Guild Wars 2

I won’t say I enjoy crafting. It isn’t particularly fun or interesting. However, I found it was useful to have so I did max every skill (except scribing).

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

No it doesn’t. The relationship between enemy survival time and enemy damage upkeep is linear. In a straight up brawl, if you would have died doing double damage at base HP then you also would have died doing normal damage at double HP. You’ll still die but it’ll just take longer to fail. Likewise, the existence of a debate doesn’t prove your point. It just means people are ideologically driven enough to take a stance and refuse to listen.

I’m sorry, but you’re simply wrong. First, in order for both characters to take the same amount of damage and have the same ability to heal it back, only vitality may be used as a defensive stat. Replacing one offensive stat with vitality will not result in a 50% damage loss. Not only that, but as you yourself point out there are sets like marauder that offer vitality as a fourth stat while having more overall stat points than berserker stats.

Further, in real game play scenarios players do not take normalized damage over time (e.g. 1k damage every second like clockwork). A damage spike that a player with high health can absorb safely can easily place a GC build in danger of being killed by normal damage.

Obviously, if what you say were true then defensive gear would have no purpose. It would simply result in the exact same number of deaths while requiring more time to produce the same result. However, that is clearly not the case.

I’m really enjoying collecting the LWS3 skins so far. However, I was a little disappointed that the latest chapter included only two headpiece skins, which is a slot already covered by two skins associated with the first chapter. I was looking forward to at least one new skin covering a slot that hadn’t been covered in a previous chapter.

Also, I wish there were more skins in general. At least one for each karma vendor. But it seems there were only a couple of weapon skins available. I did enjoy the endless miniature tonic, though. Thanks for that!

It may be that with this relatively fast release schedule, there isn’t time to produce as many skins. Still, within a few days of release I already had unlocked all of them. And as I said, there wasn’t even the opportunity to add to my LS3 ensemble without bumping a skin from a previous chapter.

I hope you’ll consider adding more skins in general, specifically boots, chest, and legs which haven’t been covered thus far. But otherwise, keep up the good work! The skins look great!

Here are the results on my Asuran elementalist, featuring the bloodstone crown from chapter 1, dragonscale epaulets from chapter two, glacial gauntlets and icebrood horn backpack from chapter 3, and although it doesn’t display in the character login screen I paired these up with the Black Lion frostforged dagger skin to match the general theme I put together:

I’m really enjoying collecting the skins for LS3 so far. I got my last one yesterday and updated my elementalist’s look to include the bloodstone crown from chapter 1, dragonscale epaulets from chapter 2, glacial gauntlets and icebrood horn backpack from chapter 3. I even got a Black Lion skin from chapter 3 (frostforged dagger). Really cool skins! Thanks for that.

Now where I’m a bit disappointed is that the latest chapter didn’t bring any new armor slots, just another backpack (which is fine), some weapon skins, and two more headpiece skins. I was really hoping to see at least one new skin for a slot that hadn’t been covered in previous chapters. Ideally, chest and/or leg skins but at least a boot skin!

I also really liked the endless miniature tonic. That’s a fun item! But more weapon skins, at least one for each vendor would be nice. I know we’re working on a fast release schedule with these LS3 updates, so maybe there just isn’t time? But I had already unlocked everything within a few days of release.

In any event, I suppose I’m always going to want more skins. Good job so far on most of the LS3 skins. They’ve been worth collecting, in my opinion.

And here are the results:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I’m surprised this debate is still around. Anyway, yes newbies should use glass cannon gear. Berserker, Assassin, Viper, Sinister, etc. if more have been added.

Whether or not a newbie should use glass cannon gear isn’t a question of skill, insomuch as it is a question of efficiency. GW2 was designed PVP first, with close ratios between player stats and gear prefixes. The different stat loadouts you use are all meant to both survive other player’s attacks, and also threaten other players with your attacks. Going full glass or full tank usually means you’re doing twice the damage or talking half the damage of the other. An enemy who dies faster does less damage overall, so a good offense translates into a good defense.

That’s a bit misleading. It assumes that with the berserker set your health never reaches 0 at any point during the fight. Certainly that assumption favors choosing berserker gear over marauder. But if it does reach 0, then your damage output is also 0 and the defensive set is a far better choice.

You can certainly argue that for skilled players this doesn’t happen often enough to justify the efficiency loss. But not all players are equal and even if they were, not all players play the same way or have the same comfort level when it comes to dying. Some players play with friends. Others follow the zerg. Others prefer to go it alone.

Then you have other factors that come down to personal preference. Maybe instead of ranging and making smart pulls with your glass elementalist, you prefer to break out the daggers and ride the lightning solo straight into the chak assault on SCAR camp or go toe-to-toe at 300 range with the mushroom queen hero point? I’m not saying it can’t be done full glass or even that most players have such things in mind when they play. But if you do and that’s what matters to you, then chances are having a tankier set of gear is going to help you out a lot.

Bottom line: It seems to me that there are too many factors involved that come down to personal preference to unequivocally state that new players should use berserker gear. In fact, it seems clear that many players aren’t doing well by following that advice as evidenced by the fact that this debate pops up frequently and apparently has been ongoing for some time now.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

The thing about relying on defensive gear is that it can lead to you not learning important lessons about your class, and gw2 combat in general. Things like dodging important attacks, stacking with your group for heals/boons, and utilizing your damage mitigation tools.

I would take some time to look over all your weapon skills, utility skills, and traits and just pay attention to the damage mitigation tools you have available. A huge one that can sometimes be overlooked is elemental storm. If you’re in earth attunement when you use it, it drops a large sandstorm that continuously applies blind. So if you’re stacking and pull a large group of mobs, if you drop that on top of the group they won’t be able to deal any damage to you or your group.

Yeah, or maybe I just want to play my non-meta dagger/dagger celestial ele for solo open world and put a couple of extra blasts on my bar to stack 25 might off of overload fire instead of wasting slots on area blinds that I don’t need with my setup?

Now consider this. You’re playing solo, right? So you don’t have a PS warrior granting you might stacks. If you go full glass staff meta and use your utilities on active mitigation, you’re only going to pull off 11 stacks of might off of overload fire and your single blast in earth 2, and you can’t maintain it.

