Guild Wars 2

Arcanorum Ignis.9218:

I think the whole clipping with Charr excuse is bullkitten. You really think that ANet with over 200 people working on the game, the vast majority of which are industry veterans and now many months after release still can’t solve something like that?

Yeah this is actually more reasonable than you seem to believe. If the game engine runs a certain way that capes and the physics I presume they come with to avoid clipping work well on upright characters, but the Charr and their models/animations are a major roadblock, that probably means the game engine is having a hard time reconciling the physics with that race for whatever reason. If it’s the all-fours stance/animations it’s probably because the physics engine wants the cape to hang down, but the charr is in the way and the engine’s attempt to get the cape to hang down through the charr is causing massive, ugly, clipping.

Trying to tweak something like that to work without breaking the physics engine can be a very time (and potentially money)-consuming process, especially since those 200 people presumably working on fixing stuff have literally hundreds of other things to work on besides that.

At least as far as I know it’s still on the table to be fixed and implemented. It’s better than if it was never a thing they intended to have, then years later they go “hey players, here’s this super awesome thing to make you look super awesome!” before later deciding to say “hey players, remember that super awesome thing that would make you look super awesome? We decided not to do that because it would be too inconvenient if PvPers could only identify what class you are based on the class-specific abilities, animations and effects you use instead of glancing at you from a safe distance across the PvP field.” Yes, this is a thing that happened in another game and if anyone can recognize what I’m talking about you get 10 internet cookies for your knowledge.

Naoko.7096:

Addiction is neccessary for people to have fun. If addiction is “bad”, there’s no such things as hobbies. People who have hobbies are addicted towards something they love and dedicated. It brings about strong interests.

This is such an offensively misunderstood notion of what addiction is that I strongly urge you to look at the definition in the dictionary and then go ask a medical doctor, a physician, a rehabilitation therapist, a psychiatrist and a psychological analyst what addiction means. Not one of them will tell you that it is necessary to have fun, nor that hobbies necessitate addiction in order for said hobby to qualify as a hobby. Seriously, go ask each and every one of them simply because I think you will take their word more seriously than mine.

Games in the 90s like pacman and tetris are fun in those era. It’s because they’re addictive and worth repeating for. Those are the games that made an impression and last for a long time. Without being pulled in, people grow boredom towards the game.

They were games that made an impression because they were some of the first mainstream games that masses of people were exposed to. When video games were first made they almost literally blew people’s minds. And yes, they were addictive. Is it good that people had a ton of fun with them? Sure. Is it good if they became addicted? Still no. Addiction is bad.

You shouldn’t link drugs to games and hobbies. Drugs and smokings are bad because they are unhealthy and destroy human lives. Games and hobbies addictions are something that give you leisures and entertainment.

Again, offensive misunderstanding of what addiction is. Look it up.

This applies to TV shows. Good tv dramas and animes are those that make viewers feel anticipated after every episodes. Viewers feel eager to know the plot of the next episodes. If tv shows doesn’t make viewers anticipated, they would fall asleep while watching. A non-anticipating (no-carrot) drama would make viewers feel like they don’t feel like watching the next episode, skipping the whole series together. This is something which needs to be considered during production.

Anticipation is not addiction. Anticipation is a tool every form of episodic media needs to employ in order to ensure they get the expected number of viewers to watch/continue watching/tune in. It’s also a tool good writers in any media, directors and game developers need to use to get news and hype generated before their product is ready to sell. If the consumers are anticipating a product eagerly sales go way up… how did we even get to anticipation? This has nothing to do with the points I made.

This is why “grinding” only forms in mmorpg if players are bored repeating contents. The pulling element is neccessary for people not to see it as “grinding”. If players have fun repeating and stay anticipated in the rewards, it’s no longer a grind.

You’ve lost me here. This does not connect to any of the previous thoughts in your post at all. You didn’t address that I still did a ton of grinding in HotW to get the armor set ASAP even though I had fun doing it. Why is repetition magically not grinding just because a person isn’t bored doing it? Content doesn’t evolve into grinding the more it’s done. It either is or isn’t grinding based on what the player needs to do (most MMOs) or how the player approaches their goals (GW2). If players are repeating a task to get a certain thing after a certain number of successive repetitions it is still grinding regardless of how enjoyable or boring the activity is. That’s why the common defense of grinding in GW2 is “try doing something else.”

