Guild Wars 2

People please, put down those torches and pitchforks.

I just wanted to say that I’m impressed at how successful the Living World team was at accomplishing their goal with Scarlet thus far. From what I remember, the initial goal with our “personal rival” was to make a character that the players hated, like deeply hated, and felt the need to rise up against her. This has been sitting in my mind with each update, and everytime she dips her grubby little twigs into the lore I remember they wanted us to hate her. It makes me look back on the past many months of Living Story and kinda chuckle how us players, as a community, all came together to hate such an abomination of character presentation.

Most likely this was the ironic way of achieving this (rather than an actually fleshed out and solid villain), but it still makes me smile how it got the job done. I do believe everyone here is excited to see her story put to an end; which is exactly what the goal was.

Has anyone else shared these thoughts?

I guess ANET decided 2014 will be the year of teaser videos instead of preview pages.

Hey a-net, I think it is awesome you have designed a weapon for aging people with poor eye and is sight suitable for those who have response times of 15ms. But for us younger at heart people I think it is kinda obvious hammer is slow. Really-really slow. Terribly slow. Painfully slow. Can’t even effectively deal with a thief who chooses to use stealth more than once slow. Agonizing slow to stay on top of a warrior slow. Eye gouging slow to stay on top of necro that isn’t using their 25% movement increase signet that is also 3/4 dead, crippled, chilled and immobilized slow. I started using my hammer guardian in a map when you initially thought of skyhammer..so far i am almost about to center kinda slow.

In PvP where the point of focus changes fast, having a 2 second symbol that gives 3 seconds of protection isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I know you guys kinda that it is really good skill and so totally awesome that a 2 second symbol that damages about as much as fresh air does and that gives me protection for 2 auto attacks justifiably deserves some sorta obvious counter play. Really slow obvious counter play. Highly skilled, obvious counter play that involves just stepping to the side a little bit to avoid..even when your chilled and making coffee you still having a significantly large window to avoid.

People flock to warrior because, if you haven’t noticed..guardian is really slow..painfully slow. Horrendously slow..glacier slow..Many guardians would be happy if the damage stayed the same on hammer, even if you reduce some of the symbols by a second and shaved 0.5 seconds off the secondary prot’s some of the skills create for the sake that their weapon skill are hasten by 0.25-0.5 seconds.

Your reducing crit dmg to make other professions seem more in line damage..how bout actually making the only other heavy profession that can play melee not look like a slow moving avalanche. Yes-yes I know the counter argument about all of their terribly slow really defensive skills…but my argument is play hammer/staff for a month every day. I will take a newb to thief sword/dagger and let them play for a month..then you 2 duel for a 2 hours and tell me that was fun…it is was, it was probably really slow fun. Painfully slow fun…

You have your mindsets, but this is 2014. A lot of your new edition players have been through unreal tournament, counter strike, dark souls, street fighter..we’re kinda use to modern games moving at a certain speed. Hammer guardian feels like i am playing ice wind dale and waiting for my turn again. It is just too overly dramatically slow in small engagements and especially in 1 vs 1 situations. It seriously needs love.

Yours faithfully,
Love,
Every hammer guardian that has ever played spvp

.. but I’ve found I’ve already gotten bored and moved back to doing other things. And that never usually happens for me with LW content.

I like the idea of a challenging boss that requires a lot of coordination from a group.. it is an MMO after all. But these events just aren’t fun to participate in after trying them a few times:
- Too much waiting around.
- Too much annoyance trying to get a party into an OF that actually has a decent number of players in it.
- Too much failure.
- Too little reward when you fail.

I’m glad they don’t give out oodles of drops for each kill, as that would just encourage farming rather than trying to beat the event. But spending an hour and getting almost nothing for the effort stinks. And while I felt we should wait a bit before passing judgment on the difficulty, I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that these are too difficult for most people to be able to participate in a team that actually beats them.

I hope this doesn’t become yet another example of what’s all too common in MMOs: great content that clearly took a lot of time and effort to make, that gets ignored by most players because it needs to be tweaked but isn’t.

PHASE 2- Arena style fight. It’s the more difficult of the two phases. Your lane will get the chance to enter phase two in sequential order(i.e. Lane 1 first, Lane 5 last). Once its your lanes turn a 30 second timer will begin, ones times up the gate/portal will turn green then you may enter. Mobs will despawn so ignore them. Once the timer is at 5 seconds everyone should be at gate. Don’t let any champions in while you are waiting for the timer to end,they do count against you!