With my non-meta dagger/dagger celestial build using strength runes, concentration and strength sigil I can stack 25 might off of overload fire and maintain it. And I don’t need extra damage mitigation. I’m practically impossible to kill as it is without any defensive traits.

I’m not saying I’m better or faster at killing things than a glass raid build. But it just might be that in solo play the damage loss from using a non-meta build like mine might not be as much as it appears when comparing base power. And the survivability is far better in most open world scenarios, even if it isn’t strictly necessary when you know your stuff.

maddoctor.2738:

There is another angle too. In the Elementalist – Warrior example, if an attack can down a Warrior in Berserker gear then an Elementalist in Berserker or Marauder or Valkyrie gear will also be downed by the same attack, meaning choosing the durable gear on the Elementalist is a total waste. You’ll be downed if you are hit anyway so why bother with more durable gear?

The OP specifically asked for Marauder and Valkyrie and not really durable sets like Cleric or Soldier

In open world I love my marauder set on my thief. My open world build features strong heals on offense. In my berserker set I am forced to play evasively far more often due to my low health pool. With marauder I can take a hit but stay on offense, giving me the opportunity to heal back the damage and potentially never have to play evasively (depending upon the scenario).

Talking about OHKO attacks is pointless because they are pass/fail mechanics that ignore gear entirely. When you talk about real scenarios that rule the solo open world game, defensive stats like vitality are anything but a total waste.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

AliamRationem.5172:

Honestly, some players are always going to claim that berserker is simply better for everything and for every player. It isn’t true, but you aren’t going to convince them.

It’s true that berserker’s stats are mathematically better, all things being equal. So people aren’t wrong to argue that everyone should use them all the time for power builds.

At the same time, you’re correct in the sense that all things are never equal for all players. Some folks have more trouble with certain mechanics, some folks can’t be bothered to worry about it, and some folks simply have a play style that is better suited for hybrid builds that are still effective in most situations (even if they aren’t as fast at killing stuff).

A more correct statement is that that hybrid builds/gear work just about anywhere (except Raids and the occasional fractal), even if they are less efficient. It’s worth it for a lot of players to learn damage mitigation so they can survive using glassier builds; it’s not necessary for soloing story instances.

edit: major typo

They are mathematically better for dealing damage. They cannot possibly be “mathematically better” for every player in every situation because, as you can see, some players feel “squishy” when they play their elementalist in open world. Further, in open world playing solo it doesn’t matter how fast you kill anything only that you survive.

So, again to the OP and others expressing difficulty in open world HoT, I recommend building an open world set with some defensive stats. I swear by my celestial elementalist for open world because I’m nearly impossible to kill and still deal enough damage to take down enemies quickly (especially since I can easily stack 25 might off of overload fire!). The fire 3, 4, 5 burst is still strong enough without might to take down many non-veterans, too. It’s not THAT slow, it just isn’t raid-worthy.

Doam.8305:

How can you even make that argument when the sharp decline in revenue as well as a complete change in a number of regards happened only after HoT launched. The game existed for years prior to HoT so making the argument of people leaving due to the game being easy doesn’t hold any water at all. The game grew under those easy circumstances you say people were leaving and contracted when they decided to go the HoT map. From launch till HoTs launch the game has never been about hardcore content in PVE as people who sought difficulty went in PVP or skirmished in WVW.

Anet gave people who wanted harder PVE content there first bone ever with HoT outside of aetherblade and just like aetherblade it played to a minority. All the reports and all of Anets actions after completely clash with your argument that the game needed harder maps. Raids sure you don’t see raiders going on about PVE maps.

Current game shown by ls3 is comprised of casual maps with pvp, raids, and fractals for those looking for harder content. With WVW still awaiting the promised changes and dungeons dead. Easier more open HoT maps with harder mobs off the story path and to the side like lake Doric centaurs. In addition if the really wanted harder PVE maps they could have pulled a GW1 and used side maps. Guild halls could have been chucked into the mists and the existed Guild hall maps could have been flooded with higher level mobs for farming or a vanquish system.

I completely disagree to in that casual play is clearly the majority demographic as stated it’s basically been the game from launch up till HoT. They designed the game in numerous ways to clash with others with more hardcore elements since launch. No trinity, shared events, and so forth and there is even something that’s harder to argue against.

Anet devs use Reddit for all sorts of feedback they used these boards more often in the earlier days. But with Reddit you can see likes and dislike and thus a basic representation of numbers. From posts to highly upboted questions asked in their AMA you have a force that has successfully let the devs know their opinions on HoT and lead to the designs we see today in ls3. Casuals are the majority and these forums are for players helping players with the devs making there presence known with the community on Reddit.

For me it’s pretty simple: I like HoT style maps and want to see more of them. Everything you say could be 100% true and it would still be a mistake to design only flat maps with easy combat moving forward. In my opinion, there is room for both.

Having said that, I still think you’re placing too much of the blame on players hating HoT open world. The fact is that’s what matters to you, but if you listen to the complaints you refer to a lot of them focus on other factors such as guild halls and PvP/WvW balance. I don’t doubt that HoT-style vertical maps were a factor and it was certainly a mistake to design only 4 maps and make them all of this style.

That’s why I advocate a mix of map types moving forward. You can argue all you want that that’s a waste of time, but the evidence is right in front of you. Plenty of players love these maps and consider them far superior to core maps and LS3 (perhaps minus bloodstone fen). Also, you said it yourself that the players who dislike such maps already left and many of them may not come back. Do you want ANet to double down on the strategy of alienating their player base by going back to an exclusively “flat and easy” design?

Doam.8305:

Vayne.8563:

AliamRationem.5172:

Doam.8305:

This topic is funny because this topic ignores reality

HoT has been out for some time now and it has failed they had far too few playable maps and didn’t follow MMO staples like low mob density roads/paths that people of all skill levels can walk to complete story while keeping high density areas off to the side and seperate. The butchered WVW and PvP while offering pure raid related content patches. No player input either just early access disguised as input for things like DBL.

Revenue is down the numbers are down and the people who didn’t like HoT have left and you can’t have a proper discussion if over half the people are gone. It’s like WoW legion expac which had tons of people unsub but if you ask WoW players today how they feel about it you’ll get praise because those that liked it still subbed and frequent forums. There are fan clubs for the Ford Pinto, licorice, and other disliked things the key is to remember that your in a box and progress can only be made from getting more perspective.