Naoko.7096:

I’m sure players can see that GW2 end-game is more of a grind than addiction because you don’t anticipate it. This is why it’s never fun. In previous made mmorpgs, you can see that you repeat content for a reason. There’s a strong lure which made you feel ancipated to repeat contents to achieve it. This is what made mmorpgs fun.

Just this first bit right here. In GW2 there is still a reason to repeat content. The reason just isn’t an eternal ladder of progression to mask the grind. The reason is because you enjoy it or you like how the armor you can get out of it looks. You don’t need any of it, it’s just there for your enjoyment.

And here’s the misunderstanding of Grind and Addiction you’ve got going on.

Addiction shouldn’t even be mentioned here. There is no “bad thing + arguably good thing + good thing” to equate addiction to. It is a physical urge to do whatever you are doing whether you want to or not. Addictions are never good no matter how they are rationalized. For the record, yes people can be addicted to video games and yes it is still a bad thing no matter how much you enjoy it (drug addicts start out enjoying it too). That’s why World of Warcraft’s loading screens always remind players to get the hell out of the house once in a while. I’ve been addicted to World of Warcraft. When I quit there were withdrawals. Nothing as serious as heavy drug addiction, but it happened. When I stepped away I realized “oh, I wasn’t having that much fun constantly grinding anyway,” somewhat similar to a lot of drug addicts who after quitting and recovering go “oh, that was some really terrible stuff I kept doing.” Addiction is bad. End of story.

Grinding. Grinding doesn’t have to cause boredom to be grinding. All it has to be is the repetition of the same task. Can that happen in GW2? Absolutely. The token requirements for dungeon armor are pretty dang high and the same goes for WvW armor. If you really want that type of thing to the point that you want to just grind that out, go for it. You don’t have to. You can take it in small doses and slowly work toward it, but let’s be real here- how many MMO players know how to moderate progress like that? The answer: most of the people that come to GW2’s defense and say there’s little to no grind in it (not counting Fractals). The result is that people choose to grind without realizing they don’t have to. There’s no driving force telling you to grind. There’s no threat from the gameplay that you won’t be able to do the content if you don’t get what you want within a certain period of time. It’s all for the player’s own enjoyment. Take it at a pace that’s comfortable, not the pace you would with a game that’s pushing you to do it. More personal experience incoming: I love love love the Honor of the Waves heavy armor. It is WONDERFUL. Does it have better stats than anything else? Nope. Does it look absolutely awesome? Hell yes it does. Did I grind that dungeon as much as I possibly could as quickly as I possibly could? You bet your sweet Kitten I did. I enjoyed the hell out of every run of that dungeon. So if Grinding = Repetition + Boredom… I guess I wasn’t grinding by that logic. But if someone asked me if I chose to grind that dungeon ASAP to get the armor I wanted I would tell them hell yes I did AND LOOK HOW AWESOME THIS ARMOR IS I LOOK SO GOOD. I mean, why wouldn’t I say I had to grind the dungeon just because I enjoyed it?

The carrot on a stick that keeps moving out of reach? It doesn’t add enjoyment. It’s a clever method to make players feel like they’re progressing. It is a false sense of satisfaction. The goal isn’t “new.” The goal has a different name. The goal’s name is “Ragnaros” or “Illidan” or “Arthas” or “Deathwing.” The goal itself is still [grind higher level items to kill higher level bosses]. It never changes. You are never presented with a new scenario, simply new locales to do it in. Guild Wars 2 pretty effectively kicked that crap out of their game until they introduced a ‘Progression Lite’ with the Fractals. Non-MMO roleplaying games that you mention do not have this carrot being endlessly extended in front of you. Keep in mind I’m talking purely from a gameplay perspective. By taking away the gameplay-induced necessity to grind and moving the goal from an enemy to an item Guild Wars 2 makes the carrot reachable. Once you have your carrot it isn’t going to become irrelevant.

tl;dr – Almost every game has grinding. In most MMOs the grind is necessary. In Guild Wars 2 the grind is up to the player and the rewards are almost purely aesthetic and will never become irrelevant. Barring Fractals.

It’s broken, yes. Shadow Behemoth only starts once, and only in its first starting window after a server reset.

Agree with Dante to a point. ANET has done a masterful job of reducing rewards (one actual update that caused worse drop rates said it “fixed” them in favor of the players so take that as you will) and limiting a person’s ability to do what they want for as long as they want. Can anyone still do what they want? Yes. Can they do it for as long as they want? Hell no. The diminishing returns are horrible and punishingly restrictive for people that don’t want to do different dungeons or WvW.

