Guild Wars 2

So yeah, I’m trying to play Sanctum Sprint today…I used to play it quite a lot and wanted to run it a few times.

Using the 3 skill with the lightning crystal (not the ground targeted option but when there’s a tower), makes me overshoot the tower no matter what I do. It’s absolutely not playable.

I’m not lagging in the rest of the game, and I’m not sure why this should be, but as of now, this is not a playable option for me.

Anyone else experiencing this?

So, how about those changes coming to the NPE? Have they all been rolled out already? What about the cows and the golems and the other things in the low level areas that once added unique flavor and color and texture to the game? Any chance of these things being restored? Hello?

Now I am confused.

I am aware that it is not allowed to critic Forum-Moderation in the Forum. That’s the reason why I mailed the following to the Support:

Just to be told be the Support that I should post it in the forum.

What’s the correct way?

Thanks for taking over the list, frifox! Nice to see an updated thread!

Illusionary Leap:

• Will not cast even though the indicator shows “in range” when it is close to actual out of range.
• Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhTN9RscAuY

Swap:

• May teleport clone closer to you instead of swapping places with the clone (punishing you twice as a result).
• Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhTN9RscAuY (same video)

LoS issues:

• Often cannot attack objects or cast phantasms on things like burning oil and people on walls in WvW, even though those are perfectly visible.
• Once you get an “Obstructed!” once, you may never get out of it anymore until you detarget your target and start again. See screenshot – I’ve been running around that bunny trying to kill him from the walls nearby for several minutes but still got “Obstructed!”; I have a stack of screenshots about it somewhere.

Will post more when I remember anything else.

08. Equipped upgrades do not apply to phantasms

• Damage multipliers such as Force sigil, Scholar/Ranger rune 6th bonus.
• Stat bonuses such as Sigil of Accuracy.

09. Some traits do not apply to phantasms

• Wastrel’s Punishment, Empowering Mantras.

10. Charged Mantras and Land/Water

• Mantras charged on land will be lost if you step into water unless they’re equipped in water as well. There needs to be a safe timer (5s or so) before they actually fall off. Will greatly help avoid losing the charges just because you accidentally stepped into a puddle of water.
• Reference: VIDEO

11. Power Block

• Sometimes fails to put the interrupted skill on cooldown on mobs that have Unshakable but zero Defiance stacks. Too many skills mobs attacks are considered auto-attacks making the trait more or less useless in PvE.
• Reference: VIDEO

12. Sw#3 Swap break skill channels.

• Channeled skills will be interrupted if you use Sw#3 insta-cast skill. It would be preferred if they behaved like the other insta-cast skills such as Blink, Mantras, etc where original skills will continue channeling when the other skill is used mid-channel.
• Reference: VIDEO

 
01. Temporal Curtain

• Will not apply swiftness if you or your allies already have it, regardless of the amount.
• When traited with Warden’s Feedback the curtain’s reflect wall is too short. Most projectiles will fly above it and not get reflected. Sometimes even dropping the curtain directly at yourself will still not reflect the projectiles rendering the skill too unreliable.
• Reference: VIDEO

02. Illusionary Leap / Swap

• If you have Deceptive Evasion equipped, have 2 phantasms out, Illusionary Leap will generate a clone and if you dodge – you no longer can use the Swap because your “Leap” clone got overwritten by DE.

03. Portal Exuent

• Has no “time left to lay the exit” indicator
• Has no range indicator. Needs a red bar below the skill to show up when you go out of range.

04. Deceptive Evasion

• Clones created by DE will target anything. It would be preferred if they attacked the target you’re currently attacking, not just the closest enemy they can find.

05. Phantasms and Achievements

• None of phantasms count towards the weapon master achievement. Ex: Swordsman does not count toward Sword Master achievement.
• Warden does not count toward Focus Master achievement, leaving mesmers with practically no way of progressing towards the said achievement.
• Conditions cleansed with Disenchanter (utility), traited Mage (torch), as well as with Warden + Temportal Curtain (focus) combo finish do no count toward Condition Remover daily achievement.

06. Phantasms do not inherit the “Out of phase” buff for Arah p2 last boss

• Effectively cuts the mesmer dps by half because phantasms can’t damage the boss.
• Similarly, Phantasms do 0 damage to Thaumanova Anomaly

07. Phantasms do not inherit your weapon quality

• They default to Exotic weapon regardless of what you have equipped.