Arena Explained- Your lane will be split up into 5 separate groups in a circular arena.Since your lane should have 20-25 people that allows for 4-5 people in each arena which is also highly recommended. You will have 2 minutes to complete you objective(Its starts immediately after the 30 second timer).You are to kill your champion and once it is dead destroy the power node. There are 5 different champions.Each champion has different tactics to fight which i will explain later.Each lane will fight they’re own version of the champion, if the lane fails the champion will carry over to next lane. Always communicate and inform the next lane which champion they are up against if you fail.

Champions Explained-

Twisted Marionette will do special attacks defined by the champion you are fighting.ALWAYS avoid her attacks as they do high damage. They will show AoE markers and most attacks will always be in the same spot!

Champion 1- This champion can only be damaged from behind and summons twisted reavers. There will be a marker on the floor pointing which direction it is facing. This is easy as whoever he is after to just kite/evade him while others take him down from behind. Twisted Marionette will use a stomp attack.

Champion 2- This champion is a typical kiting fight. It will do a spinning attack which will knockback and do high damage.It is invulnerable while spinning to damage and conditions.While it is spinning it will drop mines which you have to kite it into to stun him, its vulnerability will drop for approx. 7-10 seconds which then your group should DPS him like crazy! Twisted marionette will do a high kick attack.

Champion 3- This champion is a evasion fight as it will drop bombs which you have to be quick to evade, the bombs can 1 shot a player. Twisted Marionette will use a lightning attack which will add more AoE for you to dodge. Beware its stomp attack.Vigor will help!

Champion 4- This champion is a confusion fight. It will shriek which you should evade. If you get hit by shriek stop attacking ( beware auto attack) and wait for confusion to clear. Confusion will burn you down! It also shoots homing missles which should be evaded when possible, shriek is priority evade though. Twisted Marionette will use a sword attack.

Champion 5- This champion is a DPS race. It splits into two of itself when killed,it will split multiple times. It is best to ball them up and AoE them down quick. Twisted Marionette will use a scream attack.

Phase 2 Conclusion- All 5 groups must kill their champion and destroy power node to sever the chain. Assuming that not one mobs makes it through gate in phase 1 you are allowed 5 failed attempts to sever the chain. From personal experience it is typically around 3 allowed failures. If the lane before you fails you will face its champion. Keep track of which champion you are on. Once you exit phase 2 you will have a 6 minute debuff blocking you from entering another portal. Each lane takes approx. 3 minutes which means you can enter a portal that is two lanes infornt of you to help out(i.e. Land 1 can enter Lane 4). You still must defend the portal after you have exited Phase 2.

TIPS & TRICKS-
- People from 2 lanes previous can go 2 lanes forward and help with Phase 2.This way sickness will be up to enter your own lane.(i.e. Lane 4 can help Lane 1 and the debuff will be gone in time to enter their own portal)

-Elementalists Ice Bow is great for this

-Slot a revive skill to revive a downed ally in Phase 2 safely.

-High DPS build is reccomended

-Do not completly ditch survivability for DPS-

-If a mob makes it to gate in phase one you still have approx. 3-5 seconds to kill it before it enters

-Lower graphics settings to help/prevent lag

-Pay attention to chat!!

-If pre event stacking on a commander in your lane allows them to easily keep track of how many are each lane

- Dont be stubborn, go to lanes if the need people

- When assisting other lanes be sure to not abandon your own lane.No more than 5 should leave

-Before you enter Phase 2 stack might.WvW’ers should know exactly how to do this!

I will periodically update this guide.Any problems or new information please let me know.Trying to get this out quick,please inform me of any errors!!I will do my best to answer any questions!

Hey guys! I re-did Arah’s story mode the other day, and I was rather disappointed with the ‘grand finale’ to the character’s personal story. The dungeon itself is fine, but the fight with Zhaitan feels rather unengaging and simple, considering he’s the final boss. I understand this is a 5 man story instance, so it can’t be made too difficult – but at the same time, this is the game’s finale – this isn’t a dragon lieutenant, but an actual elder dragon, who single-handedly raised an entire nation from the ocean and constructed an endless army of undead. Killing this beast should be a challenge, and feel like a real achievement! Instead of just sitting there, smooshing the same undead we do in Orr and occasionally firing a cannon at Zhaitan, I propose a few changes.

Instead of forcing Zhaitan to clutch to a pillar in the sky, the Pact Megalazer forces the elder dragon to retreat to his lair within Arah – the throne room of the human Gods. The Pact follows him in pursuit, and players disembark from the airship to finish Zhaitan off. The throne room could have statues of the human Gods all around, and communing with these statues would give the player powerful buffs, each of which would help counter Zhaitan in a different way. For example, Balthazar could cause every attack the player launches to create a violent explosion in an AoE, allowing you to clear out his risen minions. Melandru could stun Zhaitan for a brief period of time, the idea of life clashing with death. These statues can only be communed with every couple of minutes though, and only one player can have a God’s buff at any given time, so some co-ordination with the team is required.

