Guild Wars 2

Whenever the upper management cares about paying attention to anything besides Living Story enough to allocate some of their team’s focus on fixing bugs that don’t directly affect sales (if that will happen) and also whenever it’s not holiday break I reckon.

Yeah, you are right. They should give you a free precursor because you don’t have a 80. Otherwise, it is punitive.

Why is it that people who criticize assume they’re right while people who like stuff are wrong? Why isn’t it possible that someone can like a game without being a white knight?

The idea of play how you want has been taken so far out of it’s original context, it’s lost all it’s meaning. Anet was pretty clear on what they meant.

In most games, you level by going quest hub to quest hub and that’s pretty much what you do, until you get to a high enough level to go to the next quest hub, afterwhich you do dungeons then you raid. That’s the PvE experience of most themepark MMOs.

Anet wanted to be different, and this game is different. You can jump into WvW. You can level in Edge of the Mists. You can now level in PvP. You can craft. You can do a bunch of everything. You can never leave Queensdale if you like and still make max level. Hell someone leveled to max in the tutorial.

That’s what Anet meant and it continues to be true to this day.

I’ve noticed that lately, this breach tends to fail and people simply blame it on AoE regardless of what actually happened. Let’s clear up some misconceptions ~

AoE heals Copper

For starters, AoE is only really bad during the end of the encounter, roughly around the last 20%. The reason Copper heals is because of and only because of poison bubbles popping next to it. Although offshoots state they heal nearby allies, they only grant regeneration, which can be quickly stripped.

People telling others to not use any AoE/piercing/etc attacks is the real problem. Some people are so afraid to do anything, that they simply don’t. If you’re going to come to Copper and do no real DPS, simply don’t stay there. Tag it and leave; you will seriously be more effective by doing that due to scaling.

Poison Bubbles

When a poison bubble is popped near Copper, it will heal for roughly 2%.

Large poison bubbles will begin spawning from the corners of the room shortly into the encounter. Although they tend to float towards Copper, they may also simply move towards the center of the room and pop. Regardless of whether you attack these bubbles or not, they will automatically pop after reaching Copper. The only problem AoEing will cause is popping these bubbles a few seconds early compared to if they would have just bumped into Copper. On the plus side however, AoEing could also pop these bubbles before they reach Copper. Ideally however, you will want to slow them down, control them and keep them away from Copper for as long as possible, as they will simply respawn several seconds after popping.

Small poison bubbles will slowly float around aimlessly and begin spawning near the end of the encounter, at roughly 20%. This is where AoE is bad because you want to avoid popping these for no reason and they’re usually grouped, which could result in 10-20% healing. Since they tend to spawn near Copper, around the center of the room, this is where you may want to simply move Copper to one of the other corners to avoid the potential mess, though people will have to learn to leave the ledge.

Offshoots

On death, they will explode and damage any nearby players while granting regeneration and fury to any nearby offshoots or Copper. Since this can be easily stripped from Copper, it doesn’t actually matter if you kill the offshoots. You don’t however want to slowly kill one after another because boon strippers won’t be able to keep up. Personally, I run nullification and watch regeneration get stripped as it’s applied.

Offshoots can be very buggy with their attacks, though this could be caused due to the people on the ledge. Their melee attacks will eventually stop working, causing them to run up to someone and simply stand there. Under normal circumstances, they have a slow melee attack, so if they’re focused on you, you would simply want to move around a bit. If you’re outside of their melee range, they will throw projectiles at you, though they seem to mark specific players for death and only throw at them. These players will be immediately focused if they show their face. I’m assuming this is why they can bug out, since these players are generally hiding on the ledge or dead.

Tanking

At least 1 player must be down with Copper at all times. If not, Copper may reset and quickly begin regenerating health. The person with aggro will want to try to kite Copper away from any poison bubbles. Unfortunately, with a lot of people refusing to move from the ledge, this can be difficult without greatly affecting DPS.

At least 1 other player should be down with Copper simply to distract the offshoots. Although not necessary, it will help reduce a potential regeneration overload and allow for the bubbles to be controlled more efficiently due to AoE limits. Due to random aggro however, ideally you would want a few players down there, though the concept of randomly becoming the tank and having to kite is too hard for most people.

The Ledge

If Copper begins leaping up to where people are, I suggest you jump down if you were near the center of the target, because one of you is the new tank. This area is outside of the bounds and will cause Copper to teleport. Any poison bubbles that were moving towards Copper may also teleport directly to it and pop, creating a burst heal.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/11/massivelys-best-of-2014-awards-best-mmo-studio/

Started yesterday and therefore likely will still change but currently CSE (City State Entertainment) is clearly leading with almost 30% of votes while Anet is somewhere in the middle with about 5%.

CSE is Mark Jacobs´ kickstarter-project for Camelot Unchained which currently is only pre-Alpha. As a kickstarter-game it has a very high level of transparency and there are e-mail-newsletters almost every week about what they are working on, screenshots, concept-art and so on.

