Guild Wars 2

All of the text in this post is my opinion and how I feel about the game currently

Content inside the super adventurebox feel more rewarding

Unlike the last living stories I have played SAB feels more rewarding and this is why I think so:

• There is a clear grinding goal for weapons, x ammount of baubles gives you a thing no other requirements wich gives people a better sense of time vs reward
• Doing harder content (tribulation mode) gives you unique skins not available to others that didn’t do it (Can’t really find any PvE examples to for this, most, if not all PvE content is either pure luck (aiming at precursors) or time gated (looking at previous living story, like the first halloween skins etc.)

Boss battles

With the last living story release I think Arenanet is going in the right way for good boss battles and should keep up the good work.

• Clear boss attack patterns that are avoidable
• Fun and unique boss skills (like how the king toad needed to get a few hits before going into a damageable state wich is similar to teq/evolved wurm/shadow of mordremoth)
• Making use of the fact that you can jump (For some reason I feel like that in the whole first year of guildwars this was rather underused in dungeons and pve)

Dieing feels worse inside SAB

I think this is the biggest problem in guildwars, especially with the last revamp of people no longer getting any armour costs when dieing. The minor setback of having to waypoint ingame doesn’t make dieing feel like anything at all wich I think is rather odd. While in the SAB it actually reverts you all the way back to your last checkpoint wich is usually alot of work.

I can’t really think of a way to fix this at all, but I still feel this is a problem.

Option to make the levels harder

I find it fun to play hard content myself, when the tribulation mode was released I had a bunch of fun in it, even tough I did not get to complete it all. Especially with the extra rewards bound to it it didn’t feel like it was just harder for the sake of being hard, but with an actual extra reward that is not available without doing this mode. (Besides fractals I can’t really think of anything similar, fractals even has a timegate to doing harder content due to agony resistance instead of being it restricted to actual player skill)

Secrets feel more fun to discover

There were a bunch of very fun secrets in the SAB, even in the hub itself there was a bunch of nice things to jump to. Looking for the caves you could uncover, hidden ultimate skills and things you could find with the flute, bomb and spade felt nice. There wasn’t always an achievment bound to it, sometimes you would just get a good ammount of baubles and yet I can’t find anything in comparison for PvE, there are some caves with chests that give you some dust and greenies but those just don’t feel the same for me.

I think this topic is going to be moderated sooner or later. But I’ll just say this much.

While I like LS S2 a great deal, if that means we can no longer have random fun stuff like SAB, and are left with only things like bobble head effect etc. Then I will say thanks but no thanks for the LS. Why? Because these new patches regardless of how cool they are only last me from a couple of hours to a day. Especially during the winter when I don’t have time to hunt for the skins and backpieces. Meanwhile, because SAB was repeatable content (that did not have a strong story element, although what was there was really cool) that I can spend 15-20 minutes on and earn something for it, I ended up doing it over the span of several days or weeks as it may just like I sometimes do random dungeons or fractals except with SAB there is none of the tedium of those two and you don’t have to worry about time commitments.

In season 1 of living world, I used to do lot of the achievements always going for the meta if I had the time. But so far outside the explorable achievements I have not touched a single achievement that required re-playing the story. Why? Because of the major narrative element. I have no interest in reading a book twice back to back or watching a movie twice like that. So why would I go out of my way to do what is effectively the same thing with the living story just for these achievements with extremely mediocre rewards. Living story is not repeatable content for me and it will never be that I might replay it in a years time and maybe then I will check few achievements out but in the mean time it is just really cool couple of hours of gameplay every two weeks (when Dry Top was first introduced it took me a bit longer because of the exploration, but this last expansion of Dry Top is just more of the same so I barely looked at it a second time).

For me SAB was a way to take a break from GW2 without actually taking a break from GW2. And the lack of strong narrative beyond the cheesy homage story inside SAB itself made it the ideal repeatable content for me. It was nothing like any other form of repeatable content in GW2. It is unique because it has no narrative or ambient dialogue so when doing runs all there was were those amazing SFX and chiptune music. The levels may be the same each time but it sure doesn’t feel like it, unlike with dungeons and fractals, because nothing reminds you of the fact that you have done it dozen times before and there is no ideal ways to run SAB unlike dungeons and fractals no best gear or skill setups etc so each run will have variance without someone shouting at you for doing it wrong or taking the wrong route.

For me SAB is relaxing, while dungeons and fractals can quite quickly become stressful if things don’t go as planned.

And just for fun, below are my leftovers from the last time SAB was around, nothing as crazy as some of others here but still stuff I never had a chance to cash in so to speak.

tl;dr: Regardless of how much better the new LS is, if the cost of it is that fun quirky things like SAB can’t happen anymore I would rather not have the living story but a proper boxed expansion instead. As for the reasons why, look above. Why don’t you cancel Halloween or Wintersday too, because suerly they too detract from the narrative of the living story.

