Guild Wars 2

So, I have a bit of an issue with the dungeon currency req for legendaries. As I understand it, dungeons are basically not a project you’re really supporting at this point. So here’s the thing: I need 500 shards of Zhaitan from Arah to complete Bifrost.

Finding a group for this is like pulling teeth because you get virtually nothing as a reward for a lengthy headache of a dungeon that only experienced players could ever hope to navigate in a reasonable amount of time.

Apparently, you receive 80 shards from completing this dungeon, but it takes forever and most groups never make it. The result is I can hours in this place (repeatedly!) and make next to no progress toward my goal because only a full clear provides a number of shards worth mentioning.

So, a simple request: Either support this content by providing appropriate rewards for a dungeon that takes a great deal of time and effort to complete, or change the requirements for legendary weapons to include fractal currencies or some other content that you do support.

FWIW, I don’t mind the sound. I wouldn’t be opposed to reducing the frequency, but otherwise just leave it alone.

I’d guess Bloodstone Fen or Ember Bay.

I agree with much of what you say. Gliding is awesome, adventures are lame, and everyone should earn spirit shards for experience regardless of their mastery progress. I otherwise enjoy the mastery system, but I would make the additional suggestion that bounce mushrooms and updrafts should have been granted as baseline via the storyline.

Along with gliding, players would have the basic tools they need to begin exploring the jungle and I think it would have felt a lot less restrictive.

Ranger is a good choice if you prefer range. Thief with pistols can produce effective burst, but once you run out of initiative the damage output drops sharply. You’re also limited to Single target. Thief is much better at melee.

I didn’t show up until January of this year, but loving HoT. Keep it coming!

sophiewhite.3149:

if you choose not to do a activity then you do not deserve the rewards from said activity. your not entitled to free gold. thats not how economys work.

Unless you AB multimap. Then you’re entitled to free gold. You don’t have to do anything! Just stand there and then loot the chests on 10 different maps cleared by others! Yay!

Galtrix.7369:

Interesting. Because I remember very, very few being available unless you choose to jump onto a platform or fall into an abyss and glide. I know, because I collected all of the ones that were at ground level first in each of the HoT maps and I was still required to go back and get mp’s that I need to platform for in order to do my personal story.

We’ve already covered this. The act of jumping from one platform to another does not define “platforming”. Platformers are games where technical jumping is the bulk of the gameplay, such as the previously mentioned example of Super Mario Bros. You can try to fit HoT into that all you like. There is nothing technical about jumping and hitting the spacebar to deploy your glider. Sorry!

Galtrix.7369:

Vayne.8563:

Galtrix.7369:

vesica tempestas.1563:

Galtrix.7369:

vesica tempestas.1563:

Ashen.2907:

vesica tempestas.1563:

as i said, objective and subjective e.g ‘convoluted’ I was talking about an objective evaluation of wether GW2 HOT zones were designed to be aimed at people who enjoy platformer games – and it is clearly not..if you are objective. Anyone can give their opinion, but that doesn’t make a thing factual. Simply put because someone thinks a thing is a ‘platformer’ when it was clearly designed not to be a platformer then that does not make it true.

also, the new zone is less complicated than HOT. There is no ‘direction’ there is simply a game that is expanding, and it would be a dull game if every zone that was introduced was simply the same as came before with a new skin.

And the HoT zones clearly were designed for people who enjoy platformers if you are being objective.

See I can call an opinion an objective fact too. Fun stuff.

that fact that players do not go to HOT to play a platformer is fact, not opinion. Its interesting that the only people who think its a platformer is those people who dislike it isnt it. Nothing wrong with not liking the design of the HOT zones, but you should ask yourself why you have the need to justify your dislike with an attempt to label it as something that it is not.

I enjoy HoT and I label it as a platformer. Because that’s what it is.

From the Wikipedia: “Platform game (or platformer) is a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to advance the game. These challenges are known as jumping puzzles or freerunning.”

In order to advance the game and to acquire hero points, one must jump using mushrooms and or gliding to reach the intended hero point which is, most of the time, behind a series of jumping platforms (trees that you can step on).

Whether or not players go to HoT for platforming, they are indeed platforming whether they like it or not.

Guild wars 2 is a lot more than the elements you have picked out, context matters, overal design goals and genre matter. You can cherry pick out any element from any game and look at it in isolation – what matters is design intent.

What matters here is the word choice – Platform game (or platformer) is a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to advance the game.

In order to advance HoT in the slightest, you must be willing to grind for the abilities to use mushrooms, leylines, and teleporters. This isn’t simply a part of HoT. This is HoT. If you choose not to platform – or use mushrooms and hop on trees, you will not progress, you will not pass go, and you will not collect your money, bruh.

What am I cherry-picking here? The entirety of HoT consists of jumping, gliding, and using shrooms to progress beyond a certain point.

Find me a fact that opposes anything I just said.

