Guild Wars 2

I’m sorry, but it’s hard to look at the original HoT maps and call them “zerg” maps. Certainly some of the events can be a handful for a solo player, but very few of them are “zerg” events until you reach the boss meta. Only DS really deviates as nearly every event is designed for a large group.

I do agree that VB is an excellent map and easily one of my favorites. But I fail to see what is so different about the events in that map vs. TD, for instance. These are my two favorite maps in the game to just play around solo, so you really have me scratching my head here.

I hope whatever they come up with in the next expansion they will at least have a couple of maps in the VB/TD vertical style. They really are a joy for many of us to play and I’d be disappointed if every new map followed the Ember Bay/Bitterfrost Frontier style. Those events are just boring and the maps themselves just aren’t as interesting to me.

Yeah, I could do those things, and maybe I will. It doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t have to be this way and there’s really no good reason for it, if you think about it. But if you enjoy saving mats for months to make an exotic set just to test out a sub-optimal build you’re certainly welcome to your opinion! Suffice it to say that I disagree.

Well, you can keep playing normally for 8 hours and coming up with nothing, or just do a bit of farming here and there and have enough gold to buy the mats you need in a few days. According to GW2crafts, 0-500 leatherworker should cost around 100g. That isn’t cheap, but it’s certainly cheaper than crafting the ascended armor you want to make once you reach 500!

Ameepa.6793:

To me exploits are always cheats no matter how diffult they are to do and cheating in multiplayer game is something I never approve.

It’s only cheating if it violates the rules of the game. An exploit is merely utilizing game mechanics in an unintended way. It may violate the rules, but it may not. This is also why some exploits get fixed, some become bannable offenses, and others simply become part of the way a game is played. But skill requirements have no bearing on whether or not something qualifies as an exploit.

Cyril.7294:

Hello guys, i’m one of those returning players.. I use to play back during beta,
then came back and went away a couple of times.

during beta you could use all 5 specialization at a time but never use them fully if you did, selectable traits had no tiers. I guess it was near impossible to balance so something had to give..

but as it stands now?
Every class has one specialization that overshadows the others, that’s right i’m looking at you HoT. So what you end up with that every class is locked into 1 of the 3 specializations, so you end up with only 2 specializations left to pick from..

Is there anyone else that noticed this and feels unhappy about it?
Maybe they could add in cross trait lines from diffrent professions/weapons/utilities..

Discuss to your hearts content.
~
Unavailable Hero

I would be very surprised if they didn’t have more elite specializations in the works. If, for instance, you had three mutually exclusive elite specializations to choose from, it would create a minimum of 3 distinctive playstyles per class, plus variants based upon the other two normal specialization choices.

However, I agree that build diversity takes a hit when you have only one choice to make. The deck is heavily stacked in favor of taking the elite spec. You gain a set of utility skills, a weapon set, and the traits themselves tend to be noticeably more powerful as well.

An exploit may or may not require skill, but it is still an exploit. However, an exploit may also become emergent gameplay if the developers decide that it is not problematic and/or represents an improvement or acceptable deviation from the intended use. It is up to the developers to decide whether utilizing an exploit is an offense, as not all unintended uses of game mechanics are problematic.

Is it really necessary to have time-gated materials (charged quartz crystal) involved in crafting this gear? It seems like a cool set that could produce some interesting builds, but in order to test it out I’d have to spend months charging crystals.

I wanted to try it out on my elementalist, but I guess I’ll have to settle for trinkets only as the armor and weapons are ridiculous to craft due to this requirement. I’m not going to waste all that time and effort just to experiment!

Any chance we can replace this with something else or perhaps remove the time gate from charged crystals?

Hi! I’m watching this thread to learn about mesmer PvE options. However, I noticed you mentioned you had trouble surviving with thief. I know how to do that! Try something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiau67+yfLHHsqrrnCgGA-ThRBQBZU5X+0N8gLCgJVCmQ1fAwTAgUA6pMC-e

This build isn’t going to win you the DPS race in raids or fractals, but produces more than adequate burst for open world PvE scenarios. For survival it combines powerful heals on offense with endless dodge and an unusually high health pool. It also has access to active and passive stun breaks and condi cleanse on evade.

If any of you know mesmer well, please recommend a build for open world PvE! I’d love to hear some details of how it works, too!