In my opinion this shows a clear message:

- many players are fed up with the direction most of the industry takes (following metrics instead of experience and inspiration, ingameshops, . . .)
- transparency and open communication are the way to go (CSE wanted to be Alpha already in Summer, didn´t hurt them to be late)

apparently you didn’t read the title of each article
content driven dailies..
log-in rewards
the free daily rewards are to compensate for the no-longer mind numbingly simple dailies.. and you want them to degrade the content oriented portion by duct taping the old dailies onto them?

Saving ranger pet names is apparently a technical impossibility, and you want to save entire builds?

What about build template Anet? Any progress? Should we put it on TP to make development faster like mail dove?

munkiman.3068:

As far as the OP goes, i would much rather them not have to work overtime to crank out buggy content before the holidays.

You know, the same argument was given for the final of Season 1. Anyone remember the final episode, how it took them one week after releasing it to fix the most gamebreaking bugs.

What I see from ANet is just way too many excuses for not delivering what they advertise.
Great stuff is coming, they say. They just don’t say when for a reason. Because I am fairly convinced that a) they do not know when it will be done if ever or b) they are not even convinced that what they produce right now is great stuff.

Too little too late, as seems to be the whole philosophy of the content updates for GW2.

Factions and Nightfall kept me occupied for far longer than that.

History proves you wrong.

At least now, hopefully people will finally have some perspective on what Anet means when they said they’re working on big projects, since they’ve said some of the big project would be released this year.

I feel like I should be annoyed by having yet another big break in the story, and I suppose I am. But I’m not sure how much I care anymore.

Rehashed Halloween and Wintersday content holds little interest for me. The story will resume whenever it does, all 2 hours of it. And I’ll be there to play it. But GW2 has already fallen to secondary-game status for me, and this sort of “planning” only further reminds me why.

They produce such little content, and even when they are actually putting anything out, they only do it for a few little patches, and then stop again for a long time. This “bi-weekly” Living Story could have been up to 26 “expansion-like” updates in a year. But obviously that would be too much to hope for. Fair enough. So how about 12? Nope, that’s also too much to hope for. Apparently even 8 is pushing it. And the ones we do get are pretty tiny.

So much time is passing with so little expansion-like content to show for it. It’s getting hard to take any of this very seriously. The game, the story, the company, whatever. It all just seems so un-focused and amateur. I don’t like “being negative”, I really don’t. I liked being a fanboy better, but those days feel so far gone by now. I hope they have some seriously amazing stuff in store for 2015, because so far it seems like disappointment after disappointment.

FYI, I have no issue with people taking time off for the holidays. By all means you should get to chill out for a while. I’m fortunate enough this year to get to take a whole week off myself. My issue is what has (hasn’t) been delivered all year prior, and the year before that, with no indication of that changing in the future.

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Your shield arm is mighty.

I am genuinely curious though, how and why you hold such unwavering faith in a company in which I assume you have no personal stake?

I’ve played GW1 and 2 since Beta and have had some truly great and unforgettable memories in the world of Tyria. I care about the franchise and I care about the Guild Wars world. This is why I’m baffled as to why you continue to make excuse after excuse for the people currently producing content for this world.

Judging by the frequency of your posts, I’m assuming that you care about this game/world too? Why then, do you continue to turn a blind eye to the damage being done to it? When a franchise you love is improperly handled, cheaply monetized, serialized, and treated with a blatant disrespect to the lore and the characters, it should sting a little as a fan.

Star Trek fans paid close attention when JJ Abrams took the helm in rebooting the popular franchise. Star Wars fans are intently watching Disney’s handling of their beloved series. Long time readers of the Ice and Fire series no doubt focused in on the production of the HBO series, Game of Thrones.

Fans care about their games for various reasons Krall. It is rarely the right answer to try to silence fans or encourage passionate players to find a new game. This leaves only a homogenous voice of un-questioning support for a company that may or may not have your best interests in mind! At that point, it is nearly too late to effect any change or maintain any oversight in a game you’re passionate about.

I think many people have memories, experiences, and personal stakes in the GW universe. As you have many times said, it is Arena Net’s game world to program but I don’t think it is entirely theirs to mold and create. It isn’t a case of like it or leave it That’s not how liking or loving something works. I hope you keep that in mind as you interact with passionate players hoping to preserve or improve their favorite game universe. I look forward to a discussion, no doubt.

The child already fell in the well for this year. We have to deal with it. I will concentrate on the events the next patch will provide us.

But still it feels wrong to me to separate one single episode from the rest and put it in the middle of nowhere. Maybe there are two episodes planned like many TV series do it for their season finale. Putting things in such an exposed position can create many high expectations the finale was never intended to fulfill.

Sorry, but this is just very, very poor scheduling.

Doesn’t ANet work with time tables? Who in any meeting would have thought, that splitting up the LS again was a good idea?

It is hard to see the LS as season, if there are more and longer breaks in the season, than there are between other seasons, like on TV. Too random.

