Guild Wars 2

• Inspiration IV – Mender’s Purity. Now removes 2 conditions.

Am I the only Mesmer that finds this to potentially be a bit.. over the top? I already have quite excellent condition removal through Mantra of Recovery alone, a healing skill that allows me to basically keep myself topped off throughout an engagement (Note: I am also using Inspiration X – Restorative Mantras.)—It’s a skill I use as a Condition removal as well as a heal, with it only having a 10 sec CD to it. It allows me to not only heal for roughly 7000 HP (2600 benefiting my allies), but a skill that can additionally remove 3 Conditions in the process (removes one on preparation, and once per charge).

Am I basically going to be running around removing 6 conditions every 10 seconds now (with the ability to stealth while waiting for the CD to be nearly over with)? I would almost suggest to keep this change for all heals but the Mantra of Recovery heal. Otherwise I find that I would have way too easy a time to strip pretty much any condition that hits me. Seems a bit unbalanced. Good for me, not so much for the builds focused around condition damage.

I don’t quite see why the Ranks needs to go, just because a seasonal ladder system is getting implemented. They can both co-exist nicely, can’t they? What’s wrong with having players earning their ranks and finishers within Structured as it is currently, but also competing in the seasonal ladders if they are interested in that? Those not all that interested in the ladders, can still have their goals within earning their Ranks as they casually keep playing.

“… to give PvP players ways to set goals and work towards them …”

Why remove/replace something that was already a goal for both hardcore and casual PvP players, instead of adding additional goals through the seasonal ladder system? I don’t quite get what you’re thinking here.

I like the idea of titles, but those could be implemented while still keeping the Ranks system around. That’d just be a little icing on the cake when working towards your next animal. The game sorely needs more titles anyways.

I’m okay with them letting me give them more money for even more Bank slots too, as my Bank is maxed and I can’t buy more slots. But Salvage/Mystic Forge is alright as well.

If I could get a choice of what stats I want on what Ascended weapon I want, I’d be more inclined to play Fractals. I still play them, but I would play them a lot more. Fractal skins, couldn’t care less, I really dislike how they look, so that would hardly get me to play.

Poor Scarlet. So much hate, when she’s just a puppet for Mordremoth. It’s not easy being a minion.

I’m glad to see they are making it available. I’m not so happy about the fact that I have already skipped on Miniature packs, and have sold off my entire collection by now, as they never said anything in relation to actually helping out those who were collecting.

Sorry, ArenaNet, you are fixing a blatant issue that you created for collectors during Gamescom and PAX, but you are fixing it a wee bit too late. Thank you for making some collector’s collections not broken though, even if mine is regardless at this point.

I’ve basically given up on the idea of “catching them all”. Oh well, it’s more real-world money that I don’t spend on Gems, and more money that stays in my pocket. They shot themselves in the foot, it hurts them more than it hurts me.

Not quite sure how they got more expensive, they cost the same amount of Euro that they always did. Buying Gems with Gold does not support the game, so it’s only logical that the more they can get to spend real world cash on Gems, the better.

We should be happy that we can even convert Gold to Gems in the first place. It allows for playing the game completely free—past the initial purchase of the game—while still being able to get stuff in the cash shop. Obviously enough, a larger amount of the playerbase does not spend real-world cash on Gems, and if they do, they do not convert them into Gold. The Gems:Gold ratios are (probably through some tweaking on ArenaNet’s side too mind you) mainly based on how many players that converts Gold to Gems, and how many that convert Gems to Gold. If more players convert Gems to Gold, the Gold to Gems cost goes down, the more that spends Gold for Gems, the more Gold those converting Gems gets. You can probably blame those that are not wanting/able to support the game with real-world transactions for these increasing costs.

I agree that the main focus in this game is perhaps appearances. But putting skins in the Gem Store is in no way making it a Pay 2 Win, since what do you.. win? It doesn’t make you perform better than the next person. You won’t have a easier time in WvW/sPvP against your opponents, nor will you kill something faster, just because you look fancy. Right? Maybe cleavage can help distract your opponents.

The game also does have vertical progression now. However small it may be. If you wish to min-max completely, to be the absolutely best and have a every so tiny slight edge on your opponents in terms of stats (in other words, nothing to do with your ability to play the profession/game), you are able to do so through Ascended. If you have all your trinkets Ascended, where as your opponent hasn’t, you get a slight edge. Want to get that slightly better edge improved, get your Ascended weapons (with the right stats). Add to that the expensive +5 <stat here> Infusions (no, the easy to get +4 doesn’t cut it), and you get an even greater (minuscule) edge.

There is vertical progression. It’s tiny, barely noticeable, but it’s there. And yes, skins are what we are mainly pursuing in a sense. But skins doesn’t make you win. P2W doesn’t fit for this. And you know, you can actually work for your Gold in-game, doing various contents, to convert that Gold to Gems, if you don’t wish to support the game through real-world transactions to purchase the Gems instead. It’s perfectly possible to get these skins by playing the game too.

I understand the people that feels this is betraying their trust in ArenaNet, and how this can negatively impact them on future Gem Store transactions. But quite honestly, there will never be a way to please everyone, that is quite simply impossible.

You got people who dislike that it is a Human set of Cultural armor that is available to every race. Leaving the skin as-is to early buyers makes this group unhappy when it’s not worn by a human character.

Those who dislike that it’s getting re-designed after they have purchased a specific look—and potentially spent a larger sum of Gold to get additional items for the character it was used on (I spent over 1000 Gold in example for my Mesmer)—that do not wish to see this specific design lost through a re-design. If you change the skin, these people will be unhappy.

Those who don’t want the skin to stay as-is for early buyers, as it creates a very rare and exclusive skin that only a lucky few would be allowed to keep. By not re-designing the skin and allowing it to stay as-is, you make these people unhappy.

There’s of course a variety of people who share similar views of the polarized groups as depicted above.

I too wish I could keep the design, as I thoroughly do enjoy how it looks. I did however get disappointed in the fact that it had the mesh of the Human Cultural Light Tier 3 armor. For that matter, I am disappointed in how the Medium and Heavy are in the same way just textures and particles added to the Invader’s and Pit Fighter sets, both available for Gold and WvW Badges.