Fractals of the Mist is a hilarious example of ANET completely disregarding their Manifesto and trying to side-step it by saying “Oh, we didn’t mean it would NEVER happen.” Nope, apparently they meant when it did happen it would be the most functionally accurate description of “grind” in my recent memory of video games.

So is there grinding in the game? Yes. A lot of it comes from player mindset and to that I’ve always said “it’s you, not the game.” The game doesn’t inherently have a grind. It has a few long-term goals. Reach level 80. Get a Legendary item. Get multiple Legendary items. Get top-tier ascended gear. But the gameplay doesn’t pressure the player to get them the way it does in say… World of Warcraft. We are not being introduced to successively higher-numbers-required content, we are just being given items with marginally higher numbers seemingly for the hell of it (or perhaps to preface a genuine Difficulty Level implementation in the far future, who knows). Top that off with the Free To Play after your initial purchase and you have the freedom to do whatever, whenever you feel like with no pressure from an ever-increasing threshold of “required numbers” nagging at the back of your mind that you need to do it now now now.

Is the game itself a grind? It’s all comparative. I would say this game (barring Fractals) is the least grind-y MMO on the market and that there’s no subscription or Pay To Win options keeps it from feeling like a grind to me. I’ve played other Free To Play games that do have pay to win options, Free To Play games that are genuinely just free with no purchase required and subscription-based games (all of these refer to MMOs, for clarity). In every other one of these games it feels like I am pressured by the gameplay to grind things out. Sometimes it’s a player-driven game and I need to grind to be invited to things because otherwise I can’t contribute enough to be relevant. Sometimes it’s a tier-based game and I need to grind to keep up with the current tier or end up struggling with previous or side-content with the few people still doing it until I can get to the current tier. Sometimes it’s just a poorly designed game and there’s no way to play without grinding for countless hours or paying for items to be relevant. Guild Wars 2 does not make me feel like I’m grinding the way these other games do so personally I believe the game is not a grind.

Really though, the things ANET has done to boost their Gem Store sales has definitely been a step in the direction of causing the grind mindset. It’s still nowhere near as grindy as those other games I talked about, but I can see how some people might see it if they play it like a subscription-based game.

mcwurth.2081:

some parents let there underage kids (mine is 3 and LOVES charr and yes he can walk around with it 10 minutes a day no killing just walking around as a 3 year old should) and it would be very unpleasant if off a sudden there comes a group of naked norn males and females jumping around on the screen with bouncing parts and all.

if you want nudity go play second life or get skyrim and install a nudity mod.

This is what I was talking about in my first post. This mindset right here. If we stopped raising kids with this mindset would these ridiculous situations still happen? Sure they would. Would anyone care enough to be offended or otherwise have a reaction other than “wow look at those weirdos wasting their time”? No.

Why does it need to be a big deal? Why do children need to be “protected” from nudity? What is such a huge deal about the human body’s external reproductive organs? Are they evil? Are they inherently immoral in some way other than what Religion teaches?

Re: “What would nudity add to the game?”
-An option. Does it need to add anything else? I’m not saying it belongs in every game or even this game, but should it be omitted from consideration simply due to a cultural irrational fear of sexuality? If nudity were not seen as a negative thing due to our Puritan heritage would anyone even question the presence of nudity in day-to-day life, and therefor in video games? Again I’ll mention Japan. Nudity was a thing in day-to-day life. People often walked around with their reproductive bits exposed and no one cared because it was normal. If video games could be made back then, would nudity have made it into games in their culture? Probably. Partially nude NPCs probably wouldn’t be a rare thing until they localized it for westerners and had to add textures to it. So what changed in Japan? Strict Religious People came in and said it was wrong and immoral. Key word: Religious.

Overall I’m just posting in this thread looking for people to give a response to my questions. If we disregard principals passed on from one Religion or another and account for it being responsible for our cultural sensitivity to it where does it leave us? Would it still be an issue? If so, what would that issue be and why?

(I really don’t want a religious debate, I’m merely pointing out that Religious teachings are the origin of this sensitivity to nudity and sexuality. If we ignore that origin, would the issue have still arisen and why?)

ShadowGryphon.6257:

Screenshots or it didn’t happen.

