Guild Wars 2

People really need to stop buying black lion keys. Maybe then we will get to just buy the weapons instead.

Well to be fair, you need some visual tell of what you’re doing. Either they redesign the engineer so that it’s toolkits are on the arms/hands or it stays as it is.

A neat little thing for engineers would be to allow each tool kit to be customised to some degree. Perhaps a couple of theme’s like basic/modern/plantlike/steampunk/etc.
Even dyeable would be great. They are part of the core of the profession after all.

Erasculio.2914:

Sting.6879:

What does a Thief have?

GW2 has thieves because the “rogue” archetype is common in MMORPGs and ArenaNet wanted to cater to players who enjoy it. But the “rogue” archetype is the ganker – the player who jumps from stealth and does burst damage to quickly kill a character who was just moving around, typically in non consensual PvP, and then runs away as fast as possible. This concept does not lend itself to PvE very well – just take a look at the massive failure that was the same archetype in the original Guild Wars, as the Assassins.

Thieves are suited the most for WvW, and a bit for sPvP. For PvE, the archetype is simply not valuable. Which means, dungeon groups will never seek thieves unless ArenaNet gives the profession something completely apart from its main archetype.

This archetype can lend itself very well to PvE. For some reason ANet has a difficult time implementing it though.

Many games have stealth/rogue type options for the main character in a PvE RPG environment. A couple of examples are Fallout 3 and Deus Ex Machina. I assume Assassin’s Creed falls into this as well, but I never got into that franchise. In both Fallout 3 and Deus Ex Machina, I went through the entire story while being stealthy. Choosing to circumvent my enemies rather than outright killing them.

Ideas for how they can help this out in PvE? Make it so stealth does not make you invisible, but simply reduces your area that you will agro a mob. That means that you do not simply stealth and charge through, you stealth and actually sneak around. Then add in parts in dungeons that take advantage of this mechanic, where a thief could actually help a group by pass a group of trash mobs by sneaking by and accessing some sort of panel that lets the group by.

morrolan.9608:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Copy/paste all (all) armor skins from GW1.

Please.

I honestly don’t know why they don’t do this. Seems like a no brainer even add them to the gem store.

And make a bunch of human only armor?…

It’s not as easy to just copy and paste the models… first they need to upgrade them a bit or they’d look out of place alongside GW2 models, then tweak the models so they work with all the different body types you can create characters with in GW2 instead of the much more limited ones in GW1… and that’s only to make them fit humans, they’d have to re-create each skin for charr and asura, assuming they can get away with just scaling them for norn and sylvari (which I have to say, at least male norn have very different body types available than humans do).

Traveller.7496:

Kilandros.2098:

You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.

Legitimate reasons in this case being that they have estimated that it makes them more money than selling them separately in the gemstore, hence, my original point about greed.

I do admit though that I am not perhaps being as objective here as I would usually be, mostly because I have failed in the randomness challenge to get myself the skins I wanted for the last few events. And now, I really, really, want that rapier, since it’s the weapon of choice for my mesmer, has been even before the game launched. I’m so disheartened to have it locked behind a wall of randomness and spending real money that I’m very bitter about it, and I can admit it. I guess my only chance is that if they are indeed tradeable, I can at least try to farm some gold and buy one in the TP (can we get confirmation on this?).

you are still missing the logical part in your thinking. you will get stuff in chests to outright get the skins you want. the skins will also be purchase-able on the TP because players can sell them, and you can get them from the aetherblade horde mode thing. you can also get them from old school RNG. They keep refining their system and I for one think that it keeps heading in a better and better direction.

Need swimshorts, goggles, shoulder towel, sandals and a shell necklace that can be skinned over pants, helm, shoulders, boots and torso armor.

Anyone who bad mouths or insults someone else for playing the game as intended (and no one can honestly say that artificially keep events going longer is as intended), should be banned.

Not for doing the activity…but for insulting players trying to play the game.

It’s like keg brawl, when people are passing the keg back and forth to get achievement points. You know, I don’t care that they do it. I don’t even care that people farm the event.

But the moment people start insulting or badmouthing or being rude to people who are playing the intended game, they’re crossed a line.

A 72 hour ban should sort them out.

There’s no reason to be rude in the first place.

I’m in Sorrow’s Furnace, and whilst the Early maps aren’t full of people, it’s not a ghost town either.