P.S: We’re not talking about GW2 as a whole. We’re only talking about HoT. If I labeled GW2 as a platformer, then it would be considered “cherry-picking”.

What obstacles do you have to jump over in HOT to advance the game, and more importantly how is that different from core Tyria, where you have to jump of stuff to get vistsas which advance the game, ie map completion?

In order to “not die” on the last boss of HoT, you need to get the updraft mastery. In order to get the updraft mastery, you need mastery points. In order to get mastery points, you have to complete some sort of platforming to get to the mastery points.

It’s different from core Tyria because platforming is essentially inserted into the main storyline by way of collecting mastery points in order to progress. The last boss is only one example of many where the game requires you to have enough mastery points to progress the storyline. If this were not the case, I would rethink my opinion that HoT is a platformer.

Only some of the MPs are locked behind platformer-style mini-games and jump puzzles. Mastery strongboxes, storyline achievements, open world HoT achievements. You don’t need to be a jump puzzle pro to unlock plenty of masteries. I should know! I only completed the VB JP by having a mesmer port me up and I avoid adventures like the plague, yet I still have around 120 MPs unlocked.

This is why people are saying it’s ridiculous to refer to HoT as a “platformer”. It simply isn’t. It has a few puzzles that are, and unless you’re going for an HoT legendary you can avoid them all and still unlock all of the masteries you need to do virtually everything else.

Djinn.9245:

vesica tempestas.1563:

There are a couple tests that you should apply when evaluating whether a game is a ‘platformer’ or not, and that’s the intent of the designer and the intent of the player. Now lets look at the maps.

The intent of players is not to platform, it is to quest, gather, kill, explore, play meta.. No player says to themselves, i want to platform, i wil go to HOT. The intent of the designer was to create a more complicated map where vertical travel was an important element to provide value and fun for gliding. Consider how dull gliding would be if the maps was a dull set of vertical slabs.

Now jumping puzzles and Adventures are very different, these are designed very explicitly to be a platforming sub game – the reason for the puzzles existence is to offer a challenging platforming route where the goal is to beat the difficult jumps. The same challenge we get in jumping puzzles in every other zone in GW2.

What we have here are players who don’t like a map trying to user the term ‘platformer’ as a derogatory term to justify their dislike.

As I said when I originally mentioned “platformer”, I don’t like the direction GW2 is going with Anet making it more and more twitch / platforming. What I meant by that is the initial introduction of platforming elements in Dry Top and the continuation of that trend and increased emphasis on vertical play in HoT and forward. Whether you think that platforming elements make HoT maps “platformers” or make them “like platformers but not really” is just semantics. If anyone wants to make a case that they “actually aren’t platformers”, that really doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that they are enough like platformers that I don’t like it. And it is a severe departure from the original game mode which I prefer and was why I purchased the game.

I agree. Word play is fun, but as I said initially, irrelevant. We each like what we like and nothing is going to change that. Although, there is probably some value in explaining our positions to better define what is meant by “platforming elements”. That seems to be the point of contention. Many players seem to love the addition of gliding and mostly take issue with the convoluted layouts and the difficulty of exploring them.

Gwilym.4257:

I don’t want it both ways; one definition to rule them all! GW2 was never a platformer and never a platformer by the stated definition of a plaform game. Remember 2? That went: “2) advancing the game thereby.” That is, advancing the game through platforming. Platforming (jumping puzzles, etc.) in vanilla GW2 was always take it or leave it—the core game didn’t care if you platformed or not. In HoT you advance the game through platforming. Don’t know how to break this down further for you; my process has always been to read the English and understand the concept expressed. Maybe someone else could jump in here.

I think you’re taking too broad a view of the definition. Look at games that actually fit in the “platformer” genre and you see that “advancing the game thereby” refers to the bulk of the challenge revolving around technical jumping (e.g. Super Mario Bros.).

HoT and GW2 require little of that outside of JPs. So, while HoT does require some platforming elements in terms of jumping, gliding, finding the next updraft, etc., it hardly fits in the same genre as traditional platformers like Super Mario Bros.

A compromise: HoT contains some mild platforming elements, some of which are a soft barrier to advancement. I can get in line with that because I hate adventures, some of which are platform-y. You can work around adventures, but it makes your pathway to unlocking all of your masteries that much more difficult.

“Great! More like this!”

I love TD, dislike DS. VB is great, AB is okay. BF is good, EB not as much. I guess I’m weird like that? But I still appreciate all of these maps. DS is unique. You just don’t see that anywhere else. AB is just a beautiful map and is still enjoyable to play, even while I prefer TD or VB.

The exploration, the events, the combat. It’s all top notch! These maps all have a unique feel to them, where I sort of felt like core Tyria maps start to blend together a bit. There’s just so much more going on in HoT!