This is my first time posting in the forums but as no change implemented up to this point has effected me negatively I haven’t really thought to use the forums. First off I’d like to say I bought the game a few weeks after it was released. The furthest I have even gone was around level twenty but that was more because I couldn’t decide which character I wanted to stay with and haven’t played in a long time because I haven’t had a PC that would run GW2. I started playing again last night and quickly leveled to 9 before realizing I couldn’t start my personal quest. Now finding out the I can’t continue the story without leveling to 10 and then 20 and then 30 threw me way off. I’m kind of a solo player and the only reason I even play GW2 is because of the story. I guess I’ll just come back next month to see if they changed it back.

Penarddun.6827:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

If you are not using the personality stuff in the game anymore, then please just remove it from character creation. It honestly has no meaning anymore and just saddens me to see it there.

The personality stuff was another thing I loved about the game. I enjoy the character creation process so much. Even though they don’t use it anymore in the game really, except for the odd conversation where it is still there.

I like that I can choose that during character creation, even if that mechanic has been removed from in-game. I really don’t want more personality stuff removed. We have so little that gives our characters any uniqueness.

While i agree on one level, I find that it hurts more to see it there unused and and essentially vestigial. I’d rather they had come up with a good use for it, like i thought they might (like npcs ACTUALLY reacting to you based on your personality or by remembering you after certain events) but now its just..i don’t know. Beyond lame.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

If you are not using the personality stuff in the game anymore, then please just remove it from character creation. It honestly has no meaning anymore and just saddens me to see it there.

The personality stuff was another thing I loved about the game. I enjoy the character creation process so much. Even though they don’t use it anymore in the game really, except for the odd conversation where it is still there.

I like that I can choose that during character creation, even if that mechanic has been removed from in-game. I really don’t want more personality stuff removed. We have so little that gives our characters any uniqueness.

shadow.6174:

Malkavian.4516:

shadow.6174:

Broom.2561:

The game now looks as if it caters to 6 year olds.

I could even say it summarizes how it feels about the most of the changes…

And is that a bad thing? I am not a fan of most of the changes myself, but at least I know I am still playing Guild Wars 2.

Well, if they want achieve that and for that the game needs to be dumbed down and look silly like some FB games out there, yes that’s bad.

All mechanics outside combat have been boiled down to pressing F, so it’s even worse than some FB games, which actually ask you to combine object A with object B for profit. ;D And the enemies fall apart like dandellions on the wind. Fun. Fun. Fun. Idiocy.

Testing Gameplay with free weekend Alt:

So i decided to give Anet a chance here and experience the NPE with an alt that i could generate completely vanilla thanks to the free weekend. So absolutely no money/karma/bank/ anything.

I played for about an hour, leaving everything except for a few key binds the way it was configured and set out into Queensdale as a thief. I hit level 9 before logging off and will admit to feeling a little giddy each time a new achievement unlocked on top of the normal level up stuff going on.

I won’t focus on the good stuff though. Not because I want to make a negative post, but because i feel if Anet doesn’t hear what could be wrong, it will never get fixed.

POIs: They are hidden from view for a good while and in the early parts of the map, even though i knew where they were, seeing I’d discovered something like that was a little jarring, but I was able to shrug it off. Not major, but something to think about.

Skill Point Spots: STILL annoying to see it there and see i can interact with it and then be told that i can’kittens still dumb. Please revert this back so people can just get skill points when they come across them. Seriously. its just too dumb the way it is now. just let us get them.

Dailies: Wow, ok, i hadn’t thought about how jarring this would be for starting players, but holy hell this was both jarring and could be pretty confusing for a starting player. Every time I completed something for my daily, the normal pop up fan fare, light show out my bum occurred, but there was no way for me to really see what all it was. Being a vet I knew, but a new player won’t. When I got my reward for the daily later, although once again I knew what it was, the new player might wonder what they did to get that and more importantly, are they going to get it again (possibly soon). Please turn dailies back into something you unlock/see at something like level 3. At least then they can get used to seeing it on their HUD.

Off-Hand weapon: Oh man did this irk me to no end. If you make them available at level 7, then just start everyone off with one of their 2 handed weapons. Its annoying to get those messages reminding you that you are too daft to use a second weapon. Don’t even get me started on weapon set swapping that is just….GAH!