I do enjoy SF thoroughly, yesterday, out of sheer boredom is all I can think of, my server decided to form a huge zerk in LA and head over to Southsun Cove to spawn the Karka Queen not once, not twice, but three times in a row. It was hilarious xD

The dungeon was awesome.

I call this work: “The zerg went that-a-way!”

Engi

Swiss Army knife

Lord Kuru.3685:

Latorn.4209:

Lord Kuru.3685:

That’s why Anet should follow the Magic: the Gathering model (Type II/Standard) where skills expire as new ones are added. Thus there is always the same number of skills in the game making it easier to balance while the game stays fresh as new skills are routinely added.

Moreover, this system allows Anet to be more bold in introducing new and interesting mechanics since they’ll all expire in time anyway so damage to the game from such experimentation is limited.

As it is, Anet already can’t handle balance with the traits and skills we have now, there’s no way they’ll be able to balance with more traits and more skills. It seems Anet learned absolutely nothing from their experience with GW1.

You want SKILLS to be temporary content now? We’re talking about SKILLSSSSS a core feature of the game? Could it get more controversial than this? Just wait ‘til all the players come whining to the forums about being upset that they couldn’t play when skill “so and so” was active and their class was OP. >.<

LOL… good point. If this had been implemented in game when it first came out there would be less resistance. Nevertheless, despite the inevitable rage, I feel it’s still the way to go; adding more and more skills is just asking for an unbalanceable situation no matter how skilled Anet is at balancing.

Imagine for a moment that there’s not enough skills in the game atm for proper balancing to be possible. Imagine that adding skills may be the solution here, whereas in GW1 it was the cause for imbalance. Imagine you might be wrong.

Especially in case of elites. With only 3 elites per profession, achieving balance is not possible, since build diversity is reduced to nothingness. Engineers de facto only have 1 elite. Other professions might as well have none. Adding 5 elites per profession would improve balance instead of reducing it. By adding a good number of utilities too, a real meta could develop which auto-balances as skill use shifts.

Without increase in the amount of skill, balance will not happen in GW2. That’s the current situation and it’s blatantly obvious to those who played GW1.

Galtrix.7369:

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Bla Bla Bla, my class sucks.

I have all professions with all skills unlocked. How do you know that the game will be more unbalanced with new skills? How do you know they wont continue balancing the skills? Because you dont like the latest patch?

We dont know that but we know one thing, having a choice is better than none. More skills = more builds for both PvE and PvP. Hell, engineers only get to use one elite skill. How long do you want to keep it that way? Give it a chance!

We know because this happened in Guild Wars 1 and they’re trying the exact same thing in Guild Wars 2: adding more skills. That’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. The results will be the same as they were in guild wars 1 and all classes will be even more unbalanced because of it.

Lol, someone plays Far Cry 3 :p

To be honest, ANet might be doing something similar, but that doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same. We can still hope that some of the new skills will serve to balance out some of the less useful ones now. What if they make it so they form new and interesting combo fields, for instance. So using one skill that was previously uninteresting in combination with a new one they add suddenly creates something amazing.

We’ll never be able to start judging this process properly until we see what they add and how they go about adding it. I, personally, don’t find that my ranger performs any worse than it did prior to this last big patch – but then I PvE only, so maybe that’s why. I’m not saying people who DO notice a difference are wrong, but I’m also saying that for some, the difference is negligible. You can’t please everyone.

Until we get a flavour of the new skills being added, we should maybe reserve absolute judgement about it. We can be wary, excited, interested, a combination of any of these, but we can’t make absolute statements.

As Morrigan said it might be better for sanity’s sake not to have any ‘gifts’. Anyway I did not play GW1 so there is absolutely no baggage that something needs to be given on character anniversary, though it would be nice whatever the gift is if there actually is a gift. Maybe it will be a horse so you can look it in the mouth?

I want a back piece that looks like my character. Like a full-sized mannequin strapped to his back. Only it keeps its knees tucked up against its chest, until I press the S button to back up, when it drops its legs and the main guy on the front pulls his legs up, and all animations shift over to the back piece.

This is an appreciation thread for getting the kites. Please try not to contaminate it with lack of appreciation banter. There are already other threads for the “but it’s not fair because I didn’t get one” crowd.

As the title says, I feel utterly spoiled, showered with gifts in this game! Truly awesome stuff and all that after getting so much free content as well! This game is reward enough for me, but you guys are the most generous gaming company i know of.
Thank you so much!