HoT is the only open content in the game the demands LFG it’s lfg content. Ls3 and ls2 and prior can be done without lfg as there are many more people playing and enjoying those maps. Ls3 has a road system with more difficult areas to the side like centaurs. People came back for and moved into ls3 you don’t need to use lfg for jades, wurm, or events.

HoT is failed content that demands lfg propped up by AB mm for awhile and quickly abandoned for newer more mainstream content. Defending it this late in the game is pointless as the games veteran base contracted with HoT while any expansion is credited to the f2p core maps. The sheer fact that so many new people got into gw2 due to F2p but revenue declined for three straight quarters speaks volumes. It also says something that an uptick in returning players and new players I’m seeing lately is due to ls3 which abandoned many of the core philosophies of HoT.

Clearly, HoT was not universally well-received. But making up nonsense about why doesn’t help. For instance, only the boss events rely on LFG and the exact same process unfolds for every single world boss in core Tyria. There is no shortage of players participating as evidenced by the fact that you can LFG your way into a meta map just as you can with Teq, TT, Shatterer, and so on. Further, the jungle is not clogged with enemies so that players can’t pass without fighting their way through. Not only that, but the vertical layouts make full use of gliding and other skills which allow for more freedom in how one chooses to bypass enemies.

I don’t personally like jump puzzles. That doesn’t make them failed content. Perhaps the failure was simply not enough content for those who didn’t like HoT-style maps? And perhaps if we had received nothing but core Tyria 2.0 it would have been an even bigger failure, as players have apparently been demanding more challenging content for some time.

I suppose your perspective will depend upon your bias.

Not to mention Hot revitalized the game for some of us. I was playing less until HOT came out. For me, HoT was a success. I don’t know what I’d be doing now if it weren’t for HoT or something like it.

HoT maps are all meta event based you can’t compared core world bosses to HoT metas. Saying that only the bosses need lfg doesn’t work for HoT when everything boils down to work torwards those bosses. Gerant, Mord, and so forth have LFG to get the basic ball rolling to get to thos bosses. A world boss is on a timer you know the time and you show up with lfg as a convenience as with it or without it there will be people to attempt it or enough people on the map to get it done. You don’t have people using lfg filling lanes for world bosses. Saying you enjoy HoT is nice but it’s an echo chamber those that dislike it left and pating yourself on the back in an empty stadium is great and all but your ignoring all the empty seats that used to be filled and without people the future is bleak:

If what you say is true, then we should definitely not do a complete 180 away from HoT content because apparently the only people remaining are players like myself who signed on to GW2 after HoT released and stuck around because of it.

Doam.8305:

Doable and Silverwastes isn’t a Lfg thing lfg only exist to speed up VW and to this day random maps pug both the Silverwastes and Drytop. The only point you could make is TT and even then TT was puggable years after its release heck it was pigging that got me my achieves before the Guild TTS made it there thing. Wurm isn’t scaled for the elite specialization power creep it’s easier today than it was at launch and merely knowing the times people show up is enough. It’s a world boss not a map event and HoT remains that content area that remains more or less unchanged that requires lfg not even Orr requires a lfg for its map metas.

I don’t understand what you’re saying here. It sounds like you’re suggesting that HoT boss events are somehow different from events like TT because those are “world bosses” and not a “map event”? The distinction escapes me. Isn’t a world boss just an event with a boss that requires more people and organization than most? How is that any different from HoT boss events exactly?

Call me crazy, but I like encounters like the chak gerent. They’re a lot more interesting than the nothing meta that exists on maps like bitterfrost frontier. If it requires LFG, so what? I use LFG for world bosses, for Vinewrath, for organized Dry Top maps, etc.

Bottom line: I can see why all maps shouldn’t be this way, but I have a real problem with the basic assumption that NO map should be this way. In my opinion, TD is the best map in the game. You’re welcome to your own opinion, and as I said I would totally agree that not all maps should be this way. So why is it a problem if we have SOME maps that are this way?

I certainly hope the devs see the light on this and move forward with an expansion that is a mix of both types of maps, because honestly the last 3 LS3 maps have been pretty boring to me. I want to see more vertical maps with real boss metas like the original HoT maps had.

Doam.8305:

This topic is funny because this topic ignores reality

HoT has been out for some time now and it has failed they had far too few playable maps and didn’t follow MMO staples like low mob density roads/paths that people of all skill levels can walk to complete story while keeping high density areas off to the side and seperate. The butchered WVW and PvP while offering pure raid related content patches. No player input either just early access disguised as input for things like DBL.

Revenue is down the numbers are down and the people who didn’t like HoT have left and you can’t have a proper discussion if over half the people are gone. It’s like WoW legion expac which had tons of people unsub but if you ask WoW players today how they feel about it you’ll get praise because those that liked it still subbed and frequent forums. There are fan clubs for the Ford Pinto, licorice, and other disliked things the key is to remember that your in a box and progress can only be made from getting more perspective.

HoT is the only open content in the game the demands LFG it’s lfg content. Ls3 and ls2 and prior can be done without lfg as there are many more people playing and enjoying those maps. Ls3 has a road system with more difficult areas to the side like centaurs. People came back for and moved into ls3 you don’t need to use lfg for jades, wurm, or events.

HoT is failed content that demands lfg propped up by AB mm for awhile and quickly abandoned for newer more mainstream content. Defending it this late in the game is pointless as the games veteran base contracted with HoT while any expansion is credited to the f2p core maps. The sheer fact that so many new people got into gw2 due to F2p but revenue declined for three straight quarters speaks volumes. It also says something that an uptick in returning players and new players I’m seeing lately is due to ls3 which abandoned many of the core philosophies of HoT.

Clearly, HoT was not universally well-received. But making up nonsense about why doesn’t help. For instance, only the boss events rely on LFG and the exact same process unfolds for every single world boss in core Tyria. There is no shortage of players participating as evidenced by the fact that you can LFG your way into a meta map just as you can with Teq, TT, Shatterer, and so on. Further, the jungle is not clogged with enemies so that players can’t pass without fighting their way through. Not only that, but the vertical layouts make full use of gliding and other skills which allow for more freedom in how one chooses to bypass enemies.