Clippy…i mean, the Compass: It’s like…we need to give that compass Adderall or something. At first it was all “Hey dude, go here. Great. You’re done? Awesome maaaan, no go here. its just over this next hill.” But soon it was all, “Dude, you should so go talk to this scout…somewhere…over…here? NO WAIT! Go do this event. Where? Uhm…in that cave? Maybe? You should really talk to that scout though. CAVE!” Once again, being a vet made dealing with this thing’s issues easier, but a new player is going to feel ping ponged a bit. I kept it on though, for science. Good thing i did too, since it was determined to keep pushing me out to things 2+ levels above my current level, instead of say pointing me to the boar and wasp area, then Beetletun, which would have been more appropriate. My only guess is that it still has much to do with where you are on the map and not necessarily the level of your toon.
Maybe a setting that tells it to direct you to actual level related areas of the map? yes

If you are not using the personality stuff in the game anymore, then please just remove it from character creation. It honestly has no meaning anymore and just saddens me to see it there.

Oh i just started a new character a few days back and when reached i think level 52 or something, i was given a tip in the game about combos and fields after level up. So any new player out there, if you are taking advantage of combo fields before level 52, Stoppp….you’re doing it wrong, follow tutorial, your not suppose to take advantage of these fields before then

Ok, on another note, seems for Anet staff, this thread is either hidden or invisible. Can someone please fix this or let us know whats happening with this?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits

You were pretty quick to push out patches to fix the NPE stuff ups but completely ignore the traits thread, why? This is ongoing since April patch

Thank you for clearing this out.
I was really confused seeing Level Completion on my computer and not being able to see it on my wife’s machine.

There are several such issues with the new structure of the level 70 and 80 personal story segments. Some of them, like this one, could be fixed by simply removing stuff that doesn’t make sense anymore, others (especially those inconsistencies produced by the removal of the whole Greatest Fear segment) would require recording new lines of dialog and are thus unlikely to get fixed, ever.

Personally, I think the restructuring of the level 70/80 personal story was completely unnecessary and, given ANET’s inability or unwillingness to actually do it right, should be reverted, so that the story at least makes sense again.

From my experience of playing a new character, without ‘helping’ by providing armor / gear / etc. a new player has no access to

1). Offhand weapons (warhorn) level 1 still drop, while they cannot be used till level 7. Pointless.

2). Tameable pets have mostly vanished from the low level zones. Wayfarer Foothils used to have juvenile ice drakes, brown bears, snow leopards, wolves and ravens. Only the ravens are now left. I found snow leopards and ravens in Hoelbrak, but no juvenile brown bears, ice drakes or wolves. This is a severe impoverishment of ranger gameplay, and makes it harder to experiment with different pets.

3). Hearts have been dumbed down to the point of utter boredom. I really see no point in e.g. removing combat skills while changed to snow leopard form or removing bundles. It also seems to me the difficulty of mobs has been decreased dramatically, to the point of being almost no-risk.

4). Unlocking weapon skills now involves no actual use of the weapon at all, you just need to equip it. I do not think this contributes to people actually learning the possibilities of each weapon and it’s frankly boring. Please note I call it boring both from a veteran perspective AND from a ‘new to guild wars but veteran gamer’ perspective. I cannot really judge it from the perspective of someone entirely new to MMOs, although I do rather think that if this had been my first MMO, I’d have hated it too.

5). I was drawn to Guild Wars 2 because it had so many different things you could do to level, which suited my guild, which is a mix of PVPers (world pvp mostly), crafters, explorers and loot hunters. Your new player experience skips most of this in favor of PVE combat, the thing that frankly interests most of us the least, and only points to all the stuff that brought us here in the first place in a later stage.

Yes, you DO point it out after a few hours of play. But at that point, you’ve already created an impression of what the game is about. Which is at this point PVE combat boredom.

6). I was unable to use the krait obelisk shard in my home instance at level 9, which is apparently level 10+ now. Seriously?

All the rest has already been said before, probably some of this has been said too.
The game now looks as if it caters to 6 year olds.

eyestrain.3056:

(the inquest no longer try to recruit you, no golem chess, you can’t feed bear cubs or play as a sylvan hound)

I have not yet encountered these bewildering and awful changes.

Why on earth would you remove content, particularly when it’s some of your most charming and distinctive content? Those quests really did give a new player a welcoming introduction to the game.

If theyt put the choice to use them or keep them for later, this shouldnt be happening,
for what other purpose would people keep them, they are not doing a pretty good job on
that if its not a bug and intended that way. You won’t ever see those heart again, and im sur they are aware of it…. 0_o If they did it that way so people dont abuse the boost, its the wrong choice, making people lose reward to realise u cant keep more then 3-4heart at the sametime, will only make it worse, i dont think its an abuse, they could make the boost only work for whats in progress and not completed yet. Im disappointed.

