Guild Wars 2

To the Heroes and charr of Tyria!

There be rumblins ‘bout some some big gub’mit scheme to take our aoe class weapons. Now we at the Tyrian Rifle Association aint even sure what caliber aoe is, but Balthazar -blessed are we who battle in his glory – himself wrote that our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed! These fat-cat *Dev*ocrats think they can take our guns? They can try to pry them from our…still warm…hands… while we wait to respawn… but The Six Gods, themselves, have empowered us to stand against dis kind o’ tyranny! We must fight to keep our guns – even though guns don’t kill no one. From the lowly Pop Guns up through the mightiest of Kill Shot Cannons and whatever it is ‘dose Engineers do – All Calibers of weaponry including this aoe stuff is protected by our faith and our tradition. TRA! TRA! TRA!

(Wanted to inject a little satire.)

A Faithful GW Redux? Count me in.

I approached this from a different angle: “Which Professions [as played by others] have given me the most issues in cooperative play?” I came up with similar answers to the growing consensus: In order of most issues to least issues: Ranger, Necromancer, Engineer, Thief, Elementalist [insert gap here], Guardian/Mesmer/Warrior.

Monk Anchorwind – A tribute to my style and passion [helping others] from D&D through GW. I usually name my Monk/Cleric type Crysania [Thank you TSR], but I wasn’t going to name my warrior Crysania, so my warrior is named Monk instead.

Genophix.3098:

Anchorwind did you use rewards and prizes for your competition? We have a gold prize for our photograph competition but are trying to think of something more apt.

We certainly did! As Seen Here , we were active with armor collections [for ourselves and our heroes], as well as pursuing other titles on our 30/30|50/50 paths. As such, our rewards weren’t always just ‘throw in a couple gold.’ When we were all pursuing Vabbian armor, we would throw in Sapphires instead. When we were all pursuing Obsidian armor, we would throw in Obsidian Shards instead. Green Weapons [Thank you Horizontal Progression and Decent Drop Rates], Consumable Items [Sugar/Alcohol/Party], I think once we even did it for real-life cash (we’re all RL friends anyway): we all bought the costumes so the winner would get a free costume from the rest of us. I, as guild leader, always tried to keep the pot something relevant to whatever we were doing at the time. Sure, we’d all get to the end eventually – but one of us would get there first and have bragging rights for a bit .

Anyone have a wizard cap? [queue Fantasia scene]

-Results- as of 1600 EST
Participants: 96
Answers in a Yes/No/Other format. “Other” captures all uncommitted, ‘leaning’ and abstain votes.

Questions reposted per request
1) Would you prefer ascended gear to be the last tier implemented for the remainder of GW2? 74/13/9
2) Would you prefer ascended gear to be equal to exotic gear in all statistics except agony resistance? 53/30/13
3) Would you prefer the level cap to remain at 80 for the remainder of GW2? 64/20/12
4) Would you prefer if WvW was set up on an equal playing field similar to PvP? 29/55/12
5) Would you prefer if WvW / PvP / PvE had separate skill functionalities? 37/44/15
6) Would you prefer if Magic Find was removed from the game completely? 55/26/15
7) Would you prefer if Magic Find was divided equally amongst all party members? 48/29/19
8) Is GW2 too ‘Grindy?’ 39/41/16
9) Does GW2 need less RNG? 37/31/28
10) Has the Trading Post [and all its users/farmers] positively impacted the economy? 37/31/28
11) Do you have as much faith [and/or enthusiasm] about the game [and/or company] as you did before launch? 40/52/4
12) Do you reasonably expect [many of] your primary concerns to be addressed in early 2013? 28/54/14

Genophix.3098:

Anchorwind.9016:

Genophix.3098:

Very simple, it’s 20s per picture, one picture per person and the winner takes the pot.

I’m a fan of un-offical events too. In GW, we ran “True Cartographer” contests. I would take a screenshot of a landmark/unique spot and post it on our website. First person to figure out where it was, get there, take a screenshot of themselves there [and send it to me as verification] would take the pot. Fun times. I’m glad to see other groups are doing fun ‘un-official’ stuff too. It should be encouraged more. Time to put my money where my mouth is

That’s a brilliant idea!

Would you mind if I tried it in our guild,? I’m sure they would love it.

By all means, have at! If you wanted to credit us, you could call it (the contest) the Quin Cup or something . Guilds that have fun together, stay together. Enjoy!

I joined, and posted a captioned graphic.