I’m considering dusting off my mesmer and could really use some guidance on open world PvE builds, too. I know. It’s open world PvE: “Do whatever!” But still I would like to hear from more experienced players, perhaps a little more in depth than “Whatever!” builds.

So far the only classes I’ve found my comfort zone with are thief and necromancer. With both of these characters I’m able to solo most group events and champions I encounter in HoT. I would like to maintain an offensive playstyle and stat set (e.g. marauder is okay, but I’d like to avoid soldier gear, etc.) if possible.

When I leveled and unlocked my elite spec, I actually found mesmer was among the stronger survival classes. Using greatsword from range and maintaining illusions between shatters gave me all the time I needed to sustain. But the damage seemed quite poor despite full berserker stats.

Based on this, can you recommend anything? Should I go condi? What weapon set? What trait lines might offer superior sustain with at least decent damage output? And though it’s subjective, tell me what’s fun for you! Thanks!

The wardrobe/dye system, combat system, artwork, and generally just excellent open world PvE content.

You’re welcome to your opinion, but I think you may be missing the point. The choice to lock down the UI and keep it simple was not an oversight. It was intentional. Just as the decision to rely on “horizontal” progression was intended. ANet set out to capture a segment of the market that was disillusioned with the MMO format.

It appears that they succeeded, even if these design decisions carry their own set of issues.

You don’t need to be “substantially more powerful” than other players by virtue of your fancy gear. All you need is a goal to work toward. The motivation for doing so doesn’t necessarily have to be ever higher stat bonuses.

The trouble is that the reward pool in general is too shallow. For instance, masteries are fairly effective at motivating players to go for them. However, it isn’t long before players either have all of the masteries or stop seeking them because the remaining masteries aren’t worth slogging through less desirable content (adventures and storyline achievements, usually).

What I will agree with is that endgame does feel unrewarding and rather aimless in this game. I simply disagree that the same old paradigm other MMOs have been using for years is the only answer or even a good solution at all. I think it would be very damaging to this game because of its unique playerbase and their expectations. They are extremely sensitive to this issue because they played this game specifically because of choices like this!

I did some raiding over the years over in WoW, and I’ll tell you something: My favorite part of raiding was the point in progression where you don’t have the practice and/or gear to defeat the boss just yet.

In that scenario the group more or less knows what to do and the optimal build to accomplish it, but because certain parts of our collective game aren’t up to the task, we’re forced to improvise and compensate for weaknesses.

By the time you defeat the boss, it’s usually not long before you revert to the “optimal” (read: highest DPS you can get away with!) build and begin farming it. But in that brief period, raiding feels so much more dynamic. I really feel my personal contribution (for good or ill!) in that scenario.

It strikes me that in breaking with the trinity, GW2 has injected a lot of that into the dungeon/fractal game. I’m well aware that practiced groups usually follow the meta and that the PvE meta is “as much DPS as possible while covering any other requirements necessary”. However, I think the fact that nobody is a true “tank” or “healer” creates a scenario where players are forced to improvise in similar ways to what I enjoyed most about group PvE over in WoW. We are using the flexibility of the system to get the job done when the group isn’t optimal.

In any event, having defined roles wasn’t enough to prevent WoW from becoming a straight DPS-fest once you reach raid farm status anyway. Yeah, your healer heals and your tank tanks, but they do it with as much DPS thrown in as possible. Not really any different than it is here, but I think the gameplay in the learning phase can actually be more compelling without the trinity.

Not that it matters, as you’ve apparently made your choice. But which storyline are we talking about here?

I should think the personal storyline you unlock every 10 levels while leveling should be very manageable for nearly all players. There are a few spots where it might get a little dicey if you try to handle it all yourself, but usually in those cases the NPCs will tank a bit (or even handle the entire event) where all you really need to do is sit back, eat popcorn, and stay alive.

If this is the HoT storyline, well there’s no denying it’s a bit of a step up from the personal storyline. But I don’t really see it as any more difficult than LS2 or LS3 content. This is part of what ANet considers “endgame” content (and I imagine many players coming from other MMOs with a “real” endgame get a chuckle from that!). It’s supposed to be challenging and probably, for some players, quite difficult to complete without more than a few retries.

I’m sorry if that wasn’t your cup of tea. However, if you change your mind and need a hand with it, I’d be glad to help. Hit me up in game if you want to take me up on that offer.