I do think that ArenaNet is making the wiser decision by not allowing me to keep the set as-is though. For one, even though I used it on a Human, it is available to other races too, and there are other races who uses it. Parts of me never liked the racial limitations to these sets, but they’re there, so having one racial armor available to every other race, while the other race’s sets stays exclusive to them, doesn’t quite flow with me.

I also dislike that the Cultural costs 119 Gold, something which was a lot of work to amass in the early days. 800 Gems was about 57 Gold when this set was initially released, so that’s less than half the cost, with it having additional effects that you may or may not like. I did spend real world cash on it, as I always do with Gem Store purchases, but I did check the conversion costs.

I don’t really think it’s fine to have a smaller portion of the playerbase wearing a very exclusive skin either. I don’t really care much for the fact that a Sylvari, Norn, Charr or Asura wears it when it comes down to it. But I understand there are those who really are opposed to this, I can understand these players too. But the bigger problem as I touched upon, is that it becomes a very rare set, that a very select few early adopters gets to sport. I don’t really think this is fine. Not when looks is basically what we strive for in this game, as stats are easy to obtain.

While I understand completely that it feels like they are betraying your trust in them with your real world money, I do think they’ve made the correct decision as was announced so far.

As suggested in other topics and probably this one as well, they can spend some effort making every race’s Cultural have similar particle effects and textures. Then add a recipe for the Mystic Forge where you upgrade your race’s Cultural into this new particle-flashy design. That of course does not make everyone happy, there are other races who simply love the HCLT3 armor, who simply doesn’t want their own race’s Cultural in a similar design. But at least it means the design doesn’t need to get completely trashed, and Human characters can re-gain that look. I would also be interested in upgrading the Cultural’s for my other characters of different races, into a new design such as this.

• Make similar themed design updates to every races Tier 3 Cultural armors.
• Add a Gem Store item that serves as an ingredient for the “upgraded” design, making ArenaNet some money in the process. Re-designing all these meshes are probably going to take some work after all.
• Add a Mystic Forge recipe that requires this Gem Store ingredient, the Cultural piece and misc. other materials (e.g., Molten Lodestones and/or dungeon tokens).
  • Optionally: Allow for materials to customize the color of the textures/particles (e.g., Molten Lodestones for the current Flamekissed design, Crystal Lodestones for a pink-ish Mesmer-type glow, Glacial for a blue/ice-type glow, etc.).

For all I know, the new design may be even greater than the current CHLT3 armor mesh though. Even if it may be hard to top how good this set already looks. Regardless, I’m sure I’ll miss my current Mesmer-looks once it updates.

I too think they should make the effort to update all the Tier 3 Culturals meshes for all races with this kind of design, and sell a Gem Store ingredient in a Mystic Forge recipe to upgrade it, they could use Lodestones and/or other items to create various different elements, not necessarily just Fire. Leave that ingredient as something that’s always available from the Gem Store and people can keep this new, actually rather lovely look on their Humans at least (obviously they’d need to have CHT3L armor to get it again, since the current Flamekissed will get a new design). I could also imagine that the Light Cultural Asuran T3 would look rather nice with a similar effect, as well as several others. Cultural Human T3 Heavy would probably look rather awesome as well.

I agree with what they’re doing on re-designing it. But I also think they can find some use for the situation to not completely trash the design. The design is good. Players are requesting it. And, people can spend Gold to Gems in order to get the ingredient if they hate the idea of them being able to make money.

Followedbyrocks.8751:

I’m referring to the ones under Dungeons > Fractals of the Mists.

First off, Weapons Tester-
“Destroy the thermal core without being struck by any molten weapon attacks.”
I assume this is referring to the AoEs and stuff during the boss fight while you’re destroying the core? If so, how on earth do you avoid the barrage of stuff at the end when everything fires? I can usually dodge a large chunk of it, but never all of it. I’m probably just bad at dodging though.

Secondly, Shockwave Skipper-
“Defeat the leaders of the Molten Alliance without being hit by a shockwave.”
I’m assuming this means the shockwaves the Berserker sends out when he does his stomp. I’ve done this fight multiple times and have dodged every single shockwave as far as I can see. I still don’t have the achievement.

Also Subject 6 Deep-Sixer seems pretty buggy.

As with numerous other achievements they have done, the first-mentioned was rewarded even after being hit by everything for some people, and not for others, nice and buggy achievement. Second one I too have jumped over and/or avoided all shockwaves, but didn’t get it the times we’ve gotten that Fractal. Perhaps it’s something stupid like everyone in the party must avoid all shockwaves, le’sigh. Don’t really think the third one is bugged, just takes some co-ordination. Make sure he/she/it never explodes though.

People.. actually.. cared for the Fractal skins? They’re kinda.. ugly. I’d put a buck on that being somewhat why they’re not commonly spotted. They’re not very flattering skins that most people (that I know at least) wants to use. That’s not to say you shouldn’t enjoy a skin if you like it of course. Not everyone likes the Mesmer illusion weapons either, but I love them.

Still, I almost find it hard to believe anyone likes the Fractal skins. They are not all that well done. If your only reason was “because Joe doesn’t have it, and it makes me feel special”, I don’t even know what to say to you.

I was also disappointed in seeing it being the Human Cultural, but ended up buying it still, as I didn’t actually expect them to re-design it. It somewhat gave me a revitalized love for my Mesmer again, so I even splurged Gold on Whisperblade, Spirit Links, Vision of the Mists, Ignus Fatuus and Mirage which I like in combination with it. Crafted her 4 20-slot bags to go with the Fractal ones, in order to get 160 slots. Bought 7 Superior Runes of the Traveler, so I don’t need to feel so slow. A Rare Cloth Aquabreather. Superior Bloodlust, Torment and Energy Sigils. Even got her Commander tag, as I am going to be playing her for quite some time now. Overall, this set gave me the motivation to spend over 1000 Gold on my character, even if I didn’t quite agree with it being a Cultural set. So yeah, I really do hope the re-design is a rather good one.