Vayne.8563:

Penarddun.6827:

I was working on my new Thief today, and I just did the first group of personal story quests (the ones that open at level 10). After I finished, I felt very lost and then I realized why. When I had been leveling my other characters, the next personal story step was in the top right of my map, like a goal to aim toward. I could try it at a lower level and if I died, go and gain a level and then try again. This took up a lot of my gaming time because I used the personal story as a framework for my entire leveling experience. Until this change I had no idea how much of an influence the personal story was for me as a leveling mechanic.

I understand the reasons for putting the PS in segments, it does make sense from a writer’s perspective so the player can see the entire mini plot all at once, without breaks. I think that is a good thing. But the change in how it is presented, and the complete lack of a PS after one segment is completed, has caused me to log off right afterwards because I don’t really have a goal at that point and “just leveling” isn’t really a goal for me.

I’m not sure how much of an impact this is going to have on my experience with gw2 in the long run, and there are a lot of other leveling issues that I think need to be addressed first, but it was something that I didn’t expect to be an issue yet is.

I think you’re missing the point though. The point is the personal story was never really supposed to be the backbone of the game. Events were. They’ve always said that was the main thrust of the game.

By having the personal story there all the time,. what they did was give people the wrong message about the game. Because at some point personal story ends, and then there’s nothing.

They’re retraining people to play the game differently for a reason. I used to see people post all the time about how they felt that they weren’t high enough level for their personal story, and they felt they were doing something wrong by being underleveled. Having it there, as it was, affected those people, in addition to affecting people like me, who feel like it breaks immersion to have to stop doing important stuff to do not important stuff. Save the city…but help some farmers first, because you’re not good enough to save the city.

But again, the thing you’re talking about here is probably the very thing Anet is trying to prevent. That’s why the brought in the new content guide.

Didn’t see this reply until today.

You mentioned “The point is the personal story was never really supposed to be the backbone of the game. Events were.” That seems like a strange comment since the PS had so much effort put into it. A different origin story for each character, merging into a tri-fold order choice and culminating in the ending story arc. That’s a lot of content. Backbone (I don’t agree with the use of this term, from what I remember of the original GW2 release notes, this game was all about the different types of content provided), or no, there are so many hours of fun from the PS, and that’s what I enjoyed most about the early game.

Also in response to another poster’s statement that the previous PS was too “hand-held.” I did not think of it as hand holding at all. I can explore and roam when I choose. Which I did, when I felt like it. It’s not telling me I can only do the personal story now, it’s giving me story driven content to mask the fact that I have to level to 80. It gave me something to focus on during the leveling process when I didn’t have all my traits yet. I felt like my character wasn’t complete until around level 60 or 70, since I was lacking my end game traits. So the PS helped me not get bored while gaining my final character specs. I didn’t feel like I could do events, dungeons, or WvW because I was handicapped by not having my final build. Had I had all my traits by level 50ish, I may have felt differently about the Personal Story’s impact on my gameplay. But that is a whole other topic.

There is plenty to do after the personal story. I considered the PS early game content. When I reached level 80, I started to do more map completion, really work on my achievements such as diving and jumping puzzles. I started investigating WvW, and doing dungeons with friends, and finally doing some world events (which I find the least fun, personally).

I know some disagree, and that is okay by me. I accept that different people enjoy different aspects of the game. I only posted my original post here to give my personal perspective about the lack of a PS objective while leveling, since this thread is asking for feedback about the NPE. I don’t want to be “retrained.” That’s an off-putting phrase. I play games to have fun my way, not to be trained to enjoy it in a particular way.

Vayne.8563:

Because it’s not leveling gating people are objecting to, but the CHANGE in level gating.

I’ll admit that yes the way they changed the gating for weapons is not appealing to me.
Before NPE the only real complaint I had was the fact that every weapon had to be unlocked by use.
However it did provide incentive to try them all out, because I wanted them all available for my character. They could have gated it as unlock one weapon’s skills (the old way), unlock them for all.

Nowadays, I don’t even attack the mobs during the tutorial adventure or on my way to the first heart.
There’s no incentive. I just blow through to the big boss or do whatever the heart needs.
It doesn’t matter anymore, there’s no reason to try out different weapons once I get that one which has a powerful 1 or 2 button skill.

On the subject of weapon swap, that’s a wash to me. I was aware of it before and didn’t much care for it. Though not being able to wield an off hand was a bad decision.