When it comes to Zhaitan’s attacks, I thought it’d be cool to have some really powerful, over-the-top style attacks that can devastate unprepared players, but can be all but negated by using the correct God buff. Here are some ideas.
- Death’s Caress: Zhaitan corrupts a player’s mind by overwhelming them with death magic, causing the player to stop attacking and walk harmlessly towards him. If the player reaches Zhaitan, they are consumed, killing them instantly and restoring a small amount of Zhaitan’s health. This attack has a windup where Zhaitan raises up on his hind legs and slowly glances around the map, eyeing players. This attack can be interrupted by stunning Zhaitan. (Zhaitan can be stunned by communing with the Statue of Melandru.)
- Unholy Covenant: Zhaitan slams his stomach into the ground, doing moderate AoE damage, and high damage to players directly beneath them. Upon rising again, massive hoardes of undead (trash mobs) will fall from the dragon’s belly.
– Feast On The Dammed: After using Unholy Covenant, Zhaitan will consume the undead he has spawned, regaining a portion of his health for each entity consumed. This attack can hit players, and will kill them instantly if it does. This attack has a windup of ~5 seconds, during which time Zhaitan will salivate acid around his body, giving players a chance to back off.
- Fury of The Ancients: Zhaitan charges between each player in the area, doing a large amount of damage to them on-hit, knocking them back and applying poison and weakness for a moderate duration (10 seconds sound good?) During the rampage, Zhaitan takes double damage from confusion and torment. (Maybe Lyssa’s statue could allow a player to apply stacks of confusion and torment on-hit?)
- Fresh Meat (Passive): Upon killing a player, Zhaitan spawns a champion risen at their location based on the player’s chosen class (EG, if a Guardian dies, a Champion Sentinel will spawn where he died, and so on. I think this is a powerful but logical passive effect for a dragon that is essentially a giant necromancer).
- Brush With Death: Zhaitan communes with the ancient magic of undeath, rapidly regenerating health while he channels. The regeneration effect of this ability can be negated by communing with the Statue of Grenth, causing the player’s attacks to apply heal-negation on hit.

These are just a few hair-brained ideas that I’ve thought up this morning, but I feel that they’d make the fight more challenging without making it Tequatl-levels of difficulty. The idea of a heavy regeneration boss with the ability to profit from a player’s death seems to be fitting for a death dragon made of the bodies of others. What do you guys think? If any of you have any ideas for the fight, please post them below, I’d love to hear what you think!

TL;DR: Revamp the Zhaitan fight to allow players to fight him properly, giving him powerful attacks and regenerative abilities that the player can counter by interacting with the environment they’re fighting in.

I came here to agree with you. I thought 2k hours was too much, but I got over 1k myself, so lol, ok

I got a precursor once. Only one time. During an event at the Crown Pavilion with 300% MF buff, and it wasn’t even the one I wanted

But you know what’s the real problem? “Progression”. Yeah, that word. You need 250 x, so you get one, two, three. That’s progression, and when you see that you got 50 of x, you get excited
Then you have 100, 150, 200, finally 250. Yeah, took some time, but you knew how far/close you were and getting just a bit more would let you wanting to work harder

Now see the precursor. It is one weapon in a lot of weapon kinds, from one specific rarity, among other thousands of weapons. Where’s the progression? You could play 2k hours and don’t get it, or play 50 hours and get it

Neither encounter is difficult.

Quite the opposite actually.

The mechanics are as straight forward as you can get.

BUT:

The problem is Anet keeps designing content where the entire “difficulty” curve is trying to organize 60+ pugs or people you have never met.

Last I checked I did not buy a Human Resource Simulator. I bought a mmorpg. I have absolutely no desire to try and get 60+ pugs to work together to beat content which gives me little to no reward minus achievement points.

Content like this should be guild / instance based. It’s annoying and quite frankly becoming painfully obvious Anet hasn’t a clue on how to design viable PvE encounters.

The more content like this they release lately the less interest I have in this game.

This fight is starting to get very frustrating.

I have done this event 4 times. I have killed 4/5 of the different regulators and dodged his attacks in every fight.

I have credit for only 1 of those achievements, because every other time the other platforms failed.

Am I expected to fight this boss 100 times? I CANNOT at all control how the other platforms do on easy boss fights.

Why are we not getting credit for things we DID do, just because another group of people failed to do the same thing?

The downside to other people failing their platform should be not getting the chain cut, and failing the event. Not losing out on your achievements.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Harpy Feathers 5 seconds cd, stealth for 3 seconds.
CoF p1 Accolyte ‘safe room’ is closed now.