Keep in mind of course that nobody forced me to go on a spending spree. That was entirely my own choice. It was however indirectly caused because of how a new set of gear can really make you want to play your character more. So if the new design isn’t all that good, or should I say—personal opinion—as bad as the Medium and Heavy skins, that little load of Gold will somewhat feel like a waste on stuff I perhaps wouldn’t quite have bought if I didn’t get this new love for the character. I also overwrote my Phoenix skin. Something I don’t think ArenaNet’s idea of a refund would cover getting back.

Sure, I have Cultural already, amongst other skins, so I can get a similar look again. I can still find a use for the Mesmer-theme weapons with any other set for that matter. A long-term goal is to have Commander on all characters anyways. But it was something with how this fiery-theme was done that really got me to spend some serious Gold on her now. I really do like the flame particles on this one, where as I never liked it on the other fiery-themed pieces of gear. The metals on Flamekissed is also far more like metal than the good old Cultural is (which looks more plastic than metal to me).

Yeah, hope they do a good job with the re-design.

Jaymee.1560:

I am one of the few who actually love the armor…

You are not one of the few. On the contrary, I doubt there’s too many people that does not like the armor skin. The Cultural Human Light Tier 3 armor has always been one of my absolute favorite looking sets in the game, and I think the particles and textures they added to it for this re-skin was rather nice. It’s the first fiery-themed armor set that I actually like the look of. Can’t stand the CoF set, nor the Achievement pieces, not the gloves from the Molten LS, and not really the HoM bracers either.

It’s more that it was a “Requires race: Human” armor, something that was supposed to be exclusive to Humans, and while it has minor differences, namely the slight texture additions and particle effects, it is basically the same exact skin—or mesh if you want—now available to other races, without other races Cultural armor being available to Humans in return (and the rest of the races of course). It’s a set that costs 119 Gold, and while this is not much in the GW2 market today, back when I in example started purchasing it, that was a lot of Gold. To give it some monetary value, 50€ would give you about ONE Gold when converting Gems to Gold back then, not really something I’d recommend anyone to do. It’s been de-valued over time of course, as the Market amasses more currency into its circulation, more players convert Gold to Gems, driving the Gems to Gold ratio up and so on forth, but that still means when I was working towards it, it was pretty much at a value of nearly 6000€, or $8000 if you want.

Today it may be of no real effort to get. But a lot of the owners invested a lot of time to get these sets, in the early days. And I don’t think I heard anyone not laugh at it being the exact same mesh as the CHLT3 set when we saw it for sale, the same way they still laugh about Medium being the WvW set and Heavy another skin set you can buy with Karma/WvW Badges. People called it lazy and a cash-grab, because it kinda was.
_______________

However, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t really see how they can in any possible way properly refund the purchases of this skin set, to players who may not enjoy the look of the new re-design they are doing. I doubt they can go about restoring previous skins on the armors the Flamekissed was transmuted on to. E.g., it may have been transmuted over CHLT3, Phoenix and/or other skins. How can they refund all the Gold that has circulated thanks to Dyes purchases to create that exact look you wanted? Weapons that may have been bought (a lot of my friends have purchased Destroyer weapons in example, one the Volcanus) to fit the theme. I know there’s people who used Total Makeover Kit(s) to change their appearance to better suit the skin. People who found a new love for their profession because they really loved the look can have purchased several expensive Superior Runes to go into it, e.g., 6-7 Traveler’s. How can they possibly refund that to everyone that may not like the new look? A simple, here’s 800 Gems and a set of # Transmutation Splitters doesn’t really cut it.

On the other hand, it’s also a problem to leave it as-is for those that already purchased it. It creates a very exclusive rare skin that others are not able to obtain anymore (Note: I purchased it for my Human Mesmer). It still means there are going to be Sylvari, Charr, Asura and Norn running around in what is effectively Cultural Human Light Tier 3 armor, which irks some people more than others.

What they could do perhaps, and this would require a lot of work on their end, is to provide players with a recipe that involves purchasing the Cultural Tier 3 armor set, a permanently available Gem Store item (more money for ArenaNet shouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for them, right?) and some other various in-game crafting items, that allows you to upgrade the Cultural to that new Flamekissed look through the Mystic Forge. This would mean they need to re-skin every single Cultural set for the different races however, all fitting under that same theme. It would also mean they still need a way to exchange/refund current Flamekissed owners of other races than Human, so that they could get their racial in that style. Still, that doesn’t really solve the issues at hand, as people bought it for how it looked, not necessarily just for the nice particles and textures.

Nope, I really don’t see how they can resolve this properly. The best-case would be that the new re-design is unique, not a re-skin of anything currently in the game, and that it is so awesome, while still having a similar theme (the top is usually a favorite of the set), that people wouldn’t mind that it got changed over to it. That is not necessarily going to be easy, when the CHLT3 armor set is already so great looking.

Golgathoth.3967:

Actually, I would totally pay the 120g for the set. That’s how much I like having it on my male Sylvari. Not kidding in the slightest. Would that make you feel better, people who bought t3 human? I’m being serious – if the price were the same, would you still be quite so livid?

Not really, since it’s a set that has Requires Race: Human on it. Suddenly up for grabs by any race. Only way it’d be reasonable to me as an individual, is if they came out with a patch to all the Cultural sets, lifting their racial requirements. I completely understand that other players of different races would want the Human Light Cultural Tier 3 set, as it always looked good. It has one of the best meshes in the game, if you ask me. Add some nice particle effects and textures to it, and it’s even nicer. It’s also one of the first proper fiery-themed armors they’ve done that actually looks nice. The Medium and Heavy sets are examples of poorly done ones. As are the CoF armor, the gloves we got from the Living Story, and the achievement pieces of gear. Granted, that is my personal opinion, and there may be someone that absolutely adores the Medium and Heavy sets of these new skins. I don’t fancy them however.

Personally, even if I was extremely annoyed over seeing the Cultural I spent a lot of time farming for back in the day, up for grabs for half the cost—at a time when 60 G isn’t really all that much—and available to all races. I wouldn’t mind if they let those who purchased it keep it. But, you do then get a suddenly very exclusive and rare skin that is no longer available for purchase within the player base, a ultra-rare skin that didn’t require you to win a contest, to achieve something more than to pick up your credit card and/or in-game Gold. A rather good looking skin at that. This will likely just cause envy, disappointment and anger for future players who wishes to obtain it. That’s not good either.