The NPE did some things right, but honestly it feels like I’m finally “back to level 1” pre-NPE once I hit 10 and that’s not a good feeling for me.

Maybe it is because I have experience with this game.
All I know is I’ve left some games because the beginning parts were so slow just for the sake of “teaching players”. I’d hate to see starting players have that same feeling.

Another example—Demongrub Pits when going after the chest by the vet spider. I jump over and kill the minor spiders, face the vet spider as it drops in front of me and WTF, the game has targeted the massive egg sac, or the hatchlings on the level below where the chest is, and sometimes even spiders on the bottom of the cave.
Terrible targeting system.

Leveled Necro to 24, decided to go back to do Personal Story (very first mission) and it is broken, won’t advance.

I understand the thought behind the change that was made, but the implementation is awkward and impacts the game experience negatively.

It really feels like a “changing something for the sake of change” kinda thing, instead of something that was carefully thought through.

I just persuaded a couple of my buddies (experienced MMO players) to play GW2 finally, and can confirm they were a little put off by the personal story disappearing on them.

Players don’t all need to be hand-held. Give them choices, instead of forcing them to play on the rails you’ve created.

Same here as lochnessasaur.2169.

At least it is a politer message than
“Since your face is funny and looks like a little raisin you cannot use this object at this time”…

I’ve been playing the game since about a couple of months after launch (if not earlier) and i have created about 25 chars for it, though the first 7 were deleted once I “mapped” the game out and saw what it had to offer (had to redesign them cause i am a perfectionist and I think makeover kits were not available, among other things). I still lament the loss of karma and unique skins (no account wallet or wardrobe back then) but not the time spent exploring the game’s world and mechanics.

Fast forward to now, in the aftermath of the NPE changes. I created my 18th character, an asura ranger, then used a 20-scroll to bump him up a few levels. Doing so, got me stuck right in the middle of the NPE, without the advantage of the speedier leveling from 1 to 15 and all the rewards it offers.
Once that char hit 35 and I got him a set of cultural armour, I decided to make a chain of throwaway characters to unlock some of the starting gear that was still locked in my wardrobe. With the last of them, I decided to not delete outright but actually play a bit to see what the NPE was meant to be like for a brand new character/player.

What follows is a rough compilation of my thoughts on the changes brought by the latest feature patch (as well as two bits regarding the april one). I will not address known (to me) bugs like goggles not working or PS chapters being out of order, just the stuff that -presumably- works as intended:

The awesome:

• Crafting recipe stack. Thank you so very much for this. Should have been in since launch, but thanks all the same.
• Crafting backpacks. Another great addition, it’s just what some of my characters needed.

The good:

• Crafting supplies in leveling rewards. It will make things a bit easier, especially for those of us with multiple characters.
• Race and Order appropriate rewards for (some) Personal Story quests. Bravo! I almost squealed (in a very manly way of course) when I saw I got cultural armour and a choice of Order weapons for my characters.
• Expanded Wardrobe. Including minis and finishers here was brilliant, keep up the good work guys.
• Action compass. While many dislike that feature, I absolutely love it. It reminds me of the compass/tactical map in GW1
• Trait unlocks. Thank you for keeping that feature in. It may need some tweaking, but it’s the closest thing we got to the skill hunting of GW1.
• Balance tweaks. While some further tweaking will probably be needed in the future, I have to say I am pleased with most of the changes made. My rangers thank you.

The indifferent:

• Dodge tutorial in starting zones. A good start actually but, to quote a random mapchat line, you need people to learn -when- to dodge, not how.
• Additional and displaced hearts. Don’t really care either way, some of them were needed, others could be left alone. Overall, probably better for new players.
• Trading Post redesign. While it is a HUGE step in the right direction, i think there is room for improvement, particularly in the Gem wardrobe.
• Personal Story chapters. While I understand why some people dislike having to wait 10 levels to continue, I sort of like the new system. I just don’t think the old one was bad enough to need changing.

The bad:

• Dumbing down of hearts. Why? Seriously… why? Do you just want to attract morons to this game? Are new players so dense they cannot figure out they can pick items off the ground when there’s a bright popup saying Use [F] right next to them? Do they have the attention span of a goldfish?
• Unchanged Traits. Why oh why keep that system? Why not just leave them as they were at launch? It wasn’t complicated, it wasn’t hard… and it allowed for far more diverse builds (granted, not all of them effective).
• Not getting skillpoints for (each) leveling. What exactly was the thought process of this? Despite popular opinion, most players can go through life without someone reminding them to breathe. We would not be confused by getting a single skillpoint every time we level.
• Weapons training. One of the most jarring changes for me. It serves no point except to disconnect me from the character. As things were, I picked up a new weapon and learned to use it on the go, as it should be. Now? it feels… hollow

The abysmal:

• Levelgating. That is the main reason I decided to even post this and if I were to post my initial thoughts on the subject it would be a cross between a series of beep censorship and your average Taz sloberfest tantrum. PLAYERS ARE NOT IDIOTS. STOP TREATING US AS IF WE ARE. Timegating serves no purpose other than to annoy veteran players, make things more disconnected for new players and confuse everyone caught in the middle.