This thread is intended to serve as a straight yes-or-no [I don’t know is also acceptable] poll on many of the discussions currently on going. This thread is not intended to continue those discussions, please visit the relevant threads and participate. Also, as a subset of the community I [the compiler] and you [the participant] are/should be aware that our percentage numbers may not reflect the community as a whole. This is strictly informative to the people currently participating. Pending sufficient responses, I will periodically update with current percentages.

The Dirty Dozen:
1) Would you prefer ascended gear to be the last tier implemented for the remainder of GW2?
2) Would you prefer ascended gear to be equal to exotic gear in all statistics except agony resistance?
3) Would you prefer the level cap to remain at 80 for the remainder of GW2?
4) Would you prefer if WvW was set up on an equal playing field similar to PvP?
5) Would you prefer if WvW / PvP / PvE had separate skill functionalities?
6) Would you prefer if Magic Find was removed from the game completely?
7) Would you prefer if Magic Find was divided equally amongst all party members?
8) Is GW2 too ‘Grindy?’
9) Does GW2 need less RNG?
10) Has the Trading Post [and all its users/farmers] positively impacted the economy?
11) Do you have as much faith [and/or enthusiasm] about the game [and/or company] as you did before launch?
12) Do you reasonably expect [many of] your primary concerns to be addressed in early 2013?

Genophix.3098:

Very simple, it’s 20s per picture, one picture per person and the winner takes the pot.

I’m a fan of un-offical events too. In GW, we ran “True Cartographer” contests. I would take a screenshot of a landmark/unique spot and post it on our website. First person to figure out where it was, get there, take a screenshot of themselves there [and send it to me as verification] would take the pot. Fun times. I’m glad to see other groups are doing fun ‘un-official’ stuff too. It should be encouraged more. Time to put my money where my mouth is

My Caption: “Is Monk Anchorwind gonna have to Choke a Kitten?”

Krewe,

I am hosting a Caption Contest. From now until 1 Feb 2013, I invite any and all to post their submissions for ‘best caption’ to the attached picture. I will pay (1s X # of Participants) up to 1 Gold to the winner, announced and paid in early Feb 2013. Winning Caption will be attached to the Graphic and Posted for all to see.

No Entry Fee, No Limit on # of captions per participant. Invite your krewe, invite your guild. Let’s continue a trend of friendly, funny, un-official events. Perhaps more will host their own contests as well?

Other Info that may be of use:
Character Name: Monk Anchorwind
Guild: Call of the Hoolequin [Quin]
Race: Asura [obviously]
Profession: Warrior [only due to lack of monks :p ]
Order: Vigil

alcopaul.2156:

Anchorwind.9016:

Please see attached graphic for statement.

That picture has over 9000 might stacks, so powerful that i can i half-shot Lupicus.

This made me laugh, a lot. Thanks!

Colin Johanson

These will show off the prestige of your character, but will not make your character more powerful than other characters.

There is more hope!

Mackdose.6504:

I believe that vertical progression as a gating mechanism is a problem

Many of us agree with you, and having seen it before in various places, we wish not to see it here.

Kasama.8941:

And in a zerg situation, it’s just a ridiculous thing to worry about, as even more variables comes into play there.

May I offer a scenario that makes the zerg situation no longer ridiculous to worry about? Guild X gets their ascended gear. Guild X is now Y% individually and Z% collectively stronger than they were before. Guild X now is laying siege to a tower/keep in WvW. With their enhanced stats, siege weapons are no longer taking them down as effectively [and their teammates are also more likely to be able to revive] and the ascended tier guild ‘zerg’ captures the tower due to decreased defensive capabilities.

Do they make siege weapons stronger to compensate? That now decimates all non-ascended players more than before, and would also increase the speed of point captures.

The dynamic changes regardless. Either power creep sets in universally, or unilaterally.

Raine.1394:

The devs have said we will have vertical progression in the game moving forward.

Perhaps the burning questions at this point that we wish we had the answers to: “How Much? and How Fast?”

Astralporing.1957:

And yet, you could get to the point when you didn’t need to look for anything more in about a week (that includes advancing storylines to unlock access to several areas). And you didn’t even need to work for it too much – if you did, i bet you could do it in day-two tops.

Is this bad? We then play the game at our own pace and distance, for our own enjoyment – having reached our statistical potential. We experiment with builds, we pursue cosmetic alternatives, we assist guild-mates. We work on titles that may not have any actual effect on any actual mechanics. We practice a certain skill set [PvP, WvW, Activities]. We organize ‘un-official’ events: large [district sponsoring, non-holiday holiday celebrations, et al.,] and small [screenshot caption contests, best photo contests, et al.,]. We put on our commander shields and look for junior players that could use a helping hand. [rambles on]

We could find ‘more’ without ‘needing’ to look for it.