So, yeah, count me as another that is all in on the next expansion, too. I’m optimistic that we’ll see an evolution over HoT that will appeal to a broader range of players, but still bring us the opportunity to challenge ourselves the way HoT did.

I think being able to hold your own in open world is important to a lot of players, but when they ask for advice the well-meaning players on the forum usually direct them to the PvE meta build. These are group-centric builds that assume some degree of support and are somewhat ill-suited to solo play, in my opinion.

My goal here is to provide the ideal solo survival build based on what I’ve found works best so far (take that with a grain of salt, because I’ve only been playing since January!).

The idea with this build is to allow the thief to hang in there solo against champs, group events, etc. Damage output takes a hit, but it’s still bursty enough to 1-shot smokescales, pocket raptors, etc. The build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiaO73+yvrnCgGYLHHsqD-TxBBQBnUJoCV/RjK/My+DA4iAEgnAg+0NQKABVGB-e

Key traits:

- Invigorating Precision (15% of crit damage as healing)

- Assassin’s Reward (heals on initiative)

With ~100% crit rate, healing on offense is very strong and damage is consistent. Virtually every move you make restores endurance. You have solid CC with Bandit’s defense, impact strike, and pistol 4. 100% swiftness uptime, near-100% fury uptime in combat, solid regen and vigor uptime as well and access to might stacking on pistol 3. The acrobatics line also adds a passive stun break on top of the 12s cooldown stun break on bandit’s defense, as well as some condi cleanse.

You will be doing most of your work with staff. Pistols are particularly useful on tough single targets. I recommend also carrying a shortbow for faster moving about when you aren’t facing a tough single target from range (which is 90% of the time!), but it makes a rather poor combat weapon, in my opinion.

The link shows full ascended marauder (which is my personal goal), but I recommend some marauder gear. How much is up to personal taste, but having 19-20k health rather than 12-13k gives your thief a considerable boost in durability and allows you to hang in there longer and put your heals on offense to work.

Please feel free to share your own solo PvE builds (or whatever builds you think a new player might find useful!) or critique this one! It’ll provide much better information to struggling thief players than simply directing them to the meta build and telling them “It’s open world PvE, do whatever you want.”

Thanks!

Rauderi.8706:

AliamRationem.5172:

You guys hate it. Not everyone does. I hope they still find time to produce maps like this in the future. But I don’t need them all to be that way! Compromise!

I was there by obligation only. You cruised with a lot of sad, frustrated players. :P

Still, I do appreciate what TD wanted to do with its design. I don’t want a map “like” Tangled Depths, necessarily, but I do want one that uses the multilevel terrain in a full way. None of the other HoT maps are quite like it, even Verdant Brink. VB’s under layer isn’t very expansive, and the canopy is mostly closed off with little islands in between. Auric Basin is mostly (blessedly) flat. Dragon Stand has little hideyholes in a few spots, but they’re not the same as the twisting, connected network that Tangled Depths is. So I can, to an extent, respect it.

But I still want my custom map markers. Even for vanilla Tyria, the minimap isn’t all that great, and a good overhead view is critical in planning/navigating something as complex as Tangled Depths.

I’m sold on custom map markers and perhaps even a general overhaul of the map system. It’s good, but there are so many ways it could be better for HoT maps.

I just wanted to report I spent a few hours in TD this morning, ran the entire event cycle uninterrupted in SCAR camp with plenty of other players around, scored t5 on the chak gerent in back to back cycles, had time to farm all of the chak caches in every lane after the event cycles were completed, and also found time to help a few players with HPs and even helped out with the chak master killer achievement. Seems pretty active to me!

You guys hate it. Not everyone does. I hope they still find time to produce maps like this in the future. But I don’t need them all to be that way! Compromise!

Err sorry, bad math on the 10$. But whatever. Discount TBD for someone with a calculator.

So, I was thinking. Subscription = bad, but supporting the game = good (if you feel it’s worthy, of course!). But if I’m being honest, I’m a little stingy and I don’t usually purchase gems, in practice. What would entice me to get in on gem purchases more often? And this is what I came up with…

Each account may purchase their first 400 gems at a 25% reduced rate, their second 400 gems at a 15% reduced rate, and their third 400 gems at a 10% reduced rate. In other words, you may purchase up to 1200 gems for $10 each month rather than $15.

It’s silly, but I think if you did this I would purchase gems because I know that sooner or later I’m going to want something from the gem store but I won’t want to pay in full to get it (there’s that stingy part again!). If I ever need to purchase gems in excess of the monthly allotment of 1200 gems at the discount rate, I will essentially have overpaid by passing on a previous month’s purchase. The pressure’s on (and uhh, I want to support the game and all)!

Or is this a terrible idea for the gold/gem exchange? You tell me what you think.

That build leaves a lot to be desired as far as survival goes. If you want to improve your solo survival, swap out shortbow for pistols, drop deadly arts for acrobatics, exchange no quarter for invigorating precision, and bounding dodger for unhindered combat. If that isn’t enough, swap in some marauder gear as well.