Evermore.5649:

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

I know, right! It’s like playing guitar – why is it so hard for some people to play the guitar solo in ‘Highway Star’ by Deep Purple? Or do the Travis picking/banjo roll stuff in ‘Never Going Back Again’ by Fleetwood Mac? It’s just moving your fingers around. Nothing to it! Easy as falling off a log. Come on, people! Step it up already.

And writing – I hear people all the time saying, “Oh, I wish I could write!” And I say to them, I say, "Well, gee, why don’t ya grab a pencil and some paper and have at it! " It’s not hard. Anybody can write! You just put words on a piece of paper! Voila! “It was the best of times, it was a dark and stormy night of the lepus!” See? I just wrote something. That’s all there is to it. Now where’s my big fat paycheck and 7-season multi-million dollar deal with HBO?

And that acting business – hah! “Oh, I would love to be an actor! But I just can’t act!” Bah! You’re just pretending to be somebody else. That’s something little kids and people at job interviews do all the time. Nothing to it. Anybody who says they can’t act – is acting! Because it’s that easy!

And ‘pro’ sports wannabes – don’t get me started. “Oh, if only I was good at basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, water polo, whatever…” Get real. There’s nothing to be ‘good’ at. It’s just people running around knocking balls of various shapes and sizes back and forth. Again, it’s something little kids do – little kids! – for fun!

Seriously! How do some people even manage to breathe? If I didn’t know better I’d think maybe some people are just not as good at some things as others, and for some reason some of those who are good at some things, like, oh, I don’t know, video games, like to crow about how good they are on video game forums in some inexplicable attempt at making others feel bad about themselves for not being as good.

Or something. Now excuse me while I go put my left foot in, take my left foot out, put my left foot in and shake it all about.

I see the general forums haven’t changed one bit since about a month after launch.

A lot of people like the game and are happy with the model and direction they have chosen. I’ve tried every MMO on the market and I -always- come back to this one. I love the living story. I finally “got it” in regards to Guild Wars when I played the Scarlet saga. I had a lot of fun! I love the cute holiday events, the design of the world, the questing design, the events, going around killing World Bosses, WvW, sPvP… I enjoy all of it. My favorite thing though? Living story!

Recently I tried Wildstar. You know, that game that’s all about END GAME and GEAR PROGRESSION and all the things the people on this forum are always kittening on about? That one?

I left after two months and -gasp- here I am! Back in Tyria! Leveling yet another character and having fun.

People need to get some perspective. A lot of people enjoy this game and its unique direction. A lot of us have done the raiding thing, the arena pvp thing, the log in for “sanctioned gaming time” 4 nights a week thing… and we’re over it… and we’re happy here. A lot of people just like this game. Get over it.

What they do is more than enough. Could things be better? Of course. But show me -anything- in life that couldnt’ possibly be better. The difference is that the people on most video game forums are glass half empty people.

I don’t need “twitch viewers” or pop culture madness to validate my game of choice. I don’t need to be assured by legions of the lowest common denominator that my game of choice is “SO AWESOME.” I’d prefer those people to stay in games like WoW, which were clearly designed for a mass market. Nothing wrong with that.

The mass market has their playground, the hardcore MMO gamer have their playground again via Wildstar, the plotting social climbers have their playground in EVE.

Can we please have our playground in Tyria without all you try-hards coming on here spouting on about “Twitch viewer numbers” and your own lack of imagination in regards to what to occupy yourself with in game?

Man, it is hit and miss. I pug quite a bit (often with a warrior buddy), and we take the good with the bad. I will agree that I rarely get off my Guard, because when I do, I’m at the mercy of staff/scepter guys that think WoR is either cheese or don’t understand how it works. There’s often one guy that has some anti-meta build (probably not on purpose, just ignorant of it), like a ranger that camps longbow (even in melee) or thieves camping shortbow (even in melee). But, as everyone knows, it doesn’t really matter, because four spastics with safety helmets and sippy cups can finish CoFp1 in 10 minutes.

But here’s the point. There are opportunities in pugging, if you look for them. I love the starry-eyed, fresh faced kid with 800ap, that says this is his first dungeon. Or that tells us he tried AC once, but the Queen just ate them alive until bed time. And then he says, and this is the important bit, “It’s all confusing. I just need someone to show me how it works”. I’ll run every kitten path with that guy, all night long. I’ll even drag him into fractals, just cause. I’m a sucker for someone who wants to learn.