Levetty.1279:

A problem with new gear levels that everybody seems to forget (since the introduction of a treadmill is obviously a big concern and the cop out of just adding bigger numbers to gear to fight monster with bigger numbers instead of creating some interesting new content) is the Power Creep. The down leveling system doesn’t seem to do much about the gear you are wearing. So going to pre 80 levels with exotic armour already makes the zones pretty easy, ascended will make that worse.

Also what about new content? When we eventually get to go to Cantha what kind of Zones will they be? Will their be different leveled Zones and thus a lot of the content will be boring to a lot of players or will it all be level 80 Zones that presume you have some ascended thus cutting off the new ares to players who haven’t got the gear yet. Same with new dungeons? Will they be like the current ones thus useless to people with ascended gear or will they be their to get even higher tiers or new infusions thus will be cut off to people with no ascended?

Many of us Old-School types would/have/are going to raise[d] concerns similar to this. The introduction of higher levels and stronger equipment is not -just- about the grind. It is not -just- about the legacy of a franchise. It is not -just- about the reduction of a character vs. their potential. It is also about concerns regarding the impact on the world as a whole: new areas as well as existing areas, acquisition methods, impacts on modes of play, impacts on player attitudes [player availability] and more.

When everyone throws the same dice, it is easier for everyone to play the same game.

Kain Francois.4328:

Fitting considering they threw Horizontal Progression into the Realm of Torment.

Shadow Blade.1324:

i endorse this statement also /respect that is a very nice collection.

critickitten.1498:

Hrm, no, wait. Something must be wrong….it doesn’t look horizontal at all. :/

Gilosean.3805:

Horizontal progression was one of the reasons I bought this game, and that’s also true for a lot of others. It’s uncommon in MMOs. It’s a new and different thing that not a lot of MMOs have. That’s practically the opposite of ‘stale’. If anything, vertical progression is stale, since practically every MMO on the market does it.

Raine.1394:

It’s a beautiful progression. Thanks for the statement—I agree.

Avitarus.1865:

Nice graphic…

Tolmos.8395:

GW2 isn’t a bad game, it’s just misnamed. It is NOT Guild Wars 1’s sequel…

Zhaneel.9208:

Well said!

sallost.6875:

Great statement. Fiercely supported!

Thanks for the Support, It is nice to log in and smile here.

Please see attached graphic for statement.

PvP Game Mode Suggestions, not in any particular order:

For the ‘Runners and Skirmishers’
1) Capture the flag.
a. Picking up the flag awards a ‘buff’ that awards glory points when the buff expires [if you are still holding the flag after X seconds, glory]. Picking up the flag disables skill bars.
b. Dropping the Flag bearer awards extra glory points.
c. The Flag can never be Stealthed. The players can be stealthed [to drop and run], but the flag itself is always visible.
d. Flags remove speed boosts [traits, boons, etc].
e. Each map has multiple drop-off points, worth more based on their distance from pick-up [and to prevent excessive camping].
f. First team to X points wins.

For the ‘Guilds and Generals’
2) Open-Field Combat
a. Large teams [15 v 15? 20 v 20?].
b. Wide open terrain, minimal jumping/obstructions involved.
c. No points, no flags. Just combat.
d. Dead players revive in the ‘pen’ [centered with a nice view, but inescapable] and can only encourage teammates [skill bar turns to boon/condition shouts, similar to some PvE missions]. No rejoining combat.
e. Glory awarded per kill, Last team standing wins.

For the ‘Duelists and Gentlemen [and Ladies]’
3) The Ring of Honor <— My Favorite idea.
a. Small Teams [5v5?]
b. A ring that has no boundaries, to fall off is fatal. [Spawn above it and jump/fall onto it]
c. No points or flags, but special restrictions: To be ‘Pushed/pulled/knocked-back’ off the ring by an opponent docks the pusher’s team points [dishonorable kill penalty]. To fall off on your own, via dodge or normal movement, costs the team a suicide penalty. No Stealth Revives or Stealth Finishers. Everything is out in the open, and constant.
d. No resurrection timer. To fall off or be defeated, get right back in the ring and rejoin the fight.
e. First team to X points wins.

I, personally, wouldn’t play a lot of capture the flag [despite having a blast with the Snowball Fight], but I would play some Open-Field and a lot of Ring of Honor. Thoughts?

Mercypsy.9602:

Thanks a lot. This is useful and handy to have. Nice of you to share your work like this.

Certainly. Thanks for being on the forums and not being full of vitriol.