…and still no Guild Halls. Ah well, we’ll get them eventually (I’m an optimist, can’t you tell?)…

EDIT: fixed the error spotted below, added one major change I forgot

Was there any justification as to why the old system was in such dire straight that need to be replaced by NPE aside from “we need to educate new players” ? I learns all my tricks from conventional leveling since game starts. Nothing wrong with it and, as far as I know there was no desperate plea from the community to replace the old system. Leveling to 80 was quite a process, but you were able to pick a thing to learn whenever you want because they were all readily available for the most part. And here now the NPE is here and indiscriminately affects both new and veterans alike. Locking away things won’t do any good and counter productive because give players less exposure it. The only changes that would be befitting is either giving players an option to opt out of NPE when creating a new toon or removing NPE entirely.

shadow.6174:

Vayne.8563:

Is it a tactical error? Did people, on the whole, like the personal story more? I don’t think so. Guild Wars 1 had very popular PvE but it was the same thing over and over.

Personally I would prefer Personal Story than doing the same events over and over and over. Personal Story is somewhat unique for each character, events are repetitive even though dynamic. Personal Story gives you a sense you are progressing on something, events are more like chores you do everyday, like gardening. They are fun, but it’s just more of the same after a while and almost equal to everyone. I wouldn’t say to take off events, but also I wouldn’t say they are what draws attention most. Events are good for group action and sociability, Personal Story is more for unique moments where you want solo (or with a friend only) or do things at your pace.

I definitely agree. In fact, that’s the reason why I bought Guild Wars 2 in the first place. The Personal Story wasn’t perfect but I felt like I give a kitten about the things going on in Tyria. Otherwise, I’d just be mindlessly killing mobs all by my lonesome for a few months and move on to another MMO. It can be the same thing over and over but for me, I don’t mind going through the same story again and again as long as I enjoy myself.

I started a new character at the NPE launch. I’ve gotten her to 49, playing has been slow, and I’ve started not logging in every day anymore.

I got caught by the lvl 29 bug, which sucked. Clearing all of Snowden map only gained me a quarter of a level.

Because I was trying to experience it like a new player, I’ve been trying to avoid spending gold that a new player wouldn’t have. Now that PS mobs drop no loot, and on at least two occasions my PS awarded items my character couldn’t wear/wield and couldn’t sell or salvage.

I’ve been clearing maps, trying to get traits, and hoping to be in the map if someone starts the group events I need to get my traits. So far, no luck. I’ve unlocked a couple, but both of the adept traits I want are at the end of large Champ group events that never seem to happen.

At level 49, I’ve got 30% map completion, have cleared 6 maps plus cities, have done all of the story quest I’m allowed to do…and I still don’t have the traits I want. Could I buy them? Certainly. But it is the case that because of how traits are often at the end of long group events, or impossible jumping puzzles or what have you, that I will have to buy all the traits I want, and that is not something a new player could do. Even if the cash isn’t a barrier at that level, the skill point cost certainly is. New characters are still trying to buy elite skills that cost 30 skill points.

On the plus side, crafting my own armor has kept up with my level, a thing which I never had happen before. I always outleveled my crafting skill so fast that most of my skills stop at around 200. But this time, I’m crafting level appropriate gear. I don’t know if that’s because crafting has been amped up, or because leveling is going so slowly.

I must say, I’ve been tempted to just hop into eotm and get to 80 and get it over with so I can farm skill points to buy traits, so I can play around with the character, but I’m trying to do it like a new player…who I don’t think would have any idea about the karma train on the edge.

And frankly just the fact that “get it over with” has become part of my mindset about the game is probably why I’m not logging in as much. It just feels frustrating to have all these locked traits, and all these impossible tasks required to get them.

I’m loving the character, I just wish I’d started her before April, because I really, really, really hate the trait system, and I am not sure how much longer I can keep forcing myself to jump through hoops to unlock core components of the character.