Then sometimes, every now and again, the stars align and it all comes together. You get 5 guys that know the path, that are running the good gear, that bothered to pop consumables, that don’t even talk in chat, because they’re too busy playing and there’s no need anyway, and things just evaporate under the glare of our dps. That’s so fun, especially in light of the previous pug I just did with a staff necro and a rifle warrior and one guy that never made it out of LA but we didn’t bother to kick…

But what really spins my top is when I get a pro in a pug. Like a guy that just has us along to laugh at his jokes, because he’s totally comfortable soloing the thing anyway. Why is it great? It makes me play better. I try to rise to the occasion, I want things to go smoothly, I don’t want to waste an opportunity to play with someone on the next level from where I’m at, and I want to maybe learn a trick to two. Those nights, the paths just go by too quickly.

So yeah, it is hit and miss, you take the good with the bad, and when life hands you lemons, you make lemon-scented naplam. Such is the life of a pugger.

Snowmoon.1758:

Puddingskins.8412:

In the new video with Tara Strong in it, she refers to voice acting scarlet “as a teenager.”

Did I miss something in the LS where we got to hear her talking at that point, or was this a hint at some flashback or something that we’re gonna see in Season 2?

Haha!! I KNEW IT!
Season 2 will feature MORE SCARLET!! Season 2 story is actually the prelude of Season 1. More Scarlet! More Scarlet!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!! oh and TRAHEARNE TOO!!
MUAHAHAHAHA!!

Sigh….facepalm

Arenanet is proud to finally unveil the Living Story Season 2! When the ruined remains of the Breechmaker were explored by intrepid adventurers, one notable thing was found to be missing: the body of Scarlet Briar. The truth behind her disappearance will be explosively revealed when Fort Trinity itself suddenly finds itself besieged by dragon minions….but not those of Zhaitan!

At the centre of this storm lies a story not of hatred, but love. For in her final moments, as the Breechmaker plunged towards the very ground that it had sought to sunder, Scarlet saw a face appear before her. A Sylvari, like herself. When Scarlet awoke, her body had been coaxed back to life by the finest medical staff in the Pact, and standing by her side was the architect of her salvation: Marshal Trahearne. Long had he watched Scarlet from afar, but his quest to cleanse Orr did not permit him to reach out and intervene to stop her assault upon Tyria. Scarlet’s defeat gave him the opportunity he had longed for, and using Asuran derived Pact technology, the Marshal was able to save the wayward Sylvari. But now a far greater challenge awaited him: could he break the Dragon’s hold and win the heart of his desired?

Can the love of a Marshal prove greater than the hold of a Dragon? Will the defenses of Fort Trinity hold against the forces of two Dragons? Discover for yourself the breathtaking story of the two most iconic characters in Guild Wars 2 in the thrilling commencement of the Living Story Season 2!

Welcome to Guild Wars 2:)

What you read is 100% truth. Each and every proffesion is garbage and it’ll stay that way. Because in here it’s not a profession that does something, it’s you. Being a guardian does not warrantee tankyness, being a elementalist does not warantee top damage. You gotta select the right weapon, right stats on gear, right skillset for it, and learn to DOOOOOOODGE! (for those Gohans out there). Then you may rock on your char;)

Now i’ll provide with list of…(mauahahahhaaha.. weaknesses!)..for each profession:

1. Guardian – you thought he’ll be tanky. Find physical job, you’re not much of a thinker. Also heals suspiciously less then some others, despite you’d think he’s the healer.

2. Warrior. he does allright on all fronts…for himself at least. His party..not that much (not nearly the level of guardian).

3. Necro – ragdoll crash dummy. Every cc in the book owns him unless he goes way out of himself to get stability via grandmaster trait. Also his pets are dump, they die, and they leave a dumb corpse.

4. Thief. Ever heard the one about a thief who shook off 6 conditions and killed that guy? Me neither. Thieves suck at removing conditions.

5. Elementalist – how do you call huge dps elementalist that soloes lupicus? Tissue cannon. Glass cannons are too tanky for him.

6. Engineer. Al-Queida’s finest. He knows real damage is done by walking around wrapped in bombs and detonating them under your own feet (bomb kit), or shooting stuff down with rocket turret. Both choices not too good for your health. Any other scenario = short conditions, and/or crappy damage. Also has similar stability issue as necro.

7. Mesmer. Don’t have one, can’t really say. But heard they’re squishy and their clones do what most clones do in s-f movies – anything but what you wanted them to do.

8. Ranger. Not too good with condi removal (but better then thief!), only job who’s greatsword skills make you think if you didn’t transmute a broken toothpick to look like a sword.

9. All jobs. This is the most terrrible flaw of them all. They require skill:/ None of them will give you waranteed victories simply for being “a tank” like in other games. All those evil abusive professions require you to learn the system, learn their skills, traits, proper stats on gear, and die a couple hundred times before you can say – YES! I’m average at guild wars 2!! achievement unlocked