doesn’t happen.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Seera.5916:

The problem isn’t for those that get tickets and scraps. The problem is the people who don’t who want these skins. This decision hurts them.

Really, I understand that it looks frustrating from the get go, and you might think you will never get one. But in the long run this is just nonsense, and it’s not impossible to put in some effort and get these skins regardless of not wanting to spend money.

So it takes a bit more effort than usual, and those who invest money can get it much faster.
It’s like complaining about ascended weapons being account bound. Or HoT Legendaries.

And that all is on top of it being something that is supposed to generate money for ArenaNet either way, and reward those that actually do spend money to get some more reward for their money, if they wish to do so. Which isn’t a bad thing.

It’s basically complaining you don’t want this game to have any further development.

When they did they put everything in the store in the chests? I can and do buy gems for things like glide skins and account upgrades and style kits. But I do not buy keys. I do not support the chests being opened by keys purchased with money do the high chances of not getting anything worthwhile out of it. And the fact that they’ve stuck a skin in there that can only be obtained via openning those chests with a horrendous drop table is deplorable and may affect my desire to buy gems with money in the future. I’m already not going to get those skins even though I have the tickets to get all of the ones I want.

I can still support the game without buying keys, so stop talking like my anger over this and my decision to not buy keys means I will not support the game via gem purchases.

SarahWitter.2317:

After all, by buying chests, you’re supporting the creation of the content that everyone plays.

I will gladly support a game I enjoy, but I will never support the gambling boxes that are black lion chests. If you sold these weapons as weapon set skin packs, I would be gladly spend some money on it. But I will never buy keys. This whole buying a key for a “chance to get something you want” is a farce and is not something I will put money on.

Either sell the items straight out or put it in game, but I have had enough of this gambling business. Its not fun, majority of people that I have talked to hate it or believe it is some sort of “necessary evil” (which is total BS). From what I have seen, it is the most disliked thing about this game. If not for someone else, it is for me.

I have supported the game in other ways, but it has never been through buying keys and it never will.

Forsaken.4215:

Yeah I get what you mean but no, all heavys are heavy.
5 warriors vs 5 necros…. 5 wars win just because perfect condi clear and more defence. xo

Make that 2 tempests, 1 reaper 2 chronos vs any combination of warriors, dh and revs. Then those heavies will find themselves in a very different situation.

I’m sorry, but you can be a casual player and still be competitive in your play. You can approach the game as a game, and realize that winning or losing doesn’t really matter in the grande scheme of things. Winning is nice, we all want to win, but people need to understand that it is not the end of the world. If people think that is the wrong attitude to have, the wrong way to look at it, then they are the ones that are wrong. Not us.

I understand that people are going to get frustrated, and they are going to spout off; however, that doesn’t mean we have to accept poor sportsmanship from our teammates. Especially to the extent that some people take it.

Relating toxicity to leagues is naive. Toxicity happens a lot in hotjoin, I’ve been playing more than 4k games there, so I know. People insult you for whatever reason: winning, losing, playing condition, not playing condition, playing conquest, not playing conquest, +1ing, running from 1v2, and so on…

The reality is super simple. People feel entitled to be toxic because there are no consequences – not even social consequences, as you’re anonymous. As for why they don’t feel the need to respect other people, you can easily find out many reasons: arrogance, immaturity, inability to deal with frustration, to self-reflect…

It’s not even a decay of moral values, it’s just that some people cannot help hating, and that’s enough to trigger chain reactions.

Casuals seem to be a scapegoat for toxicity of this thread. Toxicity is the fault of the toxic people or persons.

In every team game, all the players are going to be salty if individual teammates are getting dumpstered due to poor connection, bad builds, talking on the phone, screaming kids/parents in the background, you name it.

I’m guilty of being salty @ bad teammates, but as per the unspoken internet code of conduct, don’t start verbally abusing people in GW2 team chat. If you do, you’re at fault.

Instead of alienating a significant player demographic by simply denying them the PvP Achievements/League progress, I suggest a positive sportsmanship program, and the ability to meaningfully rate players on their sportsmanship, (or toxicity) in a way that incentivizes shutting the hell up instead of expressing how crap your teammates are compared to you.

Toss in some serious reward track progress boosts for a clean bill of sportsmanship, and you have a happier playerbase.

Ohhhh a cyber bully/verbal abuser post trying to justify why they have the right to verbally abuse people , NICE. This kinda reminds me of the show COPS while the dude gets arrested and hand cuffed hes talking the whole time trying to explain why he did what he did and how he was justified in committing the crime and shouldn’t be arrested for it, and should be allowed to commit crimes without any consequences grabs pop corn Carry on.

Yeah nice try.
The reason why people behave like cave men is that they can. What is the worst that can happen? 3days time out? 6 months? As long as people have free tries on hating, flaming or death wishes\threats nothing will change. I just killed a 3k AP ranger with my axe auto and he just walked away not dodgeing but after dieing it startet spouting insults and death wishes.
The only thing that will help is perma ban at first offene. No second chances. If you are doing it once chances are that you are morally corrupted enough to do it again. In my country attacking a child of 12 years with death threats is not something to be laughed about. This game is for children of 12 years. I really have to wonder who in their right mind to still Quote the sticks and stones BS. It is sick that this goes under “not so Bad as buying gold” and these people remain. Oh block you say?
As far as the pvp forum goes i read so far that blocking is for special snowflake kitten? Right.
No, you can try to explain and describe or seek for scapegoats all you want. Anti social behavior like this has its root in the people that hate post. And as long as you let this cancer untouched, it will spread and grow.