Utilities in that build are solid for solo open world work, but I would swap the heal for channeled vigor and put bandit’s defense in the empty slot. With a passive stun break from acrobatics and a short cooldown stunbreak you’ll have two get-out-of-jail-free cards if you want to go aggressive. And stacking invigorating precision with heals-per-initiative in acro means you gain a ton of health when you go on offense.

If solo survival is your goal, I think these changes will produce much better results.

Rauderi.8706:

I wouldn’t mind it so much if ANet could make a decently readable minimap. :\
Or give us custom map marker tools~

As it is, it’s a terrible experience with only one saving grace: None of the exploration is gated by meta-events, if I recall right. Verdant Brink has the obnoxious difficulty of getting topside for hero points until nightfall (possible, but highly irritating), and Auric Basin actively shuts out pillars until the meta opens them. And the 3 hero commune points, etc for Mordy. But Tangled Depths is at least always available.

Shame it’s such a mess. Of all the maps that exemplify Heart of Thorns’ major issue of “You can’t there from here,” Tangled Depths is by far the biggest offender.

This is a suggestion I can get behind. I love TD (as you know!), and while the map system in this game is much better than I was used to in WoW, it is inadequate to the complexity of design we see in HoT. I think there is much they could do to make these maps easier to navigate without reverting to the 50th iteration of Queensdale.

Someone in another thread on the same subject mentioned that you have to “brute force” these maps. That’s true, in a sense. Once you understand the map, a lot of the roads marked on the map make more sense. But initially, you have no idea whether the road you’re taking is really going to take you where you think it will or just to another layer of the map where you didn’t intend to go. That’s frustrating, even for many of us who enjoyed the overall experience of exploring TD. Why even have a map, right?

I hope they can figure something out because I definitely want to see improved maps, more maps like TD, and more players successfully learning them without giving up in frustration!

Djinn.9245:

I disagree. What happens after you use all the platformy items is still up to you. It might be so easy for you that you see it as requiring no skill, but I disagree.

And my original point in bringing up platformers was to state that I didn’t like the direction Anet seemed to be going, not to claim that GW2 was a platformer.

You mean what happens after you use a bounce mushroom, updraft, etc.? That’s correct. You have to head in the right direction to reach your objective, which generally isn’t a straight line in HoT. That can be confusing and clearly not everyone enjoys that aspect of HoT.

If that’s your issue, then it’s the maze-like exploration that you hate, not “platforming”. If you knew where you were going you would make it there easily in most cases, right? As opposed to the Mario Bros. example, where the jumping is technical but finding your way to the finish is as simple as moving from left to right.

VB isn’t dead. I spend time on that map regularly. Throw up a tag and start doing events and people show up. It’s just a large map with event cycles running simultaneously at all of the camps, so you aren’t likely to see a big zerg going from one event to the next. Fortunately, the events are designed for small groups, so you don’t need a zerg to follow.

Also, not to insult you, but give daredevil some time before you say you can’t take on 20 mordrem and it isn’t a skill issue. If it isn’t something you can get better at, then why can I take on 20 mordrem on my daredevil? Am I special? I don’t think so. You just need to practice. I got my butt handed to me in HoT initially as well.

You also don’t need to do the adventures to unlock MPs unless you’re trying to unlock ALL of the masteries. This isn’t necessary for many players. I’m nowhere near unlocking all of the masteries, mainly because I hate adventures! It’s no big deal. I won’t need to bother with that unless/until I dive into HoT legendary crafting.

Bounce mushrooms and updrafts (a whole 3 mastery points!) will take you to 90% of the places you want to be. The rest are mostly just QoL upgrades you can acquire as you go. No big deal.

If you want to complete all of the bosses, then use LFG during the night cycle to find a map that is going for the meta. It’s not as easy to score a T4 win in VB as it is in AB, but it’s not all that difficult if you have a few tags directing traffic so that people spread out and control camps on the ground all over the map instead of just trying to zerg the wyvern matriarch for 20 minutes.

I also don’t get the reference to Orr. I wasn’t around prior to HoT, but I don’t recall the Orrian maps being dead or difficult to complete, even while many of the events require a large group. These events seem pretty rewarding and players still go for them. I was in cursed shore just a day or two ago, running group events with a zerg!

Well, the OP likes all of the other HoT maps, so it must come down to the convoluted layout. This is not a permanent problem. It just depends on whether or not it’s worth it to you to learn. But here’s a quick explanation of how to unravel this map in case you’d like to try…

First, note the wallows on the map. They make it MUCH easier to get around and, unlike waypoints, wallows never become contested. Your first move should be to locate the wallow south of Order of Whispers waypoint. Don’t worry! You can walk right over to it, no navigation required!

This wallow leads to the undergrowth connector. Follow the path upward and you will find another wallow very close by that will take you to Teku Nuhoch waypoint.