So, I don’t really play PvP/WvW. Help me out here. Isn’t a staff thief’s big thing vault/bound spam? I mean, these moves do a lot of damage and the window you have to land a hit is very small due to all of the evades. But they are also telegraphed moves that are much harder to land against targets that aren’t rushing in, right?

I feel like there’s an opportunity there, but again I don’t PvP so maybe I’m missing something.

OriOri.8724:

Lord Bubbles.3861:

A-net has already said that they will be adding Petrified Wood and Blood Rubies to the material storage. I’m pretty sure they’ll be doing the same for the berries. As for the Empyreal Crystals, Dragonite Ore, and Bloodstone Dust, just buy those material storage expanders, which increases the maximum stack size in the material storage by 250.

Unless Lynsey made a new post on Reddit she was only considering rubies and wood being added to the mat storage, it wasn’t set in stone yet. And it would be kittening stupid to add them considering they are primarily a currency

Then add them to currency? This is only going to get worse before it gets better if they keep adding a different currency for every new map!

I think it’s a great idea: Reward tracks for post-cap experience instead of just spirit shards.

I also agree that mastery tracks should be their own thing, independent of experience reward tracks. In other words, you should not have to complete all of the mastery tracks before beginning on experience tracks. Instead, you should be able to work on them simultaneously.

I’m not sure what’s “entitled” about it. The only difference between a potential reward track and those that already exist is that they already exist. Are you “entitled” for thinking a reward track is a good thing? I don’t think so. But enjoy your mints, I guess?

This game lets you change your build on the fly. It is intended that you do so in order to overcome challenges. A PvE raid build that maximizes damage assumes the player has support from other players for condition cleansing and healing. However, in solo open world content you are lacking that support. So compensate by changing your build to include additional protection from conditions and CC. Problem solved.

Well, the storyline gives a reasonable explanation for what you perceive as rehashing the same strategy. If you don’t know that already, I suggest you check out the storyline so far. It explains why the dragons seem somewhat similar in their powers.

Having said that, dragons don’t make great villains because they aren’t people with their complex (and interesting!) motivations. It’s a lot like making a lion the bad guy in a story. Yeah, he has teeth and claws. But if the story is going to be any good it’s the interactions between characters with those human motivations that reach the player.

I’m hoping that means that moving forward they’ll start to move away from quickly charging down the next path to yet another dragon and killing it. The appearance of questionable allies like Lazarus (I think his name was?) is more setting the stage for something like that than announcing which dragon we’ll be going after next.

Plus, even while I enjoyed HoT overall, the storyline wasn’t great AND it was a total knockoff of WoW, the night elves, and the Emerald Dream. I mean plenty of details are different, but it isn’t enough to avoid feeling like they just said “Hey, green dragons you fight in a nightmare dreamworld and they corrupt tree-hugging elf people? We should do that, too!”

I happen to agree that armor pieces would be nice, and I liked the idea about a new armor piece each week. But I also purchased an outfit this time around. You could stand to get your point across without throwing petty insults at people after ascribing your own motivations to them.

I bought the outfit (my first) because I’m leveling with a friend and I thought it would be nice to have something cool looking instead of the constantly rotating assortment of generic skins I’m stuck with while leveling.

I also thought it might make a nice change of pace from time to time, particularly as part of a collection of several outfits that I find appealing. This would have the added benefit of not costing me transmutation charges every time I want to change my look.

This in no way indicates that I don’t also like cobbling together a unique look from whatever skins I have available. Nor does it indicate a lack of imagination. You present a false choice. We could have both, and I expect that would appeal to more players than one or the other even if it meant somewhat fewer outfits but more single armor pieces.

BattleRattle.5420:

Agreed it looks good on males (human based ones I guess)… but do not put it on a Charr female… just don’t.

Really? I think it looks particularly good on my Charr female. And I think it looks a little goofy on some of the male character models. But to each their own!

Here’s a shot with a bonus Traeherne photobomb:

I hope they’ll find a way to allow players to loot only once per account per event completion. AB is the easiest HoT meta to complete and the most rewarding, and will remain so even if this change is made.

I also think they should find ways to make the other HoT metas more rewarding. They are all quite a bit more difficult than AB, yet provide far fewer rewards. You made some truly amazing maps here. Let’s just provide proper incentives for them, huh?