Arguably, that can be said to be the case for the Braham/Rox items as well. They are/were also exclusive in a sense, although they have appeared again for purchase, and may probably appear and disappear at a repeated interval throughout the years. This is not something they can do with this set though, as it caused enough commotion for them to take it out. In other words, it’s a set that would remain exclusive, and more so over the years as players who purchased it stops playing, plays other characters, etc.

I wholly understand that players who purchased the skin wishes to keep it. I wouldn’t mind personally if you could. But, I do see where ArenaNet is coming from as well. Who knows, perhaps they are smart enough to make a similar themed set, as in a set that shows skin, with a equal particle and texture to it, which makes those who purchased it more than happy to get the change implemented. We don’t really know before we see what they do with it. Otherwise, yes, I get that it is rather large problem to just change it. Players have likely themed their characters to fit the set. That includes expensive weapons such as the Volcanus, expensive dyes, such as, e.g., Pyre. Makeover kits and the likes. They can have transmuted it over other Gem Store skins, Cultural, and so on forth. I can’t see how they can remotely refund in full (as was written by the Community rep.), the players who doesn’t like the new design.

It’s a compensation nightmare.

Well if you are getting hit by the shockwaves, that is technically an AoE attack that washes through you, in other words, it hits you from all sides. You can of course avoid that by keeping range and/or jumping over the lower shockwaves.

Berelious.3290:

You know, I find it ironic that everybody complained about the light armor skin, but nobody complained about the medium, despite the fact you have to work just as hard if not harder to get it. WvW skins take a lot of Badges of Honor to get, and yet nobody bothered to complain about that!

Oh, I don’t think I’ve heard a single person say they liked the Medium and Heavy sets, they’re, to me, horrible. And no, it takes no effort what so ever to get the WvW gear. I get about 300-400 Badges easily, each time I spend a little effort in WvW. Do the JP’s, then run around with your guild killing the zerglings.

What irked me was the fact that Flamekissed is the Light Human Cultural Tier 3 armor, available to every race for less than half the cost. If everyone can wear the “Requires race: Human” one, then why can’t I wear the Norn one as a Human? Or the Asura one? Sylvari? Charr perhaps? That’s what bothered me.

JustTrogdor.7892:

I’d be willing to bet, but it is too late now, if the light armor in the gem store didn’t have particle effects but still looked close to HT3 there would not have been close to the uprise we have seen.

That would hardly have made a difference. Sure, the fiery effects made it perhaps a slight bit better looking than the default T3, though that’ll be down to personal preference, but still:

• It costs less than 60 G to buy the Flamekissed skin set if you convert Gold to Gems
  • It costs 119 G to buy HCLT3 (and considering it’s Rare quality, Cultural armor could be called “skins” too)
• Flamekissed can be worn by any race
  • HCLT3 can be worn by Humans

As for taking the skin away from those who has already purchased it, I get where they’re coming from. If they don’t do it, these skins will become overall ultra-rare. And you got other races running around with a more flashy Cultural armor. I see the problem in this too. That’s not to say I don’t see a massive issue in what a nightmare it would be to refund those who has purchased it though.

Ok, they can use transmutation splitters to remove the skin from the item. But the previous item may very well have been using a skin too, so how do they go about refunding that? What about those who did a gender change to get the female and/or male version of the Flamekissed as-is currently? Purchases of other expensive weapons to get “matching” looks? Say someone bought Volcanus, but otherwise would never have purchased it? If they hate the new skin, e.g., if it is as poorly done as the Medium and Heavy versions of the sets, they may no longer have a desire to make a fiery themed character. People may have purchased expensive dyes to color it, that they otherwise don’t have a interest in.

I don’t really see how they can refund it properly, and I do understand that they perhaps wish to remove it so that it’s back to being Cultural exclusive, and not a super-exclusive rare skin. Sure, a lot of people purchased it, but overall, it will be rather rare. I don’t envy ArenaNet for being in the position they put themselves now. They got to make some extremely nice looking Flamekissed skin when re-designing it, so good that nobody would even consider using the skin as-is, or they are going to have upset players, no matter if they would let players keep their as-is version or if they update the purchased skins to the new mesh. Some players will hate that there are rare Cultural-themed armors available to a select few of the overall playerbase, others will hate that they took it away from them.

And if they make it a unique and awesome skin, what about the Medium and Heavy users? Those skins are just semi-lazy re-skins of WvW and low-level armors.

I am extremely disappointed in how they’ve basically trivialized the amount of Gold I invested in getting the Cultural Tier 3 Human Light armor. Not to mention how they trivialize how it is a Cultural armor set that was supposed to be for Humans only, but now any race can use. Lazy, ArenaNet, lazy.

The Aegis effect clipping into the shield(s) and covering it up is pretty much the only thing that has stopped me from making The Flameseeker Prophecies.

I play my Guardian as a main, and as such have made all my Legendary weapons for that specific character (except Incinerator which was the first one I made, closer to launch, and that is for the most part (annoyingly) collecting dust on my Thief). Any remaining ones I would be interested in making (the shield included), would also go to that Guardian, as I am not really going to start making more legendary weapons for other professions, when I hardly play them at all.

Arguing about it’s viability in x, y and z aside—To me, Aegis ruins shields, period. I don’t think there is a single shield that actually looks decent with Aegis covering it up, though that can come down to personal preference I guess. In my opinion it’s an unnecessarily bloated visual cue, far more in your face than any other buff there is in the game. Not to mention that you can still activate Aegis on demand, and can as such block a hard hit if you can predict-/see it coming. I’ve often used it to burn some of the Initiative from thieves that may be attacking me as well. With all the spell effects going off during group-combat, I would be surprised if people actually look for the visual Aegis over the buff icon.

Also as a “healer”-support character, I quite like the Mace and Shield combo. It fits nicely together with Staff for some quite decent sustained healing and buffing towards your group. Oh, and I like how The Flameseeker Prophecies looks, when Aegis isn’t there ruining it. That is another reason as for why I’d like to make it of course, looks, but I won’t pursue it when I know I’ll get annoyed about Aegis ruining the visual aesthetics.

On a side-note; It’s ridiculous that it shows up with Town Clothes as well.