As I edited into my first post in here, just google GW2 nudity. There will be an article from some game site or other that will provide links. It’s just the character models without the underwear. It’s really inoffensive considering it’s just the type of modeling games need to make their human characters relatable and appealing to the male audience. There’s no actual reproductive bits, it’s just the general shape without the extra underwear texture on top of it.

Can’t just play a game and have fun and think your character looks cool these days. Nope. You have to compare your character to everyone else’s character and know that you look cooler than them or your fun is decreased somehow because other people are having fun too.

“I worked for it.” “I worked for the gold to buy it.” “A friend gifted it to me.” “I got three precursor drops in the lost shore chest.” Who the balls cares. If you’re not having fun, it’s something you don’t like about the game. If the game seems cheap to you, it is your opinion.

It is you, not the game.

Only responding to the topic subject: nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it and the social perspective that it’s somehow not acceptable is hilarious and riddled with populace control from a more puritanical time (look what the popular form of Catholicism at the time did to Japan- they were really open and social about sexuality until the western world went in and “corrected” them).

In reality, there’s an argument to be made about hygiene and cleanliness when talking about mass open nudity. There is no other valid reason to argue against it. When bringing up the “what about the kids” angle it goes to a more psychological place. If children aren’t raised to believe nudity and sexuality are some sort of super sensitive, super mysterious thing that should only ever be experienced in a relationship in their late teens/after highschool then it really would not be an issue. The US is extremely and unreasonably afraid of nudity and sexuality being open things that rightfully should not matter in society at large and it is because of our deeply puritan history of treating it like some kind of horrible thing that will cause you to go to hell.

In the game world it should be even less of an issue. The only reason a player would ever sexualize a naked character is because society teaches them that nudity is super sensitive and adult-only and it is Absolutely Thrilling and Stimulating to someone raised in that mindset to see even so much as an image of nudity much less nudity in reality. The solution is again, to not raise children to think of it as some kind of sensitive “only when you’re older” issue.

Now, if the OP is right and Guild Wars 2 does actually have some realistic models underneath the things that a player cannot normally bypass then kudos to them.
(edit- did some quick googling and I wouldn’t call this realistic, this is what almost every game has to do if it wants the characters to look human enough to relate to and tantalizing enough to appear attractive to the male audience with the expected underwear/risque outfits on)
If not, well, it’s not like ANET was expected to take some kind of progressive stance with nudity/sexuality in US culture (I would say western but it’s a non-issue in Europe compared to the hilariously awful social situation it’s stuck in in the US).

jbera.6958:

Was just curious, does the healing from using a blast finisher in a water field scale with Healing Power (whose utility remains debatable it seems), or is it always a set amount? If it does scale, does it scale with the person who laid down the field or the person doing the finisher?

Healing scales based on the Healing Power of the source of the healing, in this case the finisher which means the person doing the finisher is the one the healing is determined by. And yes, the finishers do scale with healing power, though I couldn’t tell you what the ratio is. As with nearly all heals it definitely isn’t 1::1.

For anyone reading Kiara Hakura’s post I would also encourage you to read through
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-REAL-Manifesto/first
and
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-The-Stat-Cap-Is-So-Important/first
as well. Lots of other long, thought-out posts such as this to parse through for those interested in this line of discussion.

Jaggedrain.6923:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

It’s not a matter of putting the blurb together, but for the team to investigate what can be done and how it will be done. That said, I came back to my desk to find an email with information on what is being done about the situation.

We have confirmed that we can provide everyone who did not have the opportunity to loot the chest with a reward for their participation. All affected players will receive a reward regardless of whether or not they have contacted Support. We’re working very hard on this, and you should have a reward in your in-game mail early next week.

I hope this alleviates your concerns.

Hi!

I am by nature a suspicious person. And in this case, my suspicions were aroused by the bolded words in the quoted post.

“A reward” is not the same as “the reward”. Am I going to open my mail to receive the equivalent of a previous poster’s t-shirt? I certainly hope not, but who can say?

My question is the following: Will those of us who were prevented from claiming our rewards at the time receive the same reward as the lucky few who DID manage to loot the chest, or will we be treated to a consolation prize not worth the inventory space it takes up?

P.S. If we got it in addition to the regular reward everyone else got, I would totally wear that t-shirt too.