Thanks for some info with actual details.

Both of those sound like logical fixes for exploits

I guess I’m not sure I understand how the cof room was an exploit….

It was an obvious part of the map, decorated, textured, was obviously open……..

How was that an exploit?

That’s a joke… right?

One would logically think that if a topic was so hot, that the dev’s would have acted quicker on this instead of tip-toe’ing around it for months. And judging by the responses I’m seeing, a lot of people are tired of waiting for it.

I’ve gotten more keys from drops than precursors.

You know what will be great? If they released an update that had nothing to do with story whatsoever: adding guild features, fixing abysmal loot system, adding precursor hunt, fixing bugs and skills – all the features they promised in 2013.

There will be plenty of people unhappy with whatever they release after Scarlet is gone.

With that being said, bring on the SAB. Nao.

Edit: Didn’t the “majority of people” enjoy Bazaar of the Four Winds? I didn’t see many complaints about it. It was one of my favorites :P

I really, really, REALLY like the ascended gear change. We should be able to change the stats on our ascended gear on the fly. Locking us into one role after months of grinding is just silly.

GW2’s pillars have buckled. Prop them back up with monumental changes.

In the months leading up to the release of GW2, I was told that the game had “five pillars” of principles. That it was moving past the old ways of MMOs into the bold new future. A brave new world that kept players interested with fun instead of grinding.

1. Why are there player levels in GW2?
You’re bumped up to 80 in PvP, but in PvE you’re expected to grind to 80. Learning your class is important in PvE but not PvP? Doubt it. Level 80 players can scale down to play with friends, but here I am in the starter area when the screen boldly declares Scarlet is attacking [insert level 50 zone]. The feelings of a new player go through the stages of Excitement > Confusion > Disappointment.

My optimal solution: Bump everyone up to 80 at character creation. Players learn their class while gathering skill points (bonus skill points for 100%ing a zone), while not held back by levels.

2. Gear grind even before ascended.
I was looking forward to not grinding a dungeon hoping for drops. Earning badges for aesthetics is great. I’m for it. But for gear? I may as well be playing WoW. I want to switch specs on my thief because my legendary sword has severely limited my playstyle and I’m bored. So I want to go…I’m not going to bore you explaining it all. I want all Dire gear. Too bad for me that it can’t be crafted, it doesn’t drop, and the only place you can get it is by running the Crucible of Eternity for a full set of gear. To earn that full set, excluding weapons, I would need to run CoE about 21 times (at 66 badges a run, approx). All to try a spec I don’t even know if I’ll like! A massive stifle to innovation and creativity.

My optimal solution: Free exotic gear vendor. Just like in PvP. Aesthetic skins should be earned through current methods.

3. Ascended Gear.
Oh, the grind if you want to change your ascended gear stats. When it comes to grinding out rings, back, trinkets, and neck, who really wants to make a 2nd set for a new spec? I feel trapped into the spec I’ve spent my hundreds of laurels on. And now weapons and armor. Once you make those, you’re stuck for good. Want to switch from a condition necromancer to experiment with a healing/support necro? Look at that mountain to climb…

My optimal solution: Don’t eliminate Ascended Gear. Quite the opposite, make it Legendary. Make the stats of exotic and ascended gear the same, give ascended gear the feature that legendary gear has, changeable stats on the fly. That’s enough of a benefit to be worth the grind, but without forcing yourself into a corner by earning ascended gear.

4. Currencies.
Arenanet, you’re killing me. The wallet menu wasn’t a fix, it was an expansion in the wrong direction. The biggest challenge of this game isn’t capturing Stonemist castle in WvW; it’s playing with one monitor. Without GW2Wiki, this game would have failed shortly after launch. Take a second and think this through: could you play this game without referencing outside websites that explain not the challenging features, but the mundane ones? On a side note, is it just me or is the game built around Karma as THE non-tradeable currency…but Karma is practically worthless?

My optimal solution:
I don’t even know. The hole was dug pretty deep on this. I would say keep all the dungeon currencies as they are for aesthetic gear (we’ve been over the stats issue already). Merge glory and badges of honor. Gems would have to remain the same. As for laurels, guild commendations, fractal relics, pristine fractal relics, and I’m sure I’m missing a few things… Turn them into Karma? Maybe? I’m not sure about a solution to this problem.

Have any better solutions? Think these aren’t problems? Arenanet loves their game and wants to make it better, help them by providing what you think.

“Additional Skill Points” WOW!!!….I mean…WOW!!! What would this be? An option monthly sub?

“Prestige and recognition” can we also pay to get skill please Anet!?

Arena net, if you really want money from us – give us expansion. Not this abomination.