Work with a timeline, work with a scheduler, or hire someone who will actually coordinate things for kittens sake.

Well yeah, let’s throw some snowballs from last year for 4 weeks, that is really what your playerbase wants. Doesn’t feel like this whole Mordremoth story got streched out too much at all. C’mon.

We get more LS season 2 free periods than we actually get content. What is this a competition for minimalism? And who gets two weeks off for christmas anyways?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Donari.5237:

As unfortunate as the timing of this break may be, it’s not like they have everything in the can and are just picking release dates. Imagine your response if you were working on a large project — say, a term paper, or a mural on the side of a building — and someone said “I know your due date is in six weeks, but I’d really like you to finish next week instead.” You wouldn’t be able to do it, not with any reasonable quality.

Thank you for a reasonable comment that really stands out for its logic and perception. It’s true: The team can’t roll out content a month in advance on request. There is a plan and a master schedule, and with the much-loved and keenly-anticipated Wintersday Festival, Episode 8 will receive its full due in January, as intended. And as outlined in Colin’s blog post, there are other nice things coming, too!

Please, if this thread is going to continue, I ask you to think before posting. This is a forum, sure, but let’s all do our part to tamp down the DramaBeast with his +5-gazillion to Hype Attacks.

I think many understand the reason why it is happening.

The problem is more the way it happened.
The last LS Episode ended as too many other episodes before on an Cliffhanger. Even though it was enjoyable, the content itself was nothing more than filler for many.
Which is even more concerning with the episode before having the same feeling.

We got two “filler” in a row, with endings that felt like someone said: “_cut, we continue next week.”_

It just isn`t a satisfied way to end the year. More so if episode 8 really is the last episode of this season.

Please understand that we know about the supposed Masterplan an possible inenr workings enough to understand your reasoning as a company.

However can we ask (or at least I, since I feel bad for speaking for others) you please understand that it feels like dangling the keys in front our noses right now?
Even though you do good, frustration is growing and this decision does not help the cause.

Not even the rehashed wonderful Wintersday most of us have allready seen, will change that.

However, since it is allready decided and all we can do is stay frustrated (yeah, sorry, I do not expect any satisfying developements here. I will have to wait.), happy holidays for the staff that goes out?

I think the feedback to take when you strip away all the rage, is how rhe schedule is planned for the year. The last episode didnt really end, so people rightfully feel a bit like the episode was only half played.

Maybe next year, as feedback, have a more natural way to leave the story before a break or ensure it ends. Or before wintersday starts. Because of also how close the team keeps things close to its chest, there is nothing apart from another episode to get excited about. Maybe give a teaser to generate exitement?

Thats my feedback.

Yes, definitely, Wintersday should be released concurrently with Episode 8. That would both make sense (4 episodes, break, 4 episodes) and would provide more content for the Winter vacation time that all companies have around this time of year (4 week break). This would also be consistent with pretty much every holiday/LS release combination of the past.

While I understand company limitations, staff limitations due to holidays, and so forth, I very much feel that this should’ve been planned for well in advance and that releasing them concurrently would’ve been the best.

6 months and still NO END? nice joke really ;s

Becka Williams.4978:

Yeah, but you know, we didn’t force them to choose this schedule. They chose it themselves, and they could’ve started the living story 2 weeks earlier, and thus avoided this problem in the first place.

Or combined the last two updates like someone suggested.

Yeah, but you know, we didn’t force them to choose this schedule. They chose it themselves, and they could’ve started the living story 2 weeks earlier, and thus avoided this problem in the first place.

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Or… they just want to stretch out the season artifically because there is so little in total.
Not saying they are, but it is a possibilty and considering the size of the past few updates a likely one at that.

I really like the game; the core gameplay is fun, but the (amount of) added content since release was quite disappointing for me personally.

also: taken from the other thread
Taken from http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/12/guild-wars-2s-living-world-mid-season-finale-launches-today/
“The Dragon’s Reach: Part 2, launches today, opening a brand-new explorable area within Dry Top and adding PvP perks. Says ArenaNet, … The launch brings to a close the first half of this current living world season; the storyline will resume “this fall.”

Looks to me like episode 4 was indeed the halfway point.

Hey, I never thought they were willing to tank the momentum of the story like this. I’m genuinely surprised. I guess cynicism wins the day (and the year).

We have one episode left and 2 armor pieces left of a set in Season 2 and you’re going to put it on break for a whole month just to come back to one episode? Who came up with this ridiculous schedule?

We now have a new holiday Wintersmonth! Frankly maybe it’s my age showing but I just can’t throw snowballs for that long anymore.

“There is no such thing as unicorns!”

“Prove it!!”

….

How shall he provide evidence that there has not been anything added? The burden of proof is on no one.

Yes, he exaggerated by saying “zero new content”.

But also, for those of us who play game modes besides open-world PvE, there has been very little added. Certainly not the “expansion worthy” content we were promised.

Now stop being pedantic and mincing words :P