I don’t personally like jump puzzles. That doesn’t make them failed content. Perhaps the failure was simply not enough content for those who didn’t like HoT-style maps? And perhaps if we had received nothing but core Tyria 2.0 it would have been an even bigger failure, as players have apparently been demanding more challenging content for some time.

I suppose your perspective will depend upon your bias.

Djinn.9245:

Captain Superbacon.1954:

I’ve been trying to do the Gerent map event in the Tangled Depths to get the last mistward helm piece, but after 5 failures due to not enough people at several different times of day, I get the feeling that the event (and probably the other HoT map events) should be scaled down to reflect the reduced player counts in those areas. I can’t even lure the Gerent out, let alone kill it, with 2-3 people per lane at best.

Most of the people in those areas, including myself some of the time, are just there to get the skill points for their specialization. People aren’t really doing the big events. I know Anet wants to avoid trivializing the events, but the events should at least be possible.

And deprive all the “its easy for me, L2P” people from one of their favorite pastimes?!

You really have a chip on your shoulder about this HoT difficulty, don’t you?

I like the repeatable hearts and zone-specific dailies, and new skins associated with open world content are always welcome (although there could always be more of them!). The new mastery skills have been a mixed bag. I don’t like the map-specific masteries, particularly when they don’t add much to gameplay or navigation (Koda’s flame). Downed skill 5 and the counter magic mastery were more welcome additions, in my opinion.

Bloodstone fen is my standout favorite among the LS3 maps and indeed makes my top three behind Tangled Depths and Verdant Brink for map design. I know that such maps are not universally popular, so I wouldn’t expect to see these being the only style of map moving forward. However, I am getting a bit disappointed in the map design since Bloodstone Fen. In my opinion, three “flat” maps in a row is enough and it’s time for another vertical map, preferably one with some sort of meta.

My biggest complaint is that there isn’t enough reason for me to come back to these maps. They stand alone with the only purpose beyond the story and associated achievements being to farm unbound magic, which I suppose is better than nothing. I wonder if at some point we can begin to put unbound magic to use toward a set of armor and weapon skins? Just something to keep us busy in the longer term and give us a reason to play these maps.

Down-scaling might help somewhat. However, these events still require organization. The only HoT meta that can be sort-of zerged is AB, by running the zerg around to prep each octovine and then splitting the group to finish the task. TD requires 4 groups operating simultaneously and VB is set up to strongly discourage zerging by virtue of there being 5 bosses spread across the map that scale quickly to require more time than you have if you attempt to overload any one boss. You also need to play the ground game, not just defeat the 5 bosses to achieve T4.

This was obviously intended, just like core Tyria events like Triple Trouble. The problem is not having too few players, but the fact that there is a relatively small window of time for groups to organize.

This could be alleviated somewhat by adjustments to scaling. It might also be possible to approach this another way by creating some sort of connection between the event cycle and the boss meta. As it stands, you log in to one of these maps, mess around with the event cycle, and then play the LFG game to get on a map that is organizing. If organization required paying some degree of attention to the normal event cycle, then perhaps maps would have more than 15 minutes ahead of the boss meta to get organized and you’d know long before if you’re on a meta map.

Of course, that brings its own set of issues as players probably don’t want to be forced into a Dragon’s Stand-style meta where the meta maps fill up long before the boss and your only hope of getting in is to start from the beginning of an hour+ long cycle!

Why not find out for yourself? Honestly, some players are always going to claim that berserker is simply better for everything and for every player. It isn’t true, but you aren’t going to convince them.

Keep your berserker set. It IS good for plenty of content and you will want to have it for raids especially. And build a more defensive set or mix and match some more defensive pieces with your berserker gear and see how it goes.

It’s difficult to build a full set, but I really enjoy my celestial set on my elementalist. It takes a squishy class and makes it very tanky. It feels totally different than when I play with my berserker set. But marauder would probably be a nice in-between with high health and higher damage than celestial. As well as much easier to craft.

nsleep.7839:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mea.5491:

“Should zerk gear be used by casual players?”

No. Go to Dragon’s Stand, the amount of people who get downed in one hit is too kitten high. Squishy people die and do nothing useful, they wait for revive and scale events up. People laugh at me for wearing Knight-Cavalier gear on my Necro but in the end, I deal more damage than dead people. Thanks to my unique invincible Necro build, I literally don’t even get downed in PvE. We would actually finish meta events faster if people stopped dying.

They get down because they don’t pay attention. One of the primary reasons being the snipers’ line attack thing that people just stand in. Defensive gear isn’t going to help that.

http://puu.sh/u2VuP/0973f486e4.jpg Defensive gear isn’t going to stop anything. Maybe I would live some additional hits by trash mobs but these aren’t a threat to Zerker gear anyways.

I usually go down there because I try to go melee while everyone is camping their LB pressing one while I’m surrounded by dumb bears and maybe one or two other players.

So, as long as everyone else is doing what you want them to do you can survive in berserker gear? It sounds like defensive gear would allow you to do what you want to do regardless of what everyone else is doing.

It certainly works out that way for my d/d celestial elementalist. While others claim the class is squishy, I can charge right in and solo champions, rush headlong into the army of chak that assaults SCAR camp, etc. Skilled dodging will only get you so far when you have that many enemies to deal with. Sometimes you need to be able to take damage and have time to heal it back. That’s where defensive gear sets can be useful.

Is it meta? No. But you guys are crazy saying there is no place for it, particularly in solo open world content. Maybe there’s no reason you absolutely need to solo champions and group events, but saying defensive gear can’t help you survive some of those situations better is just ridiculous.

I find I am enjoying playing living world as it happens more than after-the-fact. LS2 was pretty terrible for me. I just wanted to get it over with. And I’m not sure if it’s just that LS3 is better or that it’s current and I’m doing it as each episode is released rather than going through the entire thing back-to-back.

I also enjoyed the personal storyline more. Perhaps because it releases every 10 levels so I’m not trying to do it all at once? I’m honestly not sure. I can’t say any particular story is better or worse than the others. I do have my preferences for characters, though (Taimi is the best, honorable mention to Tybalt, and a nut-punch to Broham in LS3!). And some boss battles are better than others. For instance, Zhaitan was pretty lame and Mordremoth was just boring while LS3 boss battles keep me on my toes more.