Oh, I wouldn’t mind the Toxic’s, if they weren’t IN the bloody Mercenary Camps. Put them somewhere off on the side, and I could happily ignore that they are in WvW. I finished doing them perfectly fine in PvE.

Unfortunately, ArenaNet seems to be very much in favor for the idea of the zerg, and I doubt we’ll ever see them doing anything to motivate players to spread out more. I could be wrong.

They are seemingly consistently giving us more reasons to zerg and has pretty much always advertised WvW as large-scale epic battles, a statement which the zerg fits in under quite comfortably. The zerg’s effective too, can’t argue with that. Bring 60 vs 30 and win, if not on the field, then through hiding inside a structure with your existing siege, superior numbers and rapid additional siege building from all that Supply you’re carrying. That’s how it usually plays out anyways, and I’m sure there’s plenty of organized guilds who has had this experience;

In the field, a lot of the zergs gets ripped to pieces like paper, but it’s when they hold up inside their structures and hide, that it becomes a problem, as ArenaNet has done so much buffing to siege that it can become a royal pain to even attempt breaking in under the fire of 6 Arrow Carts, with 60 defenders having the high ground. In the field, if they can’t beat you, they bring even more in as well, until they finally beat you and think they’ve done something great, spouting their /laugh and what not. “Yes, zerger, good job, give yourself a pat on the back for defeating 30 with 80.”

The zerg is here to stay, and I doubt there will ever be something to change this. Now that they are doing these WvW seasonal championships, there’s even less a reason to not zerg, night cap, etc.

Strength in numbers, even if it means individually you’re terrible.

It’s not just related to banners, nor that they are de-spawning directly.

I’ve had this happen on Ele-weapons as well, and before they are about to time out. I think it’s somehow getting interrupted that you’re picking up a bundle—something new in the code with recent patches—because I tend to run around pressing ‘1’ to auto-attack in the bigger fights, repeatedly pressing ‘F’ when I see loot or someone to downed (on either side). Occasionally that means I will also try to pick up a bundle, and although it seems my auto-attack breaks me from doing so fairly often, as nothing gets picked up, I do one more attack before being blocked from using weapon skills, when the game somehow registers that I’ve picked something up and starts the annoyance/“death sentence”. Utilities works fine, F1-etc.-skills works fine, pretty much everything works except using skills 1 to 5. You are no longer able to attack with your weapon(s). It also works to switch weapon, you can even switch over to town clothes, but that’s a bit pointless, as that weapon/toy is also blocked from being able to use skills.

It usually recovers itself over a long period of time, probably from dying, never had to resort to that, and I think it may get fixed by getting CC’d, such as through a knock-down as well, but you can’t reliably get rid of it in a big fight, something which I would consider to be a massive game-breaking issue. This really needs to be looked into with some priority from the developers. Not being able to use skills for several minutes is a terrible bug to have in your game.

To add to this, there’s also a issue with movement; after being immobilized, you can sometimes get stuck in place for several additional seconds (without any condition on you). Again, game-breaking frustrations, as if the buff to Immobilize wasn’t enough of an annoyance.

Edit: The skill issues can happen when not moving much at all away from the bundle, basically while being stationary, so it’s not narrowed down to the below mentioned chain of events as presented by Aleth. I have heard about it also ocurring simply from zoning in from another zone as well, so it may not even be only related to bundles, though it occurs more for me with those. Might be worth noting that I’ve always been using my Staff on Guardian when it’s happened to me.

Just as I feared when I first heard them announce their plan to do content updates “every two weeks”, it has (at least to me, and seemingly others judging by this topic) resulted in a series of small temporary content updates that’s occuring way too often, way too fast. I’ll just quote myself from back in July:

Absconditus.6804

I also really hate the fact that they are saying they’ll pump out these Living Story updates every two weeks, since to me it feels like that’ll just make it a large headache, at least when combined with hard achievements like this.

It leaves nearly no time to do anything else in the game, when you got to focus so much on these updates, that on the bright side will keep you busy, but on the downside, way too much. I applaud that they want to give us things to do, I do and I appreciate that, but every two weeks seems like it’ll be a bit too much.

Most of what I wrote back then came true, at least as I experience it. I still applaud the fact that they wish to provide us with things to do, and the rate at which they are releasing these updates in are pretty much unprecedented within the industry. However, the fact that these content updates are temporary, combined with a limited time to “complete them”, makes them end up feeling more like a job I got to stress about, and I ain’t really having all that much fun anymore. There are times when I question myself as to why I am actually still playing, since as soon as I grind my way through the harder achievements, I just end up not wanting to log in at all anymore—I get burnt out. Rinse repeat every two weeks.

There are of course other reasons behind me not really having the same love for the game as I once used to have. The way they handle the Gem Store for one, but that’s a different topic, and not one I’ll drag into this one as well beyond this.

As many others in this topic says, the whole “every two weeks” temporary event-content is not adding to the fun of the game, at least to me. I don’t get the feeling that the world is ever-evolving, or in any way living. It just feels like a game that chucks a load of events at us, then with anything that would be world-changing and help it feel evolving, those things are simply taken out again, leaving barely grains of sand behind to even testify that they once existed. Every two weeks with permanent additions however, now that would be amazing.

Yasi.9065:

Nope, got all baubles and no achievement… Im way past annoyance and deep into &/(%/& %/==(/&T FURIOUS.

Wasted again over an hour of my time for this kitten.

Are you sure you didn’t miss a bauble somewhere? Did this in Infantile with my friend and we got it as soon as we had killed the final boss (remember that you have to complete the level). You could always try following the .txt guide I wrote as I was going through looking for Baubles, though they should be the exact same ones that are in the opening posts, although picked up in different order. It was attached on the first page if you think that’ll help you. Please note that I never proof-read that guide and there are a couple spots I noticed I wrote right instead of left and so on forth, when I followed my own little notepad document when getting the achievement today.

PS: Kinda annoys me they didn’t even mention having fixed it in the patch notes. Like they’re pretending it was never bugged or something. And now I really wonder why that door to the right of the third chest shows as being possible to open.. hmm.