Personally, I think they should just increase out-of-combat movement speed by 25% for everyone. This should make swiftness a more relevant combat boon while removing the annoyance of having to waste traits or utility slots simply to move faster while you aren’t fighting things.

Thanks for the info! I chose beast mastery, but I am dying to try quick draw. It won’t be long!

I am a bit confused about pets. I’d heard that felines are the highest DPS, but I picked up an ice drake which has a tail swipe that seems to hit way harder than anything my jungle stalker pet can do. In fact, with boosters my stupid pet hits a good bit harder than I do with my biggest hit all boosted up!

Is there a resource that makes it easier to figure out what all these pets do? It seems the stats don’t tell the whole story. Or am I just missing something?

No. You just don’t know how to use LFG. Initially, I would have agreed that logging in and just playing is the way to go. But as a solution that would do that for HoT never materialized, I realized that just using LFG at the proper time is an easy way to get results most of the time.

You should try it. Maybe you’ll like HoT better?

Currently up to level 41, just learning as I go. But so far it seems like a fun and effective class with plenty of options. I didn’t really know what would work, but here’s what I came up with: Marksmanship, greatsword/longbow.

I found out right away that stacking might and signet actives with the opening strike effects from marksmanship can produce ridiculous damage at low levels using greatsword 2. Well in excess of my character’s max health on an opening strike, in fact! However, I’m assuming this has to do with the way stats scale at the low end as it’s leveled out to something a bit more reasonable as I’ve progressed.

But what do you guys think? I mean, I can read meta battle and find out what the latest raid, PvP, or WvW meta is. But I’ll be working toward reaching level 80 and then unlocking my elite spec for some time. What do you recommend to new rangers learning the ropes in open world?

Get gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms before anything else.

The entire gliding line is nice to have for getting around.

Nuhoch wallows and exalted markings are useful, but not required.

You will need Itzel poison mastery and leyline gliding for full map completion.

Unlocking the vendors is also recommended.

It sounds like you have some ideas. Mesmer does have a great deal of utility, but is probably less of the damage dealer you may recall from the WoW mage class. Ranger (druid) might be a good option if healing support is your gig. It’s difficult to say what you’re going to like because this combat system is very different from WoW.

Never gonna give you up…

In my opinion, HoT content, while not perfect, is a clear improvement over the original game. I think the open world content is just better. There’s more going on and every event you complete ties into the progression of the map meta. You aren’t just escorting an NPC from A to B and that’s it. When you get there, the story continues and it ties into events that are happening all over the map.

The conclusion of the map meta is generally more complicated and difficult, requiring some degree of coordination. That does present the problem of getting yourself into an organized map that is focused on completing the meta. Initially, I thought this was a failing of HoT, but more and more I appreciate this style of content.

If I want to just farm or run other objectives (HPs/MPs, etc.) I can do that. If I want to get in on the meta, I can either begin to organize the map by throwing up a tag and getting started or I can hop to another map that already has something going on.

Finally, I love the uniqueness of these maps. I wasn’t too excited about the HoT storyline, but stepping into the verdant brink for the first time and seeing the aftermath of Mordremoth’s assault on the pact fleet was a definite high point. And then I just leaped right into it with the events fitting right into the storyline.

HnRkLnXqZ.1870:

Ok, I won’t quote the obvious again. Let’s just say op did not look careful enough. However depending on your personal opinion, it can be a little annoying when you constantly see women in underwear. There are two very cool ways to solve it easily:

1. Move your base to Rata Sum. It is the most efficient built city in GW2, with closest range to all banks, tp, crafting stations. It is also a futuristic architecture and the inhabitants are Asura <3. It is quite hard to tell if you see a male or a female asura if you are not familiar with them. Even if the armor reveals a lot, you literally see nothing but cuteness.

2. Option Menue => Graphics Options => Advanced Settings => Character Model Quality set to “Lowest”
This will cause all players on screen to wear the basic armor sets. The legendary weapons and special backpacks still remain, but everything that could probably offend a person vanishes. It just looks very boring and even a place like Lion’s Arch feels like a city full of NPCs only.

LoL Thanks for the advice, but I feel like you folks are reading what you want to read here. I have zero issue with revealing skins. They don’t offend my eyes every time I see them. I just had a concept for my necromancer, went to make it happen and suddenly realized that although I have quite a few skins, apparently hardly any of them cover up skin on a female character model in light armor!