Daddicus.6128:

AliamRationem.5172:

How does HoT discourage you from offering advice?

I suspect it’s twofold:

First, people are busier. They can’t answer a question without jeopardizing their own situation. I suspect this is the lion’s share of the reason.

Second, there’s an attitude among HoT players that those who don’t know things (unique to HoT) simply need to learn how to play better. You can see this attitude plainly on these forums.

Again, there is nowhere in any HoT map that you can’t find a safe place to chat within seconds. That you might be fighting something at the exact moment a call for help appears in map chat is not an issue specific to HoT maps.

There is no attitude among HoT players because HoT players are not a uniform group. Further, had you considered that complaining about something other players like while also disparaging them might invite the L2P comments you associate with HoT players?

You can believe what you want to believe, but I don’t usually waste my time telling others they need to learn to play. Instead, I offer my time to assist them. All I need is an excuse to play the maps I enjoy. So it’s fun for me and I tend to make new friends in the process. I don’t think that’s at all unusual, as evidenced by others I see routinely offering their assistance in threads on this subject.

kdaddy.5431:

Ashen.2907:

Djinn.9245:

Ashen.2907:

Except that, as has been pointed out repeatedly here, the OP’s complaint is about soloing the story, not the zones as a whole. The story is soloable. If one has played a game for only a week or two, and cannot solo content that is designed for solo play, it might be a function of one’s mastery of one’s chosen character.

There are MANY players on the forums that complain about not being able to complete various parts of the story. And as I have said many times – in my opinion the story should be able to be enjoyed by everyone, not just those who have a certain mastery of their character. Challenge should be relegated to separate places in the game where those who prefer a higher challenge can go seek it.

I understand your opinion, but, in my opinion, it is reasonable to expect players to know how to play the game with some degree of understanding in order to complete max level content.

I would expect a new buyer of the game who insta-leveled to 80 immediately after purchase to struggle with max level content in any game.

The only way for max level content to be guaranteed to be fully accessible to anyone, regardless of lack of experience with the game, would be for it to consist entirely of dialogue and cutscenes. To stop being a game. Admittedly interactive storytelling does not need to be a game, but GW2 is one.

Once again i will write that there needs to be a place for this harder content.

Guess what there is alot of PvP players in this game who straight quit because they get handled. I had 2 guild mates who were digging PvP this season. One started 7-3 was put at 1700 rating and then on his 11th game was place against ESL level players and was shut out 500-0. Didnt come back to PvP.

Another guild mate was in silver pushing to gold and he to was nearly in gold, maybe 150 rating away from it. He has played around 60 matches, his next game was 500-0. He was shocked and added 2 players from the enemy team to his friends list and they were in high gold.

There is a time and place, im sorry that i dont agree with some of the logic you guys are using. Im sorry that just because Anet did this style, means i have to agree with it.

No, its a bad set up, a bad design and people should not be told to L2P in starting areas of a map.

You keep talking max- level content, i dont even understand because non of it is actually hard. For me personally i walk threw most of it, ive solo most of the champions and skill points.

But having played with some guild mates who absouletly hate HOT maps, having played with people who struggle with the PvE content, i simply try to understand what is happening and break it down.

You are not, you are trying to say this is high level/difficult content and people should L2P or adjust there style.

Which is fine for you but that would be like me saying if you are not a top 100 player in PvP you can not speak about it because you are not at my level therefore you do not understand the game play as well as i do.

Which is why im pointing out you guys are wrong with the how this thread has gone.

I mean its not like Anet didnt give Mordremoth a challenge mode for you “high level content” players. Seriously, this isnt the first complaint about the story mode or living story coming from players who just want to play the game.

My goodness its story mode, if the OP was struggling with 98-99-100 fractal so be it, tell him to L2P. Raids fine tell him to L2P, hey even the precious meta events go ahead say L2P.

But for the basic story mode and exploring? Come on get that stick out of there.

What do you propose as an alternative? All remotely challenging content must be group-based and instanced? Then why play GW2? WoW does it better. GW2 shines with its open world content and HoT, in my opinion, has by far the best open world maps I’ve seen in any MMO.

I think compromises can and have been made over the issue of HoT difficulty. But really what are you going to do? You can’t make HoT palatable to players who find Queensdale challenging and still attract players like me. I have no interest in playing this game for its mediocre instanced content alone.

Djinn.9245:

It might have been mentioned that enemies would be more difficult but it certainly wasn’t emphasized. And what people expect from an expansion of a game they like is more of the same thing they already like. I certainly had zero idea that the expansion would be anything like it is. And I would not have purchased it if I did know ahead of time.

What you expect is not some sort of universal truth. I didn’t sign on to GW2 until after HoT released, and I wouldn’t have stuck with the game if all of it mirrored core Tyria. I also played WoW for several years and through different expansions and I can tell you that they made plenty of significant changes along the way. If they hadn’t, they likely wouldn’t be around today.

Nothing is going to bring back that new game smell for you. HoT may not be perfect, but to remain relevant MMOs have to take risks and make drastic changes to their product over time. If they brought you more of the same, it would have alienated more players than HoT did. Trying to recreate that first release again is a path to stagnation, not success.

Ashen.2907:

Jahroots.6791:

Daddicus makes a sound point, though. It’s basically the same people, but different circumstances. It’s usually perfectly safe to stop and help someone in the core maps. In HoT that could often mean you ending up dead next to ‘em, and a long way from the nearest WP. Lot’s of people would probably like to help but decided against the risk.

As a general rule people’s attitudes and behaviour tend to worsen as content gets harder.

For me its not about the risk. HoTs content is more challenging than core Tyria, but not to the point of being unenjoyable. I enjoy the fights. Its about getting to where the player requesting help is, and getting back after.

I help in the core game, with advice or by showing up, but HoT encourages me to not bother…it will take me too long to find my way to where they need me (like as not they will have given up before I can get there), so why bother!

How does HoT discourage you from offering advice? Are you claiming you’re too busy fighting for your life to find a safe spot or a moment to send a chat message? This is objectively false. I assure you that if we took a walk around any HoT map it would take only a few seconds to find a safe point to chat from any given spot the map. The mob density is higher, but it isn’t THAT high!