Krewe,

Dye Tracking Checklist
[Click on the Link for Download]

I compiled this for guild tracking [We’re old-school dice throwers, we write stuff down. We did lots of checklists for GW and now GW2]. I’ve seen a few people here-and-there say “It would be nice if…” so I wanted to offer it to everyone. It is nothing fancy or pretty, but is fully sortable by Name, Color, Set, or Material.

Please pass it along to others who may make use of it and always be loyal to your krewe!

Monk Anchorwind, Quin or Quit!

It would be easier [and quicker] to say I would be happy if they announced a GW3. It plays just like GW, picks up after GW2 lore wise but keeps: Z-Axis, Auction House [and the return of the trade window], and the painterly aesthetic.

Monk. They’re so kitten, they had to be excluded from the sequel to allow others to be played.

I want to, but there are some things that prevent me from enjoying it as much as I think I could:

1) Poor rewards and long periods of no rewards.
-Compared to PvP and PvE maps, WvW has large open spaces of little to nothing. So we’re spending lots of time simply running from point A to point B. That gets old. Once we get to Point B, it could be a long period of no reward leading up to a poor reward: such as a siege stalemate. If you spend a decent amount of time attacking/defending a location with an appropriate number of opposing players – it may take a while. In that process, there will be -lots- of dancing about, ebb and flow, healing and reviving etc. So the end state rewards for the time spent can be fairly small.

2) Siege Weapons
Some points have so many of them, it contributes to point #1. Why can’t Siege Weapons be ‘claimed’ by anyone when not in use? If Team A builds an arrow cart, then loses the point – the only option is for it to be destroyed. This makes sense, why? An arrow cart is an arrow cart, regardless of which colored cloth is tied to its wheels. I’m not advocating for the removal of siege weapons, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them overhauled: Ammunition limitations? Quantity limitations? Enemy Capturing Functionality? Salvaging for Supply?

3) The Colored ‘Teleport Doors’
Players can run [not all make it] through an entire group of hostiles, burn all their survivability/mobility skills and make into a defense point? Lets think about that: If we actually had a heavily armed group of people beating down your door and there was a way to get in, they’d get in! If you opened the door to let your friends come in, your enemies would come in too. I understand that mechanic is unlikely to go away, it just doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense.

4) The Ineffectiveness of Individuals and Small Groups.
The design of WvW favors the large [lag inducing, at times] groups. WvW would be more interesting, for me, if there was more tactics involved instead of ‘everybody move from point A to point B’ which forces the opposing side to do it too. Make undefended spots easier to capture [Less HP on Gate?, ‘Undefended’ Buff on Attackers?], and give rewards to players [up to a daily maximum to limit abuse] who defend places that aren’t being actively attacked. Create more things to Build: Anti-Siege Weapon Bombs, Dolyak Speed Buffs – just create more mechanics that provide individuals and small groups with the ability to break away from the group and accomplish something. That forces the defenders to spread out their defense as well – and now battles are raging map-wide, not just at Point A.

5) Culling, Stealth, and Ride the Lightning.
Partially for reasons above, but it does get annoying watching so many people unwilling to finish a fight they [at least thought] wanted to start.

6) PvE Characters on uneven ground.
I think it should be considered: switch WvW to a PvP style system – everyone is on equal footing in terms of skills unlocked, gear available, etc. Introduce a new currency: Honor. Honor works like Glory and Karma in that it is earned through play and cannot be traded. Honor Vendors sell Skins, Siege Weapons, Commander Books, Bags, Salvage Kits etc. However, unlike PvP I say keep the drops just like PvE. So if you’re a level 10 warrior [in PvE] trying to help out your server in WvW, you can earn Honor to use in WvW but you’ll also earn level 10 appropriate stuff to use/sell back PvE. By doing both Drops AND Honor – Dedicated WvW’ers will have the shiniest stuff [honor vendor skins and Titles] and occasional/casual WvW’ers will still be encouraged to support their server by obtaining things they can take back with them.

I hope this answers the OP’s question.
Monk Anchorwind, Quin or Quit!

stof.9341:

The Engineer is the king of balanced play in a game where balanced builds lose 100% against extremely focused burst and bunker builds.

Shame, no?

Theplayboy.6417:

I really feel that the deciding forces behind Guild Wars 2 have completely forgotton what made them special. All of the the people screaming for “end game” and “gear grind” and “raids” never ever wanted a Guild Wars 2. They want and are currently looking for the next WoW. And while those players were off playing WoW I was playing the original Guild Wars along with a ton of my other internet friends who no longer are playing Guild Wars 2.