Take it easy, guys. All I’ve said is my opinion: That I would prefer better availability for less revealing armor skins for female character models. That’s my preference. It’s completely subjective and you’re welcome to yours.

However, I probably haven’t been playing as long as you guys have. Let me put it into numbers. I currently have 27 skins available for light armor chest piece. Being fairly new, I haven’t gone out of my way to discover any particular armor skins. I’ve just played the game and collected skins as I went.

Out of those 27 skins, 15 skins show most of the mid-section along with partial or no sleeves, with 11 of those skins featuring little more than a bra. Of the remaining skins, only 2 fully covered the mid-section and both had plunging necklines cut down to reveal curves. I have 0 “full coverage” skins available such as the screenshot shared by Crinn.7864 above.

I don’t doubt that the skins I’m looking for exist in this game, but randomly unlocking 27 skins to those results indicates to me either colossally bad luck or an obvious inclination of the artists toward extremely revealing clothing on female character models.

Again, I’m fine with these skins. I’d just like to see a better ratio of less revealing clothing.

Edit: This is what I came up with for my necromancer. I couldn’t go with my original concept, since I don’t yet have any full coverage skins. But I thought this ended up looking pretty nice. The fiery claws are a bit odd, but they pair nicely with a primordus scepter skin, with that demon mask and smoke and flame coming off the gloves and weapon.

So, I was upgrading gear and changing the look on a norn female character and it occurred to me that while I have quite a few chest and leg skins unlocked, the vast majority are barely “clothing” at all and look like they’d be better suited to a lingerie shop.

I don’t have an issue with such skins. This isn’t a moral complaint or social commentary on the objectification of women. It’s a game. Do what you want. But I would appreciate it if I had better availability for full coverage tops and bottoms for female characters in this game.

And what is the deal with all the skirts that are full-length, then randomly open up in the front or on the sides to reveal your underwear? Is that really a thing? It looks completely ridiculous! But maybe that’s just me. Maybe get some female artists who know what they’re doing in there? I dunno.

Impossible? I doubt that. I’ve never fully solo’d the mushroom queen, but I can usually sustain indefinitely against her on my thief while others run back from the waypoint to lend some damage.

So, if I bring my “A” game she should be doable. But it would just take forever because I can’t fight her at close range and thief range damage isn’t all that great to begin with. I imagine a ranged class using condi and a lot of survivability would have the best shot at it (necro, probably) in any reasonable amount of time.

But why solo it? Just bring a friend or two and build for survival.

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

We’ll find out. I see lots of people every day in Ember Bay. I saw lots of people farming the labyrinth too and that’s hardly rocket science. I see ten, twelve or more labyrinth groups at all time, many of the skipping the hard bosses.

I have a very hard time believing those in the lab groups are there because they find the lab more fun than anything else in the game. Otherwise those lucky ones with a second monitor wouldn’t be using it to do other things with it, while “playing”.

Some people really don’t care about difficult content. In fact, I’d wager it’s a majority. I like some difficult content, but I don’t think I prefer difficult content all the time.

There are many tiers of difficulty. Was HoT too difficult? Maybe.
Can’t there be something that is easier than HoT but isn’t only about pressing one on the keyboard like Ember Bay bosses, SW chest farming or the Lab?
There must be a middle ground between “too hard” and “too easy”.

Hey, I’m with you. I love the HoT maps and was not particularly impressed with Ember Bay. However, there was a strong negative reaction from many players who simply didn’t enjoy those convoluted layouts and difficult enemies.

It’s like I say to the players who demand that ANet turn away from designing HoT-style maps in the future: I want to see different types of maps that cater to different tastes. I don’t require every map to be tailored to my tastes, so why should anyone else?

When I look at the HoT offerings to date, I’m about 50/50. VB, TD, and BF are my 3 favorite maps in the game, while AB, DS, and EB weren’t as appealing to me. I can work with that and I’m sure plenty of other players appreciate those maps that aren’t really my cup of tea.

Right. As I mentioned, stealth is somewhat less useful because it will not prevent projectiles already en route from tracking and striking you. So, for instance, leaping off a ledge in range of white mantle knights, deploying your glider, and then engaging stealth will not produce the results you want.