P.P.S: What is Anet’s definition of ‘early in the week’? My definition says that only Monday and Tuesday qualifies as early, but the previous note I got said I would receive more info early in the following week, which turned out to be Friday. Does Anet hold to the philosophy that as long as it’s before Sunday it’s still early?

I see no reason that they would be unable to give everyone who missed out the 100% Accessory Shell and 20 slot bag. One would also hope those who missed it are given a box whose loot table will give at least one random exotic if not two when opened, but I think that may be less likely.

Velocity.4950:

well please explain to me why a gold bar cost less than a gold?

Happens in a lot of games with crafting. The devs don’t put Gold toward the top of the crafting food chain because it just isn’t all that pliable for crafting most things. We’d need cell phones to craft to make it valuable in-game.

Bag of Lies is brilliant, though I’d be happier with just a Bag of Silver. In the long run if the game is still lively in a few years perhaps the bags of gold in future level 120 dungeons will actually contain a full gold in them.

Jairlyn.1429:

There is also confirmation bias that has to be considered.
The idea that the more you hear a message from more people the more correct you are in your assumption.

1: Both positive and negative people about a game are on a forum
2: Positive person talks positively about the game.
3: The negative person talks negatively about the game and about the person and trolls them.
4: The positive person either quits going to the forum to avoid the abuse or turns negative and trolls back.
The net result is less positive people and more negative people and thus the appearance that everyone hates the game.

You have to consider that there are also people that are neutral and just trying to give criticism which in some cases by necessity seems critical.

Moderator.1462:

Anyway, I would like to remind you all to refrain from using

Fixed that for you.

Carkara.1846:

I just went through all professions’ forums to see what is the community support / attention we’ve been getting from ANet.

Basically I accessed the first 5 pages of each forum which means 150 posts per forum and the number of posts with at least one Community Support answer are:

Elementalist: 5 (the winner)
Engineer: 1
Guardian: 0
Necro: 2
Mesmer: 1
Ranger: 3
Thief: 2
Warrior: 1

Hilariously, Guardians in the early October patch (and Mesmers with this current one) were the profession that got the biggest new hole ripped into it via the “retaliation nerf.” I think there was more vocal posting about that than there was about some of the hilariously bad decisions made about Paladins over in WoW relative to game population. This of course means there can never be an admission that a mistake was made about it (for Mesmers as well, I imagine- ANET seems to be a little lacking in the testing of “fixes” before they’re implemented).

Omnicide.8563:

All of my major interface keys are delayed or work a percentage of the time. This has caused a lot of time and money lost in a game I play often. If Anet can’t hire enough people to spread the workload out in order to output a quality product, I see no reason to purchase your products in the future. There seems to be no quality control by testing a patch or update.

This about sums it up. Test your patches, ANET. A lot of “fixes” you think work just break aspects of your game. Greatsword Retaliation nerf, anyone?

People still watch G4? It’s got like one hour a day of relevant television and the rest is Cops or Ninja Warrior.

Oh how the mighty did fall.

Teraphas.6210:

you havnt used a staff while using the traits to make Justice proc on the 4th hit and that when it does its a fire aoe have you?

there is plenty of ways to play, sometimes its more in how you apply them then in straight up number crunch. I have been told i should die alot with my build but i use it in wvw to anchor my sides pushes by darting in throwing up walls of reflection and using my staff to hammer a hole in the other side allowing my side to push in behind me.

I get where you’re coming from and honestly, I haven’t done that with the staff. But what I’m talking about is that Guardian traits don’t have much going on. It’s very difficult to find synergy without giving up something more valuable than the synergy itself, the exception being 30 Honor and 30 Valor. I know at least one other profession suffers from the same lack of oomph in their build options.

The Guardian traits don’t need much changing, they’ve got everything they need to have all kinds of not only creative and original builds, but extraordinarily effective ones. The problem is only that many traits are in places they shouldn’t be. Going on our Two-handed Mastery trait again, it’s one of the only 20% recharge rate traits in the game that gives no additional benefit that isn’t slotted into the Adept trait. Nearly every other 20% recharge trait in the game that’s slotted into the Master trait gives an additional benefit besides just the recharge. The same concept applies to a lot of our traits. Simply slotting some of them in more sensible places opens up a lot of synergy that would reduce the relevance of the Honor/Valor bandwagon and hopefully knock it off of its throne as the undisputed best build we have (because it is).