This gear grind and gear treadmill has to end. Guild Wars 2 needs to get back on course with where the Original left off. I played the original game in Alpha, I purchased the the original game, I bought the Factions and Nightfall pre-order packs and pre-purchased the additional continents as well as the Eye of the North expansion, and even bought all of the stupid strategy guides. I know I’m only single person and that all of these things don’t add up to a whole lot of money but I considered myself a life long Guild Wars / Anet customer. I hate to give it all up but Guild Wars 2 in it’s current state has left me extremely dissatisfied. Guild Wars has been a part of my life since it launced and as much as it pains me to say it if I quit Guild Wars 2 I am never coming back. The Guild Wars phase of my life will officially be over for me.

The ghost of my Monk seconds this from the mists.

Kyma Grey.9410:

Am i really the only one, who prefers the old format over the new one?

Nope. There were many came and left, and others of us who are still here that still see the superiority of Guild Wars in many ways. Discussing such here, however, is often troublesome.

I agree with giving people the option. I disagree that they’re beyond pointless: It is easier for my guild [larger than 5] to follow the shield than a blue dot that only some can see. It also provides an easy graphical reference point when organizing an ‘unofficial’ event, such as a map-exploration run. That’s useful for small guilds, new players, and others who may just want to want to be a part of the slaughter for a while.

Far from pointless, but options are good.

Yes, Very Yes. However let us be fair and take a reward penalty. If the dungeon becomes 50% easier, than let us receive 50% fewer tokens. However, Let us also expand on this idea further: Party size of Larger than 5 Dungeons.

My Guild has more than 5 members, and we’re all long-time friends etc., so we have to rotate who gets to play and who sits out, but we would all be willing to take a reduced payout to be able to play together. If the Dungeon is designed for 5 people and we bring in 6, then each person suffers a 20% reduction in reward to compensate for the “difficulty reduction.”

Therefore, People who have not the time nor the schedule [due to guild and/or life concerns] to group can still progress, albeit slower, and people who have the group to play can play together and voluntarily choose to incur the penalty for exceeding the ‘optimal’ number. The standard groups of five still win, as do the rest of us for our own reasons.

You want variety? A Meta-Event is in itself an event. Underwater Combat is still part of your kill count [and kill variety]. Choose to impose your own variety, don’t force it upon others; especially with dungeons.

What came after Prophecies? Factions. What comes after we break down Zhaitan’s blockade of Cantha? Access to Tengu and cleaning up the Ministry of Purity’s mess.

Tranquillity.8697:

I simply want to know if GW2 took the things YOU loved about GW1.

Not even close.

Instanced maps? nope.
Party size 8? nope.
Heroes? nope.
Foes that stay dead? nope.
Flowing Armor ? nope.
Monks? nope.
Interrupts? nope.
Skill Variety? nope.
The ability to use high-ground without getting ‘invulnerable’ messages? nope.
The ability to get characters up to speed with full-builds relatively quickly? nope.
Free Map Travel? nope.
fast forward
No Monthly Fee? Yes.

Our small guild was able to play at our own pace and style, and we absolutely loved it. We never ran into an ‘event [Temple of Melandru’s Acolytes]’ that we couldn’t finish because their weren’t enough of us. We never ran into an area that had too many people and thus became laggy and unresponsive. We had a blast doing things, and then doing them better with different tactics and builds. We’re still hoping that it’s not too late for GW2. Perhaps it would be better to hope for a GW3: Just like GW but with updated graphics and trading posts.

It probably has to do with the numerous skills [et al.] involving healing, blocking, condition removal, etc.

My Guild Mate and I are GW Veterans. 30/30 | 50/50. Loved it. We just tried to acquire pieces of Melandru Armor [the 42K Karma]. Couldn’t finish the event due to lack of other people. Never in all the years of Guild Wars was our progress ever stopped due to lack of other people. So frustrating.

Ursan.7846:

You can still play GW1 you know.

I would laugh if Guild Wars released another expansion. My guild and I would play it in a heartbeat.

I’m an old-school console gamer and dice-thrower. That means two things: I’m well adapted to individual [solo] play as well as small group play with a very tight-knit core group of people [my guild] that go way back. Guild Wars fit this well. We could run hero teams, drop a hero to add a guild mate and move out. GW2 not so much, but the idea is still the same. Guild Groups or Solo.

Yes. Very yes. One of the critical factors that kept me enjoying Guild Wars throughout the years was the ability to do it on my own. I thoroughly enjoyed tinkering around with hero teams and was able to accomplish 30/30 and 50/50 with Heroes and Henchmen. Being able to play at my own: pace, distance, and style allowed me to enjoy what I like most about the game: my experimental builds, teams, the music, the environment and all without hassle, complaint or interference. At the same time, the players that preferred to travel with others were able to enjoy they liked: each other. Everyone wins.