It’s not that stealth doesn’t work. It’s that players tend to want it to work in a way that it simply doesn’t in this scenario. Trait a passive stun break as a safety net and glider 5 to evade the vast majority of projectiles. Stealth can cover your entry into enemy projectile range or cut down on new projectiles while glider 5 is on cooldown.

I may be too new to understand how this works, but I don’t see how “just dodge everything” is a viable strategy in group content. You can’t dodge everything, so unless you have someone else helping you clear your condi and burst heal when you can’t, you’re going to get downed a lot.

I don’t know if this is acceptable in high end fractals as I’ve only done up to mid-level so far, but I don’t think thief is in a bad spot as far as DPS in small groups goes. Why not just slap on some marauder pieces, take invigorating precision in the CS line and pair it up with the defensive offerings in the acrobatics line. This should greatly increase your survivability, at some cost to your damage output, of course.

Bad fit for this game, in my opinion. We don’t have gear progression for a reason. Anyone who has played WoW and seen how gear checks work for group content should know it’s a terrible idea for this game. You would quickly alienate your core.

Tekey.7946:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Uhm, You actually can fight the wurm in ember bay directly with ranged weapons if you so desire. Though the setup doesn’t really make it nescesary I suppose.

Then again, with the mursaat and titans gone, who is left to pose a threat? Though i do miss the GW1 destroyers. It seems to me that gw1 had way more varying encounters than GW2. imo.

Yup, I’m aware that you’re theoretically able to attack it, but it doesn’t make sense like that. They should’t have let a golem do the work for you, the whole fight should have been designed differently.

Well we’ve got a pretty huge threat at the Fire Island Chain -> Elder Dragon. There are in fact new types of destroyers in Ember Bay, with the power the dragon absorbed they should be even deadlier now. The ‘Molten Dominator’ is a champion of Primordus – ridiculous. Lorewise they’re supposed to be stronger than usual destroyers but there’s no difference to those in Kessex Hills.
And yes, the hydras or dryders are also missing.

mauried.5608:

The entire concept that a game has to be challenging or easy to play is meaningless.
Everyone in an MMO doesnt have the same skills and never will, so you cant force a one size fits all players into an MMO and expect it will be fun for everyone.

Every game has its own target group. Talking about the open world: The problem with GW2 is that they want it to fit everyone’s style – from casual to advanced players. With that mindset no one will ever be pleased: There were casual players complaining about the difficulty of HoT while the advanced players were pleased with it. With Ember Bay they’re heading back to ridiculously easy – casual players enjoy it, advanced players just find it boring and dull. They don’t want to have a specified target group in order to get as much players as possible. But that way there’s always a certain group being dissatisfied.

However, there’s another point: the new maps are part of HoT. With HoT you can assume many players already learned a lot since they started and are also able to use elite specializations. Those specializations actually made every class stronger. They adapted the difficulty of the mobs in HoT to match it. Ember Bay is a part of HoT – knowing that the classes (and players) are now stronger, they still reduced the difficulty.

Perhaps. But it’s also possible that they could design some maps to be easier than others and appeal to a broader base. I feel pretty positive about HoT overall, even while I much prefer maps like TD and VB to EB. I could be wrong, but I could swear the overall attitude toward HoT has improved since the April patch and especially with the release of easier maps like BF and EB.

I just hope they don’t completely abandon the amazing map styles they introduced with the original HoT release. A lot of players do like maps like that, even while it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. If they can produce a nice mix of maps, I think it could work to appeal to more players.

The only way you could uncouple the new weapons from the elite spec would be to rebalance all trait lines so that the elites are not more powerful. As it stands, if another elite spec were released you would effectively make it so that players double-dip. Who doesn’t want access to 2 or more new weapons and associated OP trait lines? It makes sense in that scenario to make elite specs exclusive so that players must choose 1 out of however many options.

LoL NooBs.5076:

DoctorDing.5890:

I can’t believe this thread is still going

Me neither. I thought all players that had their own opinion would be perma-banned by now.

juno.1840:

GW2 is still an incredible value compared to all other options — even F2P.

Or more accurately, only F2P. No one argues that GW2 is a bargain at $0. It’s the absurd price of HoT that we revolt over. ANet trying to charge $50 for a yet unfinished series of patches (which some of you still suffer from the delusion could summarily be referred to as an expansion) don’t mean it’s worth above $4.99. And all of that should go to the map design and music.