As for reaching the point? Assuming you actually spend enough time to become familiar with the maps, it’s not much of an issue. Did you know you can reach every waypoint in Tangled Depths in less than 10 minutes starting from the entry point from AB? I’m pretty sure I could never do that in Queensdale!

We have gliding and the terrain to take advantage of it. We have updrafts and bounce mushrooms and wallows. Getting around may not be as simple as walking a straight line, but it doesn’t necessarily take any longer and often takes less time because you can simply bypass contested waypoints altogether.

ThompsonM.4230:

I will say this as a general statement and exit. I have anxiety panic disorder so not having friends or family in real life to turn too is Fact, and not having friends or a guild to turn too in game, or the ability to just join a random group was avoidable. By not keeping the world content difficulty level the same for people who mentally cannot be in groups, was a pretty big slap in the face. The difficulty level being raised in the Fracts, raids and dungeons would have been/should have been enough for the elites who needed the bar raised.

I’m glad you’re here to tell me what should have been enough for me, but I don’t spend much time in raids and dungeons. I do enjoy fractals, but I’ve spent the vast majority of my time in open world and absolutely love the HoT maps. Didn’t really like core Tyria. Too easy. So there’s that.

Daddicus.6128:

AliamRationem.5172:

Oh, right. Because the type of player who would enjoy HoT is also the type of player who spits on children and kicks puppies. No bias here! No sir!

As one of those horrible players who loves HoT and has spent countless hours helping others achieve various objectives, I resent your words. Just yesterday morning I spent 2-3 hours before work helping a new player get their elite spec unlocked and find mastery points. We ran through much of VB and some of AB as well, and I promised to help them with TD as well. And why not? It’s my favorite map anyway. And I made a new friend in the bargain!

Now please excuse me while I return to my usual activities of spitting on children and kicking puppies.

Whether you are helpful or not has no bearing on the argument. I said “the vast majority”, and that comes from actual experience. 9 times out of 10 if I ask a question, there is no reply. If a meta is going on, it’s 7-8 out of 10, but the extra ones will demand that I get off the map.

In core Tyria, it’s about 1-2 out of 10 tries. There’s just no comparison, really.

Whatever you say, bud. The fact is you’re sour on HoT and it has nothing to do with the type of people who play it because they’re the same people. If you’re suggesting otherwise, then I’d say my words were pretty accurate about your outlook.

Daddicus.6128:

killermanjaro.5670:

… Just put a call out for help with a hp in map chat, this game has a great community and there are always people who will respond to help (obviously no so much during a key meta).

No, the vast majority ignore you. Unless there’s a meta going on, in which case they’ll make you feel like you should leave so they can do their meta without you.

I can’t compare to raids or pvp, but HoT zones are populated with extremely unfriendly people, far more so than any other areas of Tyria.

Oh, right. Because the type of player who would enjoy HoT is also the type of player who spits on children and kicks puppies. No bias here! No sir!

As one of those horrible players who loves HoT and has spent countless hours helping others achieve various objectives, I resent your words. Just yesterday morning I spent 2-3 hours before work helping a new player get their elite spec unlocked and find mastery points. We ran through much of VB and some of AB as well, and I promised to help them with TD as well. And why not? It’s my favorite map anyway. And I made a new friend in the bargain!

Now please excuse me while I return to my usual activities of spitting on children and kicking puppies.

Belorn.2659:

With this change the ab map is dead and the meta closed for new players. With multi map running for this long, anyone who wanted the achievements and rewards have long since got it. There is no reason to ever go there again.

Like with dungeons, I find that a bit sad. I do a dungeon run like once every second month, but I doubt I will even do that with AB.

Exaggerate much?

Korneliy.8617:

AliamRationem.5172:

That isn’t what they said in the game release notes:

“Players can no longer open more Great Exalted Chests and Grand Exalted Chests by changing map instances after completing the meta-event in Auric Basin.”

I haven’t done the Tarir event since the patch, but according to the notes you should be able to loot all of the chests below Tarir every time you succeed at the event. Not only once per day.

i know. and yesterday i done it twice with my sister. and we got only one chest for first meta and only smalls for second. all grands and larges were opened. then we came back at night and done meta again – and still get only smalls, grands and larges were opened.
if it’s needed to be sayed, we also done lots of pre-events and taken participation in getting tarir. and still got 1 chest for days first meta, then only small ones.

If that’s the case then I agree, it shouldn’t work that way. Once per successful event completion, not once per day!

Korneliy.8617:

i’m ok with nerfing multiloot, it’s not ok to loot many instances. but now player can loot ONE grand chest or large chest PER DAY, not per event. i think, it’s totally not cool. i love Tarir, i need aurilium, but now i am forced to do meta just once per day. that’s frustrating.

That isn’t what they said in the game release notes:

“Players can no longer open more Great Exalted Chests and Grand Exalted Chests by changing map instances after completing the meta-event in Auric Basin.”

I haven’t done the Tarir event since the patch, but according to the notes you should be able to loot all of the chests below Tarir every time you succeed at the event. Not only once per day.

Djinn.9245:

Just to offset the kneejerk GW2 defenders, I want to support the OP (if he’s still reading) with the information that I have been playing this game since Beta and I also had a lot of difficulty with the HoT storyline. At the point that I started HoT I had leveled 7 different characters to 80.

OP, keep in mind that those who think there is no problem either think that because they are naturally good at playing / making their characters “meta”, or they have played the game so much that they became good. Not all GW2 players are in that same situation even if the “defenders” would have you believe it.

Allow me to counter the kneejerk haters among us…

To give you another perspective, I had a similar experience when I reached HoT. I was brand new to the game and had just leveled up my first 80 with no trouble at all. Those first few days I died A LOT. Looking back on that, I’m amazed at how far I’ve come.

Initially, I said pretty much the same things you’re saying. I complained to my guild that I could dodge just fine, but eventually I had to get in there and deal damage and that’s when I’d get killed. There are too many enemies. They’re too strong. I don’t have the tools, the health, or the armor to handle them. Not with the class I’m using. No way, no how!