TN waypoint has 3 wallows next to it. Take the wallow to Leyline Confluence and take the path downward. Cross Rata Novus lane and continue east where you will run straight into Rata Novus waypoint.

Head back to Rata Novus lane and follow it south, where it opens into a huge cavern with a waypoint in the center.

From here you can follow either of the eastern tunnels to reach SCAR waypoint, although the northernmost tunnel requires wallows to reach it.

Alternatively, take the western tunnel (ogre lane). Where the tunnel branches north you’ll see a wallow to ogre camp and the associated waypoint.

Return to ogre lane and continue west. You’ll hit Dragon’s Passage waypoint.

And now you have all of the waypoints.

Of course, that isn’t all there is to TD, but knowing how to easily reach the waypoints creates the framework you’ll build upon to understand this map. Many of the objectives (HPs, MPs, POIs, vistas) are hidden in areas that aren’t clearly marked with paths on the map. But as you discover them you should begin to add them in to what you already understand about the layout.

Eventually, it all comes together and makes sense. And when it does you realize there are many different ways to get around and between waypoints on this map. It’s really rather convenient once you get it.

That’s nice.

I think it’s a great map. It was challenging to explore, even frustrating at times. But learning my way around Tangled Depths has been a unique experience. Verdant Brink, also.

There are, of course, some things I don’t like, but I think you have the hate covered pretty well on your own! For me, GW2 just isn’t appealing without HoT, and A-Net has just been crushing it with maps like TD, VB, and BF.

This has already been explained to you: The difference between platforming and navigating HoT is the skill element.

If you miss a jump in a platforming game, you die. That’s how Mario Bros. worked. Not only that, but you played against a timer. The game requires precision while driving you to play faster. That’s really the only point to it and why it fits in the genre of platforming games.

HoT does none of that. The similarity ends at “Well, there are platforms…” No skill is required. All you need to do is unlock the requisite masteries and find the path to your objective. As Vayne said, only the jump puzzles require any sort of skill.

But once again, it really doesn’t matter if it is or it isn’t. Even if it were a platformer, some players would like it and others would not. I believe we’re all welcome to our opinions on the games we choose to play. You dislike HoT. I love it. What can ya do?

I agree that it isn’t really “platforming” and for the reasons stated: making jumps in platforming games is intended to require some degree of skill. HoT masteries don’t work this way. Only the jump puzzles qualify, in my opinion, and there are only a few of those. I suppose you could say that gliding from one platform to another is “platforming”, but I really don’t understand why anyone would take issue with a maneuver you have almost no chance of failing in most cases.

However, it’s really beside the point. Call it whatever you want, it isn’t every player’s cup of tea. Maybe some players haven’t given HoT a fair shake, but they aren’t obligated to do so. There is nothing that says players must spend hours and hours learning TD if they just don’t like it. I did and like Vayne says, it’s an amazing map once you learn your way around. But that’s just one player’s opinion. To each their own.

Or better yet, add a mouseover menu to the weapon swap button that allows players to store alternative weapons they’d like to use for quick swap with adjustable keybind settings for each. These would not be accessible in combat, but would purely be a convenience for players who swap weapons often.

Suggestion #1: Add a mouseover menu to the weapon swap button. This menu contains slots (expandable? gem store/black lion item?) that allow players to store alternative weapons. These slots would only be accessible outside of combat.

This would get rid of the process of opening up the inventory and selecting an alternate weapon, making it as simple as hitting a key before entering combat. However, combat options would be unaffected.

Suggestion #2: Allow runes/sigils to salvage into their vendor value in currency. This should have little impact on the economy (beyond the additional cost to salvage rather than vendor, convenience fee?), but help players deal with the obnoxious number of runes/sigils we find.

Palador.2170:

“Hey, can I have a few gold?”

I think you’re sort of putting that on yourself, don’t you? I don’t expect to be able to solo every challenge. I like to try anyway, but ultimately I’m not capable of completing every single challenge on my own. So I have no problem asking for help. What else am I going to do? I figure everyone else is in the same situation, so why would it bother them if I ask?

Asurans are my favorite race in GW2. Unfortunately, I made my thief a Sylvari because the girlfriend wanted to play Sylvari. She barely plays anymore, but thief stuck with me and became my main. So I’m stuck with the salad unless I want to roll another thief!

John Smith.4610:

Hello everyone, I’m John Smith, the Studio Economist for ArenaNet. We’ve kept pretty silent about the economy recently, but today I’m here to talk about our current strategy.

Guild Wars 2 has an amazing economy, one of the largest and most active in-game economies ever created. ArenaNet takes pride in offering players an ever-changing world that lives and grows with them. As the game develops, the economy must develop as well, and that’s one of the many reasons we’ve made hundreds of changes to economy balance throughout the lifetime of the game.