Spirit Weapon builds are one of the few organic builds we have in that it offers synergy with our Profession without giving up anything valuable to get it. Our previous synergy with the Zeal line while using a Greatsword was another great example before ANET re-arranged the Greatsword skillset to “reduce the effectiveness of Retaliation builds” and killed an entire build option as collateral damage without even minutely affecting what they wanted to.

I don’t doubt the effectiveness of your personal build and your desire to play it that way, but from the information you’ve given about it, I don’t see any of your abilities actually synergyzing with each other to make your play style more effective. Rather I see your play style making the build more effective, and that’s the reverse of how it should work. A build should supplement playstyle.

Astraea.6075:

It seems most likely that the only direct manipulation by ArenaNet was due the mass bot banning that removed a lot of supply from the market… in my view, this was a good thing despite what it has done to prices.

I wasn’t saying the coincidence was ANET directly manipulating the market, sorry if I gave that impression. Their direct manipulation to increase the cost of Gems comes from the first two things I listed. They want gems to be valuable so people are more tempted to spend real money on them. That’s why we’ve seen more content updates than in the first couple months, each with items that require Gems to purchase.

I do wish they’d do a better job of balancing new content vs. fixing current content, though. Hopefully they’re using any potential profit increase from the Gem store toward fixing the game and not just jamming more broken stuff into it.

Shatters.7315:

Archmortal.1027:

Gems went up because of a few things. The three biggest contributing factors are 1) Black Friday Weekend sales, 2) New Transformation kits in the Gem shop and 3) Holy Good God Look At That Item Grind To Upgrade Your Ascended Back Piece.

This increased the value of Gems to encourage spending cash, rather than relying on Gold to obtain them, just as ANET probably planned. I do wish they would be a little more subtle and less misleading about their marketing goals though. They’re really just yanking most people along on a chain.

It is inflation. Not only the price of gems are rising, but so is pretty much every item in the game. Dungeon rewards are also increased.
More or less, you wont even lose anything. eto’s went from ~13s to 34s in a few weeks, for example.

The gold price of items on the Trading Post have gone up for a number of reasons, but as you’ll note only the last one of the reasons the Gem price has gone up has anything to do with that. Item value inflation is almost entirely due to the convenient coincidence of there being hardly any bots to supply the market at a time in which a massive grind requiring a huge number of supplies was introduced. This by proxy contributes to increased Gem Value. (You’d almost think ANET made the Ascended back piece such a grind to make a dent in the supply left over from the bots. In which case it’s another example of them lying to cover their Kittens during the AMA)

I’m not saying inflation isn’t the right word, but it’s an artificial inflation brought on by direct manipulation by ANET, and not by natural growth of the market.

Rukia.4802:

While I don’t disagree, I always laugh when people say that others are quitting the game in masses.

To be fair, quite a large mass of people did quit just recently due to you-know-what that doesn’t belong in this thread.

So, pretty much everyone that’s played a Guardian can tell there’s only a couple builds that are any good if you intend to live long enough to have fun. The 30 Valor/ 30 Honor synergy is off the charts, especially after the changes to Greatsword’s skill set effectively killed the Zeal trait line. There’s very little reason for a Guardian to consider a build without spending 60 of their traits in these lines unless they specifically aim to be Boon Machines/get maximum up-time out of Retaliation (too bad that Greatsword change didn’t affect it, amirite?)

I’d like to discuss ways to re-allocate some traits that are in disadvantageous places in their respective Trait lines.

For example, our Two-Handed Mastery trait. It’s a Master trait in the Honor line and (unsurprisingly) synergizes extraordinarily well with any build utilizing Altruistic Healing, but not on its own. It takes another Master Trait from the Honor line to synergize at all- Empowering Might. Since they are both Master traits, one needs to put the full 30 Trait points into Honor to get both, and then 30 in Valor to get the synergy. If we move Two-Handed Mastery down to an Adept trait (much like an Elementalist’s 20% elemental recharge rate increase) we effectively create more room for Guardians who want this synergy to experiment with traits outside the Valor and Honor line by freeing up 5-10 trait points, as there would no longer be a reason to pigeon-hole valuable points into a near-worthless Grandmaster slot. Suddenly we have room to give Zeal a chance, or increase our Boon efficacy further. Not only that, but it opens up opportunities to experiment with new builds altogether to get new Synergy for the two-handers without feeling so suboptimal by not immediately filling the Valor line. There are numerous possibilities that open up just from aligning one Trait to the same slot that other Professions have it in! This particular example has more relevance than it should have due to the excessive number of people that favor 2-handed weapons. At the very least it will create some build variation instead of forcing 30 Valor/ 30 Honor. I realize a lot of Altruistic Healing’s synergy can come from Shouts as well and people who opt to use it that way don’t suffer the same opportunity cost. This particular example levels the field between Guardians that use shouts and those that would rather not.