Well, I haven’t heard them mention a thing about the Mr. Sparkles that was given away during those games conventions, which means my collection is now broken anyways, and likely will stay that way. So, why should I even feel anywhere remotely inclined towards spending yet another 1000 Gems on some Miniatures that is not going to help me maintain a goal of having a complete collection? Sorry ArenaNet, but you done goofed with that exclusive Miniature of yours, which is now ruining the ability to create a complete collection, unless you were lucky enough to be there that is.

Even if they were to miraculously enough, acknowledge that what they did was perhaps a (financially) bad call, putting up Mr. Sparkles in the Gem Store for a direct purchase as well (meaning those that went to the convention got it for free, while the rest would have to pay for it)—what’s to stop them from repeating this sort of thing 6 months-, 12 months-, 18 months down the line? They already did something similar at launch with those GW2 logo t-shirts (town clothes), something which plenty of ticked off players voiced their anger over. Now they’ve gone ahead and done the same thing again. I’ve simply lost my faith in them for stuff like this completely, and that’ll mean less money from me going into the Gem Store. That’s good business sense on their part, right?

Off-topic: The money-grabbing business tactics they’re displaying lately is getting somewhat disgusting. Seriously.. they added both a World 1- and a World 2 Boombox item, really? Two separate items, taking up two separate inventory slots, when they could easily have had 1-5 keys play songs, with 6 and 7 switching up and down between sets of songs (you know, kinda like their instruments allowing you to switch up and down octaves).

Completely depends on your ability to find your way and jump I guess. If you’re doing Infantile, pretty short, less than an hour I would imagine. Normal, perhaps an hour on your first go through. Tribulation, expect 2-4 hours the first time around (if you don’t watch videos to see where the bad spots are that is).

Overall, I found W2Z3 to take less time than W2Z2.

Zomaarwat.3912:

So I encountered the log and it says “You found the song of the log” but doesnt tell me how to play it. Whats wrong here?

Look on the log carvings, 1-2-3, try playing 1, 2, 3 with the Wooden Whistle at that location and you’ll see what it does. It may require you to play the melody twice or thrice.

Ayrilana.1396:

Find a link between a gem store item and the bugged achievement. Only then will you receive an instantaneous response.

That or find something adorable to attach it too. To be fair, we don’t really know that the achievement is bugged, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t at least let us know it isn’t. Considering the vast majority of us seem to agree that it seemingly is.

Treeline.3865:

I’m clueless as to the chinese stuff, but there’s a checklist too

Image could be a edit, and the checklist tally is the same as the baubles already discovered over in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab-bts/Bauble-Checklist-for-W2-Z3-INCOMPLETE/page/4.

From the asian website, total count was 41 blue, 1 green, 13 yellow, 2 red and 6 purple.

Also don’t forget that there’s already a topic about the (possibly) bugged achievement: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab-bts/Bugged-Master-of-Baubles-World-2-Achievement/page/2 —Starting to find it weird that moderator(s) aren’t merging these multiple topics on the same subject, as this is the third one I think. Are they seriously avoiding the question or something?

Clouded Judgement.7834:

Absconditus.6804 you open that door next to the checkpoint by singing the flute song.
It’s an alternate way to get where you are without jumping along the mouth.. But you must do it before jumping down

If you need ill post some screenshot.

I didn’t realise that this post was here.. I’ll match it up with my findings and tally them up.. I’m sure together we can find them all

Not sure which door you’re talking about right now. Feel free to go step by step though, following my little write-up on all orbs and secret rooms that I could find, pretty sure whichever door you are referring to, is covered there —It would be a waste of time however, since it simply covers all known orbs, and the tally of them matched perfectly with the one posted at the start of this topic as well, although we’ve picked them up differently.

There’s simply one door I am not sure about how to open, which is the one to the right of the third chest in the zone. The left one opposite of it (perhaps you’re talking about this one?), opens with the Gatekeeper’s Lullaby and allows you to backtrack down into the iced over spike-floored hallway (where you’ll come out opposite of the Gatekeeper door you can open to reach the ice shattering song). Alternatively, you can use this Gatekeeper door, by heading to the right out of it, in order to reach the iced slope leading up to checkpoint #6 a bit further up than the drop by the chest allows for (also where you’d hop up in order to backtrack in this part of the zone).

Nobody has seemingly found a way behind the door on the right of the chest though, and nobody has reported being able to open it otherwise.

You should be able to dig up bunnies pretty much anywhere. If you do fall through the map and land on the bottom, try digging for a while. You may have to run around the bunny for a bit before it will attack you, perhaps even hit it once, and it may take a few more than a single bunny (as they don’t always seem to acknowledge that you are there), but eventually you should be able to bunny-port back to the actual SAB environment.

No, if they don’t provide Guild vs. Guild options outside of World vs. World (like they honestly should look into getting done, aka. 25+ vs 25+ in a instanced area, as sPvP does not cut it for GvG.)

Yes, if they provide other means of doing GvG outside of WvW.

Mikuchan.7261:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab-bts/Bauble-Checklist-for-W2-Z3-INCOMPLETE/first

There’s a checklist.. or a few.. check with them if this one is on their lists.
I think they have 41 baubles of various color so far.

To clarify how many has been found and noted (includes key-chests baubles):

41 blue baubles
1 green bauble
13 yellow baubles
2 red baubles
6 purple baubles

I also think we should keep our discussion going in one topic, not multiple (strange that a moderator haven’t merged them like they usually do really quickly. Tinfoil-hat-mode: They haven’t because they don’t want to respond to either topic.), e.g., https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab-bts/Bugged-Master-of-Baubles-World-2-Achievement/first —since multiple topics is just thinning out the amount of feedback they are getting at one thread.

PS: The bauble people mention is half-embedded in the rock I’ve always spotted normally, but probably because I see it from up top and just drop down on to it. I’ve also taken care to spend at least 10-15 seconds, if not more, to look for baubles while I drop down in various locations, always making sure I drop as small a distance as possible between each ledge available.

CMF.5461:

About 3 hours later, no respawn. I am satisfied with the answer that the first half of w2/z3 does not respawn.

Second half, is easier to test as you can back track that half if need be. So I will not bother to test that section… Just wanted to give piece of mind that we didn’t have to finish the zone in a required amount of time and that we could back track to the second half to pick up any possible respawns and not completely fail the achievement if slow.