As always, you’re welcome to your opinion, but $50 is pretty much industry standard for MMOs, in my experience. We aren’t playing cell phone games here where you can work on a shoe-string budget with no staff and put out the same game with a slightly different package on it every few months for $4.99.

Yeah, it’s “unfinished” because they will continue to develop for the entire life cycle of the expansion, all under the umbrella of your initial purchase. They could charge us less up front and then $4.99 for every major content patch to follow, but I doubt most players would be happy with that model. It works for google play, not so much for MMOs.

ProtoGunner.4953:

@Vayne and @Ayrilana, you are defending the game with such a passion…

First off, I think people overreact about price and the ‘I PAID ALREADY FOR ORIGINAL GAME’ argument. They played hundreds or thousands of hours for 3 years and got well worth their fair share of playtime.

But hear this: You can argue whatever you want there are two rather strong suspicions that lead to a not-so-good marketing strategy and failure (in regards of anet’s/ncsoft’s expectations):

1. The overwhelmingly negative reaction about the price of the expansion compared to actual content (landmass, dungeons etc.). Features-wise the expansion delivered though. Also they didn’t meet expectations sales-wise. It wasn’t bad either, but they expected more. So, somewhere they din’t deliver what a lot of people expected/wanted.

2. The treatment towards veterans. I was puzzled that I first didn’t even get a single additional character slot. In GW1 you got 2 slots per additional campaign (yeah, you’ll start to argue that it’s a campaign and no expansion…). After the nerd-rage emerging in the forums and reddit they at least added one additional slot for people who already had the game. But then again only under certain conditions; you can’t get it anymore.
Additionally, they ask charges for LS2 which is a very bad move. They could have marketed the expansion better (like ’HoT – LS2 included!). The story is so much tightly knit to the events in HoT. And it was for free anyway during the release.

Fair points, and people are certainly welcome to their opinions regardless. Having said that, as a new-ish arrival to GW2 earlier this year coming over from WoW, I was a little surprised at the reaction.

From WoW I’m used to the expansion model: Release an expansion and then spend the time between the next expansion fleshing out that content. That is how they do it over in WoW and it appears to be what they’re doing here as well. There isn’t really any other way you can do it, is there? Short of just not doing expansions at all?

Yet some players here seemed to be working under the assumption that expansions should be complete upon release and that anything less is effectively a bait-and-switch. They told you it was an expansion, but didn’t have all of the content they intend to include ready upon release. No fair!

On the second point, I agree. They should definitely throw a bone to their loyal customers, taking care not to alienate potential new players. I would not mind seeing tiered rewards of some sort for established players who purchase the latest expansion. By “tiered” I mean someone who bought the original game AND HoT AND whatever the next expansion is called should receive some sort of loyalty reward above what a player like myself who only signed on for HoT receives.

With a few simple strategies the projectiles and random deaths while gliding can be easily avoided.

Your best defense by far is to trait a passive stun break. When struck by a projectile that would normally send you falling to your death, you’ll completely ignore it and keep gliding.

Your next defense is glider skill 5. You evade for the entire animation and it covers you with stability for a short time as well. It also greatly increases your flight speed, allowing you to quickly get out of range of new projectiles. IMPORTANT: You can extend the range of this skill by holding down the button!

Finally, you have the stealth mastery option. This is less useful because it doesn’t prevent projectiles in flight from tracking and striking you. However, you can use it to cover yourself when entering projectile range or following glider 5 to cover the cooldown if needed.

Try these strategies out. You should find projectiles are no longer an issue in BF.

FreedomFTW.4275:

I am still waiting to get free HoT cause i don’t have intention to pay 2 times for the same game

This is such an odd complaint. You paid for the original game. Now there’s an expansion to it. Why would you expect to receive an expansion for free? Is that a thing out there somewhere in the MMO universe? Free expansions? Who does that? No MMO I’ve ever played offers expansions free of charge.

You’re welcome to not pay for it all you like, but your expectations are simply unreasonable. ANet doesn’t owe you new products for life just because you once paid them for the original release of GW2!

I will agree that Ember Bay is a bit of a joke in terms of difficulty. But I think it may have been needed. Many players were getting a little fed up with the difficulty in HoT. I’ll say the same thing about the difficulty as I do about the complicated map layouts: As much as I enjoy a challenge in both cases, I recognize that I’m not the only player playing this game. I need other players to enjoy this game, too. Or else I’ll be playing it by myself!