I still feel this way to some extent when I level up a new class. However, having done this several times now I know that it takes me a bit to find my comfort zone. Knowing that, I don’t get frustrated. I just keep practicing and making tweaks (weapons, gear stats, traits) until I come up with something that feels right to me. And when I do I can literally do the impossible (or at least, what I remember my new player self claiming with absolute certainty was completely impossible!).

Maybe you’re a hopeless case, but I doubt it.

Colly.4073:

This last fight is not even fun, fighting in such a confined space with the camera going haywire all through the fight and so much aoe and timed counter magic is just frustrating.

No skill will get you through this fight only luck, it’s just badly designed.

Well, let’s be honest. Call it skill or call it practice, I feel confident that players can train themselves to prioritize use of the special on this encounter. As with anything else, you practice and you learn. You begin to learn the timing so you know roughly when to expect the special to become available and you watch for the visual and auditory cues that indicate that you need to use it.

As avoiding a CC chain is the primary challenge of this encounter, you can also give yourself an edge by adding survival gear (since DPS is really only the major factor when fighting the relatively weak, but dangerous adds) and by adding stun breaks and stability to your bar.

I don’t think “luck” is really a factor here. You just need to prioritize using that special as soon as possible and giving yourself enough of a cushion for the tougher parts of the encounter (jade bow, primarily).

The game also gives you some fallback plans in the form of the NPCs that actually raise you when downed and the fact that you can always bring friends if all else fails. Ideal? Perhaps not, but this is Caudecus we’re fighting. He’s a powerful and important character and he isn’t going to go down without a fight!

While I could have used a larger area to fight in and found the CC chaining with the jade bow present annoying, I think the “Head of the Snake” was a worthy encounter. Further, while it certainly seems difficult at first, I’m not sure we should be aiming for a boss that is so easy you kill it your first attempt without issue.

This is particularly true when you consider that 1) You can bring friends if you like, and 2) From what I’m hearing the NPCs who are with you will raise you and are actually capable of getting you through the tougher parts.

Now I know that isn’t what you want to hear, but with those options to fall back on is it really too much to expect that you might need to practice and learn the encounter a bit before taking out such an important character as Caudecus?

Still, there are probably things they could have done to make this encounter less annoying without completely trivializing it. For instance, if they gave you just a quarter second longer to activate the special and avoid the CC. If the room were a bit larger. If they had chosen something other than a jade bow to throw in with him. I don’t think it would kill the encounter for most players and many who currently have complaints about it might not have.

I agree that the CC chaining and bad camera angles are annoying in this fight. When the add spawned I didn’t know to expect it and found myself pushed into a wall, unable to see what was going on as I was repeatedly stunned.

All in all, a pretty challenging encounter for a storyline boss. But I suppose that’s worthy of the “Head of the Snake”. Still, I would have preferred to fight this guy in a more open environment!

The centaur village is the leather farm they promised us. Within hours of release squads were already forming to farm it. I would expect to see this quickly become a routine sight on LFG.

Having said that, if you’d like an easier route to the point of interest at the top of the centaur village there is another way. Take a closer look around the cliff area that overlooks the village to the north. You need to access this same area to get a nearby vista and mastery insight. There is another way to the top.

You will still have to run past some champion and elite centaurs, but it’s much easier than attempting to solo run the gauntlet from the base of the centaur village.

The daredevil specialization (required for staff thief) brings a 50% increase in maximum endurance, heals on evade, and you have the option of traiting for condi removal on evade should you need it. You also gain access to physical skills like bandit’s defense, which is a block and counter CC on a very short cooldown as well as several options for restoring endurance so that you can dodge far more often.

If you’re still having difficulty surviving, you can take invigorating precision in the crit strikes line so that 15% of your critical damage is restored as health. With the damage output of staff thief this amounts to consistent strong healing on offense.

Traced.3495:

I hate their progression.
There’s the new player experience which I understand was supposed to be progression of some sort?
There were the trait changes at one point. And they became specializations? I have only opened that window by accident, haven’t wanted to look at it. It’s on, the wait to see if they ever overhaul this into something else in the future again. I don’t trust Anet.
I haven’t seen masteries and never will but what I have read it sounds horrible.

I hate the idea of having to do some specific stuff because something is gated behind it. So I didn’t. I have never liked endgame (high level difficult combat), I was and was always planning to be on a slow and quiet journey of some sort. I have the impression that they started to make their game all about this endgame thing, with its progression.
I deeply hate Anet for their direction.

Is this a joke? You haven’t looked at specializations since the trait changes because you don’t trust ANet? You will never see the mastery system because it sounds horrible? You hate ANet for a direction they’ve taken that you apparently haven’t even looked at?

What do you do? Just listen to complaints on the forums all day instead of actually playing the game? I mean, I guess that’s a slow journey. But why would you do this?

Stand The Wall.6987:

… if might was a flat 33% damage boost? so no more stacking, its just one boon, a counter to protection. it would probably have to have its duration nerfed a bit.

I’m just trying to satiate my curiosity here, nobody get triggered or what ever term kids use nowadays.

as an added side note, it would be interesting to see what this game would be like if boons had a duration cap. we would be forced to coordinate boon rotations.

I’m sure it could work, but I like it the way it is. Might stacking is fun!

OriOri.8724:

Sky.7610:

OriOri.8724:

Was there a point to this post?

you’ll find the point if you read the first paragraph… the first.

I read the whole thing, and I don’t see a point in your post.

You actually read all of that nonsense? LoL

But seriously, the point is obvious. I’ll translate for you:

“I would like others to recognize my value to the GW2 community because having tons of gold hasn’t produced a sufficient feeling of self-worth like I thought it would.”

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Tongku.5326:

If you want a strong vertical progression game such as WOW or Rift, or whatever else, this is not it. This specifically was advertised to be different from those and stays somewhat true to that.

Not that they really deliver a meaningfully different experience despite that vertical gear treadmill: each time the next increment comes out you just get reset, and then work hard to get back to where you were.

If you really want that experience in GW2, craft a set of green gear when LS4 launches, then grind back up to ascended items. It’s all the fun of gear “progression” brought to life!

…but, seriously, even in vertical progression games you end up either stalled at the top of the current tree, or playing ever-increasingly minor increments of luck to upgrade, ala diablo.