Another example is the Guardian Inner Fire trait. It has mislead many a player into believing their Torch skill Zealot’s Flame activates the trait’s effect. And why shouldn’t it? The Boon lasts for 3 seconds, so even if one were to fill their Virtues trait line to 30, the duration might reach a 4th second at best. By changing nothing about Inner Fire except allowing it to synergize with Zealot’s Flame, more incentive to trait into Radiance and try out 1-handed weapons is created. Plus, you know, it wouldn’t just be thematically appropriate, it would be INSANELY COOL!

I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to alter Guardian traits just a teensy little bit to create more viable build options without making up new traits or skillsets at all. I believe it should be looked into and hopefully adjusted as such (and for this idea to be extended to other Professions that suffer a distinct lack of Trait::Profession synergy).

Any discussion/criticism is welcome so long as it is kept in mind that I am not making up new traits or asking for unreasonable adjustments such as moving Altruistic Healing to an adept slot. If a discussion arises I would like for it to only be about reasonable adjustments of existing traits to create a wider variety of effective builds (if this inspires other Professions that suffer a low number of synergistic builds to take a glance at their own traits for similar ideas I encourage you to make your own suggestion thread on it).

Kerithlan.1659:

Tooltip: “Set yourself alight…”

Trait: “When you are set on fire…”

I understand the confusion; however, you must be burning for it to trigger. ArenaNet could fix it with a simple change to the trait: “whenever you begin burning…” As Zealot’s Fire does not give you the burning condition, that should make it more clear.

Or just rework the talent because it’s kitten.

I really hope ANET originally wanted the trait to synergyze with the Torch skill because really, the Radiance tree is all about them 1-handers. It makes sense and it’s thematically appropriate. If the duration is really only 3 seconds then I don’t see how they could not change it to work with the Torch skill, just so that there’s some temptation to ever use it and make a build that doesn’t include 30 Valor and 30 Honor.

Gems went up because of a few things. The three biggest contributing factors are 1) Black Friday Weekend sales, 2) New Transformation kits in the Gem shop and 3) Holy Good God Look At That Item Grind To Upgrade Your Ascended Back Piece.

This increased the value of Gems to encourage spending cash, rather than relying on Gold to obtain them, just as ANET probably planned. I do wish they would be a little more subtle and less misleading about their marketing goals though. They’re really just yanking most people along on a chain.

Straight up response to nothing but the topic title:

Yes we are. By sampling the feedback you get from us someone can get a relatively decent idea about where the community stands in-game (i.e. 50/50 whether Fractals of the Mist is fun or the worst thing that could have happened to the game). However, we are an extreme minority. The game sold 2 million copies in its first week or so. There are nowhere near 1 million players actively posting in the forums.

Now if you want to discuss whether we constitute the majority of Important Opinions, that’s a different story.

I’ve PvP’d in a lot of games and I like WvW especially in this game. This particular issue is griefing. It is not PvP to sit back and watch people suffer because you’re a Kittenhat that can click a button over and over.

Disable the ability to make siege equipment in the puzzle and it goes back to being PvP. For perspective, the way it is now you are essentially setting up siege around the Keep Champion. The siege equipment should be set up out front as the first line of defense.

One little nitpick that’s in the thread title itself. “World” completion. If you want to complete the world common sense says you have to do everything in it. Sure it’s a little annoying that you have to wait for your server to capture some of the spots if you want an easy time of it with no PvP whatsoever involved, but it’s part of the world so whatchagonnado. Personally I’m just thankful they didn’t make sPvP required for world completion.

nachtnebel.9168:

I get that Americans are a little spoiled when it comes to things like this since most international games do reset based on one of their time zones, it can be a little confusing if you notice that you are no longer the center of the world.

Besides that, people should really learn to read the wiki and not make the exactly same thread every month.

“How dare any of you not know something that I know!”

AnemoneMeer.7182:

Did you play the game? Did you enjoy the time you did play?

If so, you’re not really entitled to a refund. Sorry, but it’s true.