So, is EB a joke? Yeah, pretty much. There are no difficult fights on the island. It’s all easy mode all the time. But maybe that’s what we needed after the other HoT maps? Personally, I preferred BF as a compromise. The fights were a bit more challenging but nothing crazy, and the map was a LOT more interesting, in my opinion. Plus glider combat!

TwiceDead.1963:

So it seems… That the aggro mechanic is all over the place because they want it to be.

Alright.

Shrug

One of the hallmarks of GW2 is moving away from the rigidly defined roles of tank/heals/dps. You can’t very well do that with simple aggro rules. That’s where the concept of tanking comes from: load up a character with health/armor, etc. and use simple aggro rules to force all enemies to focus that target. GW2 just doesn’t do much of that.

Well, from what I’ve heard and anecdotal evidence of my own, I believe proximity, damage dealt, and toughness are probably factors at least some of the time.

I’ve noticed that against some enemies they simply won’t touch me if a class that typically has some additional toughness is present. I figure that has to be the toughness.

Other enemies I either hold their attention continuously, or it seems to swap back and forth. It’s more difficult to tell. Is this proximity? Does it drop target because I dodged out and then jumped back in? Or is it maybe damage dealt? I was the primary target because I was dealing the most damage, but when forced to evade out another player surpasses me? Is it total damage dealt or damage over a certain period of time?

I’m not sure there’s a good way to know for sure.

Meta builds are generally not well-suited to solo open world play. Yet most players spend a significant amount of time participating in this sort of content. So right there a big chunk of your time would be better spent designing a non-meta build.

I had another thief player just the other day claim that a certain champion HP in TD was too difficult to solo. So I did it for him with my thief, while he repeatedly died and ran back to the HP. When I talked to him afterward he claimed the issue was that he wasn’t as fast a player as I am, but upon talking further it became clear that he was using a straight glass meta build. Big surprise, huh?

But this even applies in organized group content. Obviously, you want to maximize your damage output in these scenarios while still covering whatever other roles you’re needed for. However, you still need to stay alive and especially while the group is still learning encounters, adding some survivability into a meta dps build can actually be beneficial.

Basically, the meta only applies to a very narrow band of content and really only applies in the strictest sense to experienced groups who have the content on farm (speed dungeons/fractals, raid farming, etc.).

It was the same thing over in WoW. People who claim the meta is the only way (in PvE) are just used to a different type of play than the average player. When nobody makes mistakes, you can survive with a straight out dps build. But you aren’t doing your learning group any favors by dying after putting out sick deeps!

KyreneZA.8617:

I don’t own HoT. I still think gliding is awesome and rag on my wife who has HoT and glides at every opportunity because I am indeed envious.

What I can’t understand is that people still bring up the “do what you want however you want” broken promises manifesto after we all know by now that ANet lied, and continue to do so in the name of profit. C’mon folks, you should have come to that “shame on me” part of the old saw by now. I’m not saying all of the great people working for ANet are kittens, but ANet is after all a company interested in separating you from your cash. As often and expeditiously as possible. If that involves making certain things in the game gated in order to force you to experience what they laid out salaries to bring to you, I can understand that. If it means that other pieces of the game are gated behind a whole expansion/system, then that’s just to force you to spend money. Deal with it: GW2 is not a free game and never will be.

Sorry. I’m sort of new around here. Did ANet really promise they would deliver this game entirely free? I find that hard to believe. Further, HoT is worth the money. I know a lot of players didn’t feel that way initially and ANet seemed to have a long pause after the release, but this is how MMO expansions work. They release some of the content up front and then continue releasing new additions until the next expansion is ready to go live.

I’m not saying I love paying money for games. Obviously, if I could get them for free (legally!) I would! But if we don’t pay for it, why should we expect to see more content? Developers have to make a living, too! And like I said, the product is easily worth the money (YMMV, of course!).

I’m looking forward to the next expansion and I don’t mind paying for it even a little bit. If the game is worth playing, I’d like to support continued development!

Thanks for the info, guys. I didn’t know about the other options available, so at least there’s that. And I am on a NA server, for those who asked. So if you guys want to run one of these dungeons some time I’d definitely be down for that.