That’s true. However, those rewards do feel meaningful because they provide something relevant to character advancement that requires some degree of effort to achieve. Compare to such game-changers as Itzel poison lore, which is nothing more than a time gate and you begin to see where GW2’s reward system fails.

Vertical progression may be the gaming equivalent of running on a treadmill, but if it keeps players motivated to continue playing then the rewards do what they are intended to do. I’m not suggesting that we rely on vertical progression here. However, the reward system must keep players motivated if it is to succeed in the long term. I don’t feel GW2 does a great job of that.

I’m not sure how to make it better, but I can tell you that I’ve been dragging my feet on completing my masteries for a year now because I don’t feel the rewards are compelling enough to do what it takes to achieve them. I’ve been making an effort lately, but it feels as if I’m doing it for the sake of finally completing the mastery track than for the skills themselves. And certainly not for the useless spirit shards I earn in exchange for experience after doing so! Can’t we do better than this?

Further, I don’t feel HoT offered enough armor skins to work toward. I understand why weapon skins are easier to create and they introduced quite a few of those, but I’m not likely to want to unlock every weapon skin because I don’t use every weapon type and I don’t like every skin available on the weapons I do use. I realize that there are collection achievements associated with unlocking them, but again this feels similar to the mastery situation where I would only do so for the sake of completion rather than because the rewards themselves are compelling.

Anchoku.8142:

End game has become unrewarding for me because there is less social interaction and more impersonal grind.

The newest areas, HoT+, do not encourage grouping, social dialogue and dependency, cooperative adventure, whatever keeps players chatting.

Call me crazy, but HoT events being generally more difficult would seem to do more to encourage grouping than core Tyria content which is mostly designed so that leveling characters can solo it.

Perhaps there is less social interaction (I can’t say as I wasn’t around prior to HoT), but I don’t think it’s because HoT content doesn’t encourage or require grouping compared to core content.

I wasn’t around prior to HoT, but as I understand it GW2 suffered from an extreme lack of endgame content. From what I’ve heard a lot has been introduced since that time to address that, but not all of it is every player’s idea of a good time. Given that, I can’t see how you’re worse off for having more options, even if those options aren’t all to your personal tastes.

It’s irrelevant though, as you don’t seem to care much for PvE anyway. The majority of your ranting revolves around PvP. Maybe you could use any old build in PvP when the game first started. I wouldn’t know. But I’ve played enough PvP in other games to know that “meta” builds are inevitable.

Perhaps if you played early enough in the life cycle of the game, the reason you had some measure of success was that the player base didn’t have years of experience to draw upon, including all the resources provided to us by players who have spent years analyzing and creating the builds that rise to the top? Well, now they do. So get used to stiffer competition.

Add some condi cleanse to your build and get over yourself.

I can’t say for certain, but generally the way this works is you buy the current expansion and you receive all previous content (with a few exceptions such as Living Story episodes that require you to be there or pay later). So when the next expansion comes you should be able to purchase it and also receive HoT.

Hybarf Tics.2048:

I got my drop and it was a blast, thanks for all the replies and understanding.

Congrats!

Air attunement is not really a damage attunement. However, once you unlock tempest the air overload is very high damage, strikes quickly, and deals damage over a large area.

With the fresh air trait you can overload, swap attunements, and the first critical you land will instantly reset your air attunement cooldown so you can swap back. However, you will still need to wait out the 5 second cooldown before overloading the attunement again.

Having said that, I wouldn’t recommend locking yourself into trying to over-utilize air. The overload and auto attack (dagger) are high damage, but it’s mostly for CC and utility and with fresh air there is no reason to camp air attunement as you can easily swap back as needed.

Use the full range of your abilities. That’s what’s great about elementalist and especially the fresh air builds! You will always be able to fall back to air attunement no matter how fast you’re swapping.

I like elementalist. They can be whatever you want them to be, although the meta for group PvE content is pretty much all out damage. They have access to plenty of heals, auras, and boons for support if you like and although they don’t have access to an in-combat weapon swap like most classes do, they have 20 skills divided into 4 elemental attunements for each weapon type. And don’t worry about their reputation for being “squishy”, if you want to build for it you can be very tanky as an elementalist.

I think they just need to put a big sign at the entrance to every HoT map explaining what LFG is and how to use it. But in the mean time, I’ll help you out:

The chak gerent occurs every 2 hours on the half hour. Check LFG 15-20 minutes before it begins to find a map that is organizing for the meta.

Why do you have to do it this way? At any given time there are multiple instances of the map running. If you just hang out for hours chances are pretty good that you won’t be lucky enough to be on a map that is organizing for the meta and it will appear to you that nobody ever does the meta even while it actually gets completed routinely – just not on the map instance you happen to be on.

I can enjoy many of the aspects of gameplay, but I also require a reason to play them. Rewards give me that reason. For example, why have legendary weapons? It’s just a skin, right? But more than that it’s a means of giving players something to strive for. In the process, they feel motivated to play the game they enjoy. Take away that motivation and it’s a nice game that doesn’t hold your interest as well.

This game does a poor job with rewards. HoT didn’t offer near enough of the rewards players enjoy and the mastery system lacks depth. Instead of depth what we got was a whole lot of grind for skills that, for the most part, aren’t very fun or useful. For example, the hated Itzel poison lore. It exists for no other purpose than to force you to grind for it. There is nothing rewarding about it at all. They could have done a much better job of this and provided far more skins to work for.

I want a version of celestial that includes concentration and expertise! Okay, so maybe it isn’t “missing” in the same sense as the stats you refer to, but it’s still missing!

It’s okay to love Tangled Depths. I mean, isn’kitten

It’s about $25 for a limited time. So, if you think you’re going to spend a significant amount of time playing this game and that amount of money is in the budget, then why not? If you decide later that you want to purchase it, you’ll either have to pay full price or wait a few more months for it to go on sale again (it seems to go on sale just prior to the release of each new living story update).

Now whether or not you’ll like what HoT has to offer? You’re going to get a range of responses on that. There are players like myself who much prefer HoT content to core Tyria, and players who couldn’t disagree more and feel that HoT ruined what they loved about the original game. Nobody is going to be able to tell you which type of player you are at this point, so you’ll just have to take your chances if you decide to purchase.

I like d/d celestial earth/air/tempest myself. It feels pretty invincible in open world.