For the most part the continuous monitoring and balancing has led to an incredibly stable economy with sustainable growth and reasonable inflation levels. However, we’ve noticed a disturbing side-effect of that continuous balancing: For many markets we’ve accidently set the idea of a price, rather than the market setting the idea of a price. Flax is a great example of a market where the prices weren’t really reflective of input or demand, but rather the idea of a value. Eventually players recognized that there was an abundance of flax and the price began to trend in a positive direction. We’ve noticed that a large number of markets are exhibiting this behavior in both directions—resulting in their being underpriced or overpriced—and their prices no longer reflect the average wealth or income of players.

To address this, we’re taking a step back from the standard amount of economy balancing we’re doing; in fact, we’ve actually already started doing that. We hope to see many markets adjust their prices to match the current state of the economy. We do recognize that there are some markets moving to a place where we aren’t looking for them to be; once we see the economy moving we can reassess the markets and make improvements, as we have in the past.

I agree, for the most part. But I do wish you would get off your butts and fix AB multimap already.

Pretty much. I like to try to take on champs, group events, etc. By myself. That’s fun for me. Obviously, that isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, however. So, I’m very unlikely to complain about an event being too challenging. That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to compromise, though. I thought the April patch was very positive overall.

juno.1840:

I think the maps are rather amazing — the amount of design work put into each map is simply amazing. Sometimes I just stand in-game in awe looking around.

I really appreciate the complexity. The maps are like a fine wine — you don’t sit there and chug the whole bottle as fast as you can. You take it in slowly and enjoy.

The Mastery Points on the other hand — I’m disappointed so many are behind the mini-game challenges. I find most of those a pill. Just goes to show that HoT offers a lot, and you aren’t likely to enjoy 100% of it, but you probably will enjoy 80% of it!

I’m the exact same way. Love the complexity, hate the adventures.

I found this achievement impossible to complete in a group. Best guess is that nobody can get downed (defeated?), so even if you remain standing for the entire fight if one of your group members goes down it will spoil the achievement for everyone. Also, it appears that all group members need to earn credit for the total number of required kills, so you can also fail if you don’t get enough credit even though your group survived and cleared the entire room!

So, yeah, only way I’ve been able to do it was by myself and without getting downed. It was too difficult to do with friends.

PyroPrincess.3287:

What I have been wishing for is a better skill bar with more attacks. The same 5 attacks all the time. Sword+Shield Warriors and Guardians have such little attack power and their shields do barely anything constructive when faced with multiple enemies. It also appears that wearing leather armor as opposed to full plate-style armor makes absolutely no difference. For example, I have a level 80 Warrior with a Sword and Shield. I am dead in five hìts from an enemy. And I can barely do any form of damage back. The damage is so ridiculously low, it’s like the game is FORCING you to use only 2H weapons. And the same 5 skills over and over and over again… This is getting really old. Increase the skill bar to four sets of 5 (Total of 10 skills, 10 abilities), and finally give me some options so I can actually come up with a ‘skill rotation’. Oh, and up the armor defense so I’m not taking 10,000 damage a hit even with a Shield + Armor. Maybe then I’ll do more PVE in your world. I can’t survive worth jack in your world because of the damage output of enemies, even when I’m fully decked out in the strongest armor I can get at my level and strongest shield.

Generally speaking, no weapon is good for all game modes or even within a game mode. We have weapon swap in combat for a reason. In my opinion, it is a good idea to have a ranged backup to your primary melee weapon of choice. For an open world power build I like something like this…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJARUjMdQdHW2BudAnIGICKs1fhRwCgIYA0vY63CA-ThSBwAdeAAAOCAFV+Rb/hIKBRpL4xhAAh5PKXAgbq/QKgIWGB-e

The build focuses on strategic weapon swapping and bursting to produce various effects. It is also heavy on might and fury. This should solve any issues you’ve had with weak damage.

If you find it isn’t quite resilient enough for your tastes, then add soldier’s (power/vitality/toughness) gear until you feel comfortable. Your damage will suffer somewhat, but the might stacking compensates you quite a bit if you care to look at it that way.

Don’t like greatsword? That’s fine. There are other ways you can go. Just keep in mind that your weapon choices really matter and not all weapons or weapon pairings are equal in all situations.

For me it’s tangled depths, verdant brink, bloodstone fen and then everything else. Ember bay is okay, but I really enjoyed exploring those other maps more. And BF isn’t really an exploratIon map. It’s just fun and unique. Glide skills are really nice too.

I agree that this game tends to overload players with low-value items and that it doesn’t feel particularly rewarding. But I’m not sure GW2’s loot system is any worse than WoW. Just different.

Over in WoW I barely used the crafting system because very few items were worth crafting. I always had tons of gold, but rarely did I have anything to spend it on. Nowadays they allow you to burn gold to pay your subscription, so I imagine that’s what a lot of players do with their excess gold.