There are some awesome ideas in this thread. My ONLY request with regards to bringing in lore heavy LS additions is that the vital parts to it, like the discovering of a new continent or travelling to Cantha/Elona, are made permanent additions to the world, so newer players will be able to make a seamless transition. Otherwise it will seem pretty awkward for them, and they’d have a huge gap in the lore.

Someone needs to invent a time machine, then spend the rest of his life going back in time to smack parents with a wet noodle and teach them how to raise civilized children.

When given a gift, you say “thank you,” whether you want the gift or not. It’s called being polite and it’s pretty much the only thing that keeps the civilized world from tearing itself apart.

You DO NOT say “what a rotten gift, I hate the color, it’s the wrong size, why not just give me the money you spent so I can get something I actually want instead…”

The amount of complaining about FREE GIFTS lately is just disgusting.

This was a very nice and unexpected gift, Anet. Thanks! I really respond to and appreciate gestures like this. It was nice to show your appreciation for the loyalty of your customers.

Unfortunately there are always those who can think of nothing but themselves. It’s sad, really. Anet thought it was a nice gesture to give some people who recently spent money to support their game a gift. A useless, yet fun, gift. But some people are worried that if this becomes a trend they might miss out on something they think is really cool? How selfish can you get? Nevermind that this kite will be available in the gem store where you could gasp spend some real money to buy it, it’s just astonishing how some people here can really be that selfish.

Anet, thank you. I hope you ignore people that are actually turning this into anything but a nice thing you didn’t have to do for some of your customers.

…it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee

I dunno, I think the game lives up to this statement really well. I’m not being a fanboy here, just saying, I log in and play and it’s fun. I don’t have to LFG to do some terrible dungeon for the 500th time to get the newest armor tier with the best stats so that I can one day do the next dungeon that comes out. I can wear my exotic gear that I got without grinding to play any part of the game, any way I want, at any time.

Just my perspective.

I once wrote a dissertation about motivational theories and how they can be applied in the context of e-learning software.

There are different things that motivate people. There are intrinsic motivators (meaning the motivation comes from within you) and extrinsic motivators (someone else gives you a reward).

Different personality types respond to different motivators. As a general rule, introverts are more likely to respond to intrinsic motivators and extroverts are more likely to respond to extrinsic motivators, but it is fairly mixed and individual.

Bottom line: for some people, reward completion is what motivates them to play, and other players find their motivation in other aspects of the game. Guildwars 2 offers a lot of different things so various personality types ALL get hooked and keep playing.

Take one of those motivators away, and you will drive some of the gaming population away.

There is no universal truth – there is no “good motivators” and “bad motivators”.

The fact that you don’t feel you need to achieve achievement completion doesn’t mean you’re right, or better at gaming, or life. It just means that your brain is differently wired.

I hope that explains it, at least a little bit.

Thinking over some of the points posters have made about the evolution of the game, I’m convinced I’ve been the victim of bait and switch tactics. I’ve received a better MMO than the one I thought I was buying.

:P

Milennin.4825:

Living Story is OK, but generally not enough to pull me back in. Been on a break for a while now. Checking on the news from time to time, but really kind of waiting for that big update that does a lot of stuff at once, such as:

-Continuation of the Personal Story with a focus on an important piece of lore (the Six Gods, Elder Dragons, Mursaat, Canthan/Elonian stuff).
-New areas that are meaningful, permanent additions, instead of temporary filler material that we get with Living Story
-A set of new armours that we can get by playing the game instead of paying real moneys.
-A huge skill split between PvE and PvP to fix problems in higher end PvE content.
-A massive overhaul of all current dungeons.
-New dungeons (Underworld, Fissure of Woe, Realm of Torment).

At the moment I feel that PvE is in such a bad state that it’s simply not worth playing at the moment, which is a kitten shame, because I want to like this game. Half of the professions are so bad off they might as well not even exist when it comes to dungeon content, only due to constant balancing around PvP. Living Story feels meaningless because it’s temporary, and doesn’t focus on big established lore points.
None of this is going to get fixed with Living Story, this is why I’d much rather see an expansion coming out.

I thought Id point a few things out.

On your first issue.

The Living Story has touched on and set the groundwork for exploring at least two of your listed lore interests.

- The character Marjory Deliqua was introduced last month, who’s personal story ties to investigating the corruption in DR. Since theres a strong chance that that said corruption in the Ministry is linked to the White Mantle, that potentially leads on to the Mursaat.