It is likely to be a random bug if anything else, and I do recall I thought I had picked up a bauble that I did find again, but.. perhaps I just wrote it down as I was going through, then forgot to actually walk into it and grab it. It could otherwise just be a random bug, like when you’re running around in Normal mode, then suddenly start seeing Infantile checkpoint flags, clouds and/or rainbow paths that’s not really there, I’ve had that happen on more than one occasion at least, and not just in Zone 3. For that matter I often see barrels I’ve exploded/broken for supplies re-appearing without being able to interact with them again in the various zones. Might be something like that too, a bauble you can’t actually get again, a visual bug.

A bit frustrating to see that a happy topic (super adorable though) has gotten a dev response within a short period of time, while topics like this is completely ignored. Is that what the higher-ups are saying? Pretend negative things don’t exist? All we want is a simple “We’re looking into it”.

Let me also say that I think Josh and his team has done an amazing job on SAB, and SAB remains some of the best content I think Guild Wars 2 has gotten (why I want it in there permanently, instead of a temporary “here for a period of time” re-occuring thing (e.g., I’d love to be able to speedrun it throughout the year(s), and just generally have fun when I feel like it in there)), and they’ve usually been quick and good with responding to issues and concerns—but this time around, for whatever reason it may be, it seems they just aren’t responding to this specific concern we are having with the Master of Baubles, World 2 achievement. The lack of feedback to our concerns regarding this, is making me disappointed, it’s making me not have fun, it’s making me annoyed. I haven’t even logged in to GW2 these past 3 days, purely because of this lack of feedback making me so disappointed with the game.

Orpheal.8263:

Hmmpf, then this should be written under Area 1 as its clearly in Area 1 and not 2, even if you can get access to it only from Area 2 via Gatekeeper, otherwise its just confusing.

I too made note of that one in the previously attached .txt ’’guide’’ (as I mentioned before, there’s no reason to even look at that .txt file unless you just wish to compare notes) I had written as I was going through. Although I took a little bit of a different path from the written guide in this topic, we end up with the same exact number of baubles.

From the .txt

Use your Glove to push open the doorway, you can jump over to the left to find the Raccoon Kingpin and the Tree Stump. I do not believe you are required to kill him, nor destroy the tree stump, but I did this in my run. I recommend killing him using the slingshot, as it simplify the encounter greatly. (Note: You may spot the yellow bauble across the chasm here, but you can’t reach this yet, we will grab this later as we progress in the zone, by going through the mouth-wall behind it.)

I also list it after the next Checkpoint, as you can’t reach it before you go through that. I think it would be more confusing to list it for the previous Checkpoint, considering you can’t even get to it.

No communication from developer(s).

A thread easily overlooked, especially with the Search on the forums seemingly being out of service completely (I can’t search for anything at least), and it had fallen back a page (or was it two?). Let’s see how long it takes before we get any sort of feedback from anyone involved in the SAB release.

On-topic: How hard can it be to just confirm that it is/isn’t bugged. If that door at the third chest has an alternative way to be opened, or if it’s a bugged asset that should never be opened, and so on forth. This stupid achievement is honestly making me not want to play their game at all right now, more so because there’s no feedback at all to our valid questions about it. Haven’t even logged in these past couple days, and losing interest to do so at all quickly.

Off-topic: Not a single one of these bi-weekly updates has made me not rage at the game, get frustrated, angry and annoyed with it, and not because it’s not been overall good content, but because of issues with every single bi-weekly update so far. It’s killing the game for me at this rate.

Yasi.9065:

Is there a thread already comparing notes on baubles yet? I cant find it Just so we can make sure someone hasnt found it yet and doesnt find another one ^^

Basically been discussed to death in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab-bts/Bauble-Checklist-for-W2-Z3-INCOMPLETE/first already, but none of us have been able to locate the last supposedly missing bauble(s).

Still got a finger on it being bugged, though that one Gatekeeper door we can’t open at third chest is of course interesting. But then again, that door may just as well be a bug for all we know. Or perhaps it’s a door we can only open once we get another upgrade (and/or learn a different song not available in this release), like the blocked off upgrade in World 2 – Zone 2 seemingly requiring the final stage of the Glove.

Just wish someone at ArenaNet could let us know if they are looking into this or not. It’s been several days without any communication now.

I’ll just go ahead and quote myself from the initial installment of SAB back in April.

Absconditus.6804:

I would really like to see this superb addition of content added to the game permanently instead of being something that only occurs for a short time/month each year. This game mode alone, can draw in more players. Been showing my friends screenshots of this, and they’re all saying they want to buy the game asap. to try it for themselves, as it looks amazing. Some say they worry that they won’t be able to do so early enough though, as they need a paycheck first.

ArenaNet, this is some of the finest new content you’ve done so far for GW2, although your past event additions has been very entertaining as well, this deserves to be permanent for all new and old players to enjoy as it’s hopefully expanded upon. I’m sure you can find something else to do for Easter/April each year instead.

I still would like to see SAB permanent, instead of it being yet another give and take away again event, only being around for periods of time, before going into hibernation until the next time it appears.

There’s several dig spots, but those should not count for the Master of Baubles, World 2 achievement, just like it doesn’t count for any previous bauble-achievements. Unless they of course for some reason decided to include all the dig spots as well, which would be pretty brutal. Haven’t tried to go through the zone collecting baubles, opening chests, and digging up secret dig locations.

It was always a tiny pillar you had to land on. Once they fixed it so we could actually stand on the other traps in the maze that is. That reversed trap that is no longer visible was never solid, though it did give you a tiny indication of where the pillar is from the other side where you jump to it.

I haven’t had the will to even try. The absolute lack of any feedback from ArenaNet on this has made me not even want to try before I read in the patch notes that they fixed a mistake on their end, or that someone says they’ve managed to get the achievement.

Token should be once per day, however, until they probably nerf it because it’s not grindy enough , you can do pretty fast Tribulation runs for bauble-farming. Once you learn the traps and run World 1 – Zone 1/2 fast, you can really rack up on the baubles.

Zaxares.5419:

And yeah, if ANet had given out a special Legendary skin for Eternity at a convention, I wonder if the outrage here would be even higher, seeing as how most players don’t care about minis, but DO care about unique skins.