Here I never have enough gold. There’s always something to buy and I’d be an idiot not to learn all of the crafting skills as I’ve found that sooner or later you’ll need something from one skill or another. I think that works out better, but I’d be lying if I said I feel rewarded by having to salvage 300 trash items every 30 minutes.

But hey, at least they added salvage all!

I imagine the quickest way to gear up is to buy gems with cash, convert them to gold, and then buy the gear off the trading post. But I assume you want to earn the gear by playing the game.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix there. You can purchase exotic equipment with gold or with karma, but as a new player you have neither. I imagine your best bet is to jump into some PvE.

Since you’re confident enough to dive right into PvP, I imagine you’re the sort of player who handles PvE content well, even if it isn’t really your preference. If that sounds like you, then you might do well to pick up the HoT storyline.

The storyline will lead you to the first HoT map (Verdant Brink) where you will begin to work toward unlocking the masteries that make navigating the map possible. This requires both earning mastery points and filling your experience bar.

In the process of unlocking masteries, you should participate in as many as events as possible. The events reward experience, loot, and map currency which you will need to purchase your exotic equipment (each piece costs 500 airship parts + 1g). Also note that a tier 4 win during the night cycle on this map automatically rewards a chest containing your choice of exotic armor pieces.

Warrior is one of the stronger solo classes I’ve tried in HoT, and one of the few that performed particularly well even before unlocking the elite spec. However, I’m far from an expert on the class. If I had to guess, your lack of a ranged option may be causing you unnecessary difficulty. Try greatsword/rifle with a power build including the defense line . That worked really well for me for solo HoT as a warrior.

For alternatives, necro and ranger are good options for players who struggle with HoT. Their pets are effective distractions in combat and you can trait for strong heals with ranger or excellent survivability with necro.

My personal preference for solo open world is thief, though. They move fast, kill fast, and with the right build their reputation for being “squishy” goes right out the window! They are less forgiving than warrior, necro, or ranger, though. If you aren’t good at actively avoiding damage with movement and timing, thief may not be a good choice.

In my opinion, MMOs aren’t the best format for roleplaying. Having said that, there are likely some guilds somewhere in GW2 that exist for that purpose. You should try to find one, because trying to find roleplayers by randomly bumping into them is going to get you a lot of those types of responses.

If you really want a more RP-focused experience in an online game, however, I recommend checking out some of the old text-based games from the 90s. Some of them are still around and still have hundreds of simultaneous players. Due to their small size and rules that encourage or even enforce RP, the staff in these games are able to truly include player characters in unique storylines. Just as it was in the days of small groups with pen and paper, you can BE the story again!

I like this game a lot, but I don’t come here (or any other MMO) for RP. If I want that, text games are where it’s at for me. The downside is that, well, obviously it’s text. Expect detailed worlds that require your imagination to bring life to them, and gameplay that no amount of imagination is going to bring life to!

I like legendary items. It gives me a goal to work toward. However, while the goal may feel rewarding, some of the steps are pretty obnoxious. I can deal with the massive cost and time-gated ascended materials. But this one little step on Bifrost III is driving me insane.

So, I have only one way to progress at this point (aside from bypassing the precursor outright by purchasing it on the TP, thereby throwing away hundreds of gold sunk into this collection so far!): Personally farm coral until 10 of these manganese dioxide items drop. The problem is the drop rate doesn’t seem very good, but worse you have intentionally designed your maps to be barren of freakin’ coral!

Does underwater gameplay not suck enough already? I can’t walk 5 feet without running into a resource node on land, but finding more than a handful of coral nodes on any map seems to be a no go for this game.

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve been notified of this issue, and if you ever fix it it will be too late for my benefit. However, I do hope you’ll consider how un-legendary it is to engage in this type of farming. Go ahead and make the drop rate low, but don’t force me to swim around your barren underwater environments for hours and hours looking for the handful of nodes on each map. This is just nauseating and I can’t stop unless I just want to let all that gold go to waste!

WiredHot.7651:

Hi all,
I too, was turned off my HOT, because of how it was released and unfinished. I refuse to reward poor workmanship. To pay for a product that was not finished at release only invites further deficiencies. I am playing Guildwars2 less because everything new is attached to HOT and I will not purchase HOT. I enjoyed the original GW2 and the updates that were produced in the first two years. After the first two years things got progressively worse for the game, because the work shifted to producing HOT.

I suppose it depends upon your definition of “unfinished”, but it strikes me that GW2 is no different from WoW in that sense. An expansion is released. Players buy the expansion. Then they add a bunch of content over time that may only be accessed by purchasing the expansion. Then they do it again.

I don’t see a problem with that. The problem I observe is that it took quite a long time following the expansion release to start actually releasing new content. In WoW there was typically a bit of a lag as well, as I recall. They probably figured the release content would keep players busy for awhile while they continued to work on releasing the next phase of expansion content.