- The Zephyrites are a group that seems to have originated as the evolution of the dwarven Brotherhood of the Dragon from GW1 that worshipped Glint, former champion of Kralkatorik that switched sides long ago. Glint established that order to guard her ‘heritage’ which could either mean her knowledge, her child (a dragon) or both. It’s highly likely that the story of the EDs and secrets such as what the EDs actually are and how they came about could be tied to the future of this organisation when it turns up later.

Its also worth noting that most Zephyrites are of Canthan or Elonian decent and the Zephyr Sanctum has quite possibly been to both these places since they avoid the dragons’ minions by flying over them.

The second point is about the dungeons, new zones and other big addons and changes. Arenanet in their slew of interviews last week said numerous times that they intended to do all these things with the Living Story so many of the issues you have listed COULD be fixed with the Living Story.

I agree with several points but disagree that the framework of the Living Story cant be used to fix them. Arenanet as already stated that they intend to start adding more perminant additions to the game. Game development takes time as do changes. They have clearly heard the concerns of people about lack of perminant content and the ability of people to join into the Living Story after its already started. Im inclined to wait and see what they actually do about it before doubting them right of the bat.

nethykins.7986:

Surely being able to choose is a positive not a negative.

Freedom of choice is something we deal with everyday. Unless all that stuff is flooded upon a player, that’s the only time when frustration will arise. It’s happened many times in both MMO’s and Single player games. Often even a simple tutorial goes a little overboard and spouts everything at you at once, or sometimes they don’t ease you in at all.

If that person were really agitated about choice, I’d be surprised they didn’t constantly get nosebleeds from thinking too hard trying to pick which cereal to buy at the local supermarket.

The problem is, the method of delivery is catering to those who speed through content anyway. They often get through it in a few days, get the rewards, then go play a different game until the next event, but because its mainly temp stuff, those who don’t play like that will have a harder time seeing much of it if anything.

It can be both especially considering this is an MMO so I also depend on other people making the same choice as me. Lets assume all content was let in permanently. Okey great I can choose to play the lunatic inquisition today perfect but if no one else does that same choice at the same moment I made that choice what benefit was there in the ability to choose? Taking away choice can mitigate that to a degree. All themepark MMOs do this, generally its seemless because of power creep but they have to do it. You have a limited number of players and a lot of choices you’re bound to end up alone now and then and thats a problem.

I disagree, these updates arent targeted at speed runners at all. quite the opposite. The lighting of effigies, the holo emitters, the kites, the caches, they’re all stuff you can just login play just 15 mins and get something out of it by just walking around anywhere in the world. of course speed runners are going to speed run and they’re going to achieve more then that casual player but thats the nature of being a speed runner no matter what content they release the speed runner is always going to get an edge.

However I dont think this is about how much you get to complete. I can log on for just 5 minutes this month and spend those 5 minutes looking around admiring the Labyrinthine Cliffs. Wouldnt I still enjoy those 5 minutes just because in that amount of time I didnt get to complete anything? I still think the main issue here is people are making the game about the reward. First and foremost it should be about a game to enjoy. Reward is what comes from playing that game. The great thing about this is no matter when you log in, no matter for how long there is something for you to do. If you speed ran through it and got it done in a couple of days you’d have only hurt yourself.

Sum
55 Laurels
80 Gold
800 Gems
7 Unique Zenith Weapon Skins
3 Radiant and/or Hellfire Armor Skins
9 Achievement Chests
8 Large Achievement Chests
2 Heavy Achievement Chests
2 Massive Achievement Chests
+6% Magic find
+6% Gold
+8% Karma
+12% XP

Achievement chest
1 Copper coin
100 Badges of Honor
1 Blueprint (randomly selected)
2 Boosters (randomly selected)
1 Gem Shop item (randomly selected from those awarded for Daily)
1 Jug of Liquid Karma
5 Mystic Forge Stones
1 PvP Achievement Rewards, a container with six skins for PvP equipment.

Large Achievement Chest
200 Badges of Honor
Box o’ Fun
4 Boosters (randomly selected)
2 blueprints (randomly selected), including superior versions and traps
2 Gem Shop items (randomly selected from those awarded for Daily)
2 Jugs of Liquid Karma
10 Mystic Forge Stones
1 PvP Achievement Rewards, a container with six skins for PvP equipment.

Yes, extremely disappointing…

GTFO of my game.