This is so true. If ArenaNet had given away a Legendary-equal flashy weapon skin with special effects to the those that attended, the outcry would shoot through the roof from those who weren’t there, you can probably take that to the bank. That too would in no way be required to play the game though, right?

I think I’m coming to the conclusion that no matter if they do make plans to redeem this “issue” by making Mr. Sparkles available through, e.g., the Gem Store, that I will still stop collecting miniatures and just sell of my collection, and rather than spending real money on Gems, take that money elsewhere. The damage is done for me, I honestly don’t trust them one bit right now, that they won’t repeat the same thing again with a future collectible miniature.

Off-topic; Somewhat expecting that the WvW season achievements will have something silly like “your server finished in first place”, making it impossible for some players on servers that’s just not good enough for that, to attain it. I’m perhaps a bit too negative towards the game lately, but I wouldn’t put it past them. I really dislike a lot of the things they have done lately to the game, even if a lot of it has been pretty darn great too.

Spiral Architect.6540:

Tachenon.5270:

Ashabhi.1365:

Again, it’s a portion of the playerbase that has decided that the game is unplayable without the absolute BiS gear. The rest of us are out there playing the game in mix-n-match armor. Funny thing is that we’re doing just fine.

I wonder if the new and improved Tequatl is an attempt to remedy that situation.

Yep. Any tweaks to old content, or even new content, will be tuned such that if you don’t have ascended level gear, you’ll wish you did.

Doubt that’ll be case. It’s like the “new and improved” Jormag. They take an encounter, and attempt to make it a bit more challenging, but in the end they only make it more annoying to the player(s). Jormag since the changes done is a drag, it’s a long drawn out yawn-fest. Players want quick satisfaction, and when something that used to be quick is made to artificially last longer, we just tire of it and look elsewhere, occasionally looking back at it once and again if we got nothing better to do.

New Tequatl will likely just be exciting to try out for a first few goes, then like Jormag, just not attended as much anymore. Don’t get me wrong though, I appreciate that they aren’t only putting in new (usually bugged, heh) content every two weeks, but also improving upon what the game already have, at least on paper. The dragon fights has been way too little of a challenge as they were. I even took down Tequatl from 100% to 0% on my own, that doesn’t feel like a epic battle versus a dragon lieutenant.

I’ve felt all my alts are dead ever since they implemented WXP. Forcing me to stick to one character in order to rank up has basically killed off all my alts in the primary content I like to play, World vs. World. My Guardian got the bulk of my ranks, so now I can’t really play any of my other 7 characters, without feeling like I am taking steps backwards instead of advancing. If it weren’t for the occasional fun in PvE, I’d almost wish I could get a refund for all the extra character slots I purchased, as well as the time, real money (Gem Store stuff, bag slots) and Gold I invested in them.

Luckily I still like playing my Guardian the most, at least for the time being.. Still, it has dampened my excitement for WvW. Not even sure I’ve set a foot in there for the past 2 months, and I am primarily interested in WvW. I barely even play lately with all the things they have been doing to the game. These bi-weekly updates are simply killing it for me. Too little time to do anything else. So I burn out, and stop playing between the content updates. Rinse-repeat. Not even sure I enjoy the game that much anymore.

All I need to know, is if it will be available in the future, without the need to fly off to some convention and hope it’s given away there (again). Simple reason being I don’t want to keep collecting miniatures (a goal I had since release, to collect them all) if my collection are going to be forever broken, by what I consider to be a stupid decision, to give away exclusive miniatures to convention attendees. Yes, I call it stupid, because this is breaking a collection, there’s a gap in the Collectibles and I sure don’t want a broken collection. I want to stop collecting entirely if my collection is going to be broken, which means I will not continue to spend real money on Gems in order to purchase miniatures, and as such, this is why I find it to be stupid on their end, since that’s less money for ArenaNet and the game. It’s not stupid for me granted, as I can rather spend said money on something outside of Guild Wars 2, or perhaps in another game.

Without information though, I will still stop buying miniatures, as I ain’t going to keep putting money into collecting something that has no value other than to myself (as the time-limited Gem Store ones are always Account Bound) and once I stop buying these upcoming miniatures, even if they were to release Mr. Sparkles down the line somewhere to the masses, I have already broken my collection by not buying other time-limited ones, and as such, are no longer collecting, the collection will be broken in one way or another. Again, that’s no money going from me, to ArenaNet.

Didn’t they learn anything from the Guild Wars 2 logo t-shirt town clothes? There was already quite an annoyed crowd from those. Could’ve sworn they even stated they wouldn’t repeat that mistake again.

Bethryn.4087:

Shortly after the first polar bear, when you’re going around the outside of the rocks, if you keep your camera flat, you can see there’s a ‘window’ beneath the jumpable areas. I don’t think this is reachable through any obvious methods though.

There are several of these openings in the walls littered all over the place. Those seem to be mainly just re-used assets that could perhaps have been rotated differently to not be in view, but weren’t. I’ve gotten inside a couple of these openings far below the map, dropping down into them, and they’ve always been empty, nothing inside, and actually no way of getting out of them either, since there’s nothing to hop up on to get out of the opening from the inside. Always required me to dig up bunnies, and hope they start attacking me, because in some of these rooms, they seem to not be aware of my existence.

Edit: Fun fact about the sloped face you’re mentioning, jump off to “your death” beside that one, and you’ll simply fall all the way to the bottom of the map, without dying. You can move towards the nearest “mountain” to get yourself killed, or you can run around it if you want to explore more down there. Another quirky “bug” in the zone I guess.

Ayrilana.1396:

Which area early in TM are you referring to?

On further inspection in Infantile mode, to re-locate it, we did actually miss a nearby jump-path we probably could alternatively take. It was after jumping around the cliff-side that’s above the ice maze, with the tricky balloon machine inside the circle of spiked flooring. So yeah, I guess it doesn’t require any dodge-jumps except for the one yellow bauble then. And perhaps there’s an alternative thing we can do there too.

At least if it’s supposed to be true that no place requires it. Since it is as far as we know, required to reach that bauble, and that bauble is required to get the achievement, but I guess someone could argue that achievements aren’t required, but then again—neither is playing the game.