But now? Things seem to be moving along as I would have expected over in WoW. I’m too new to this game to have a frame of reference for how they typically operate, but the way it’s working now is more to my liking. We’re getting regular and significant additions to the game on several fronts (new fractal, new PvP map, new storyline, new PvE maps, new legendary, etc.).

You might want to give it a go, as “unfinished” as it is.

draxynnic.3719:

It’s probably been said over a dozen times in this thread, but what they really need to do is just make the spirit shard reward an infinitely repeatable mastery track that doesn’t require mastery points. That way, if for any reason you’re not able to work on your masteries, you can just switch to spirit shards instead so your XP gain isn’t totally going to waste.

It has been said, but it could be said again. I think a reward track for post-cap experience independent of the mastery system is a great idea.

Well, of course it was short. It was only one chapter and it had Taimi in it. But we did get a few nice things with it.

That’s true. I main thief and I certainly can’t think of a build that wouldn’t benefit from daredevil. But this may be an issue that resolves itself as more specializations are revealed.

There’s also nothing to say that the system will remain as it is. I’m new to the game this year, but it’s my understanding that traits worked in a very different way previously. Who knows? By the next expansion we may find ourselves choosing 1 out of a handful of elite specializations and 2 out of the rest? They’ll have to address the issue with the release of the next specialization, I’d imagine.

I’ve completed the second chapter and I’d say the story is going well so far. Taimi is a really fun character. The pacing seems fast and full of surprises. It’s clear that there are going to be a lot of major characters involved with potential for some big plot twists along the way! As a new player to GW2, I don’t know the lore very well, so I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot as we go!

The new map is okay. The thermal tubes seem a little like we were looking for an excuse to add a new mastery, but they get the job done. The enemies feel like a rehash of monsters I’ve already fought before, unfortunately. And the rock and fire theme, while fitting, is a bit stark after the lush jungle environments. Along with the decidedly flatter terrain, I found exploring the zone less interesting. It is a full-sized map, though, which is nice.

I have to say I liked the original HoT maps and BF better than this one. Each of those maps offers something very different from the others. This one doesn’t have the same feel to me.

Still, it’s a pretty positive release overall, I’d say. I’m liking the new map, new story every couple of months pace.

I personally lack the patience for this type of puzzle, but I really appreciate ANet’s willingness to design content like this. It’s clearly a big draw to those who enjoy JPs, even while others consider it a nightmare.

It’s sort of like Tangled Depths. I LOVE that map. It’s my hands-down favorite map in any MMO I’ve ever played. And while I don’t think it would be a good idea to make ALL maps like TD, I feel the game would be diminished by not having maps like it (honorable mention to VB as well!).

So, thank you, ANet. Keep up the good work on designing interesting content for all tastes, not just the mainstream. I know you have to be sure to appeal to the average player, but this game would not be what it is without all the appeals to the fringe as well!

I’d be glad to help you out, too. Add me to your list and contact me in game if you like.

I also vote thief. It plays very fast and you can either die very quickly or sustain forever depending upon how well you time your dodges.

You can also like some aspects of HoT and dislike others. As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of HoT map layouts, gliding, and combat. But there are things I don’t like.

I’m not sure I like the event timers, although it may be that it wouldn’t work out any better if it worked more like BF. I’m just not sure.

I don’t like adventures either.

I also think a lot of the issues with the mastery system could have been avoided if the must-have skills were included as baseline via the storyline and more mastery points were available to allow players more freedom in how they go about unlocking masteries.

Even so, that in no way indicates that I would play this game if it were all like core Tyria. It didn’t interest me then and it doesn’t interest me now. I spend nearly all of my time in the HoT content. It’s just better for me.

macon.4065:

No I agree that HoT stinks. I have always hopped that they would dig a big hole and throw the thing in and bury it. I’ve been doing guildwars since the original game was launched (vanilla) and I tell you I’ve never had a worse experience with the game.

I feel that with this expansion we are just going to repeat HoT and once again will loose gamers or people will just sit where they are. I fully regret Hot the maps were terrible, gliding stinks, the Mastery System is very, very terrible, and quite frankly I am tired of having to farm all the time to get anywhere in the game and play aspects of the game that are for me not fun like WVW, PVP and Fractals. I am afraid that this expansion will just drive more people away as the Developers have not really fixed any of the issue prior to HoT or the issues with HoT itself.

But I continue to hope that not only will someone wizen up but realize your punishing your gamers. We played Guildwars because we liked the system your changes are terrible and we’d like you to put it back the way it was please. Thanks

You’d be punishing me by returning to flat maps and weak enemies. I would absolutely love to explore more maps like VB and TD. I also think they’ve demonstrated they can meet in the middle and design a map that is palatable to players who like vertical map design, yet not make it a nightmare for players who don’t (see BF). Moving forward, I hope we’ll see something for everyone.