According to ANET we are entitled to a refund for 180 days after purchase. Sorry, but it’s true.

Greiger.7092:

While I might just be completely wrong and ignorant, doesn’t that infusion slot replace the normal slot in?

If so doesn’t that mean that they are trading something like a sapphire jewel (25 healing, +15 Power +15 toughness) For some agony and + 5 of a useful stat? Sounds to me like an infusion slot would be less useful in anything but 10 fractals

The jewel stats (and presumably rune stats when the armor pieces are rolled out) are built right into the gear piece so as to not disadvantage those who use them instead of exotics.

Really if they had not done that and left it at a trade between stats for Agony Resistance it would have alleviated a lot of the power creep fear.

JemL.3501:

Anagna.8376:

To be fair, you had a whole month to do it and you left it to the last minute.

You have no right to complain.

Beware anagna.8376 theres two type of people around:

1. common sense which agree with you
2.- the others…which will report your post

reality

Common sense says that it’s not December in the US yet. Just sayin’.

While the topic is around, how much armor should a relatively offensive Guardian shoot for if they aren’t going 30 into Valor for Altruistic Healing or Monk’s Focus? My guardian is currently sitting in Masterwork gear while I build up the supplies to craft some Knight’s Draconic and I’m not even close to the 2900-3000 mark that I’ve previously seen people mark as a good place to try to be.

Ryuujin.8236:

What happens if you transfer from EU to NA or vice versa in the witching hours between rollovers

Worst case scenario I could imagine is your transfer being delayed until the resets occur wherever you’re going. Most transfer services (not sure about GW2 since I haven’t looked at it yet) warn that there may be unexpected delays in the process.

notebene.3190:

Archmortal.1027:

“Every month this thread pops up” well yeah. Doesn’t it make more sense for the December monthly to start in December? Food for thought.

If the problem is servers that are in time zones where it is already early morning of the 1st, the solution is to create a rolling restart system instead of an across-the-board same-time adjustment.

It does start on the 1st. It starts on December 1st GMT +0, as someone above me, and I (though my post was really long, as most of them are, and generally unread as a result).

I think they should just put a little clock on the daily and monthly tabs in the achievement page that tells you what date/time the monthly will reset and what day the dailies reset, relative to your local time, and then everyone will know, because we’re always popping them open to see where we’re at.

It’s still a more elegant and sensible approach to do rolling restarts by region rather than have them reset all together based on a single time zone.

MithranArkanere.8957:

It’s no longer November when it’s no longer November for the servers, not you local clock.

If it checked local clock, people could change system time to gain some time.

Then the solution is to assign servers to regions and reset based on the time of the region rather than all at once. This way the EU servers reset at X time December 1st in the EU and US servers don’t reset until X time December 1st in the US. Fair for everyone, confusing for no one and it follows basic common sense.

This would also solve a very large portion of the complaints over the 1-time events occurring at ridiculous times for players living in certain time zones.

“Every month this thread pops up” well yeah. Doesn’t it make more sense for the December monthly to start in December? Food for thought.

If the problem is servers that are in time zones where it is already early morning of the 1st, the solution is to create a rolling restart system instead of an across-the-board same-time adjustment.

Common sense would say that because it is still November right now I should still be able to finish off my last few WvW invader kills for the November Monthly Achievements.

Currently-available offensive infusions give +5 Agony Resistance in addition to +5 Power, +5 Condition Damage or +5 Precision while defensive give Agony Resistance in addition to +5 Toughness or +5 Vitality.

There are “versatile” versions of Precision and Condition damage that can be put into either type of infusion slot.

Small now, but it will add up a bit once the whole Ascended set is rolled out along with better infusions.

Galen Grey.4709:

I think they absolutely managed to create a limited gear progression that doesnt effect the rest of the game! All the impact people are talking about is all percieved none of it real ! I mean nothing in the game changed from before the update and we didnt even have any ascended gear though suddenly people are acting as you cant PvE without ascended gear? or people think you cannot be competitive in WvW without Ascended gear! Players, my self included have been playing WvW without an exotic set without any problems ! I even have a ridicolous kill to death ration that if gear was so much a factor I definitely shouldnt have ! I get it that people feel they have to have the set! but I am completely disagree it is required by anything in the game except FoTM post level 10 !

The perceived impact is very real, else how could we come into these threads and say we see it happening in-game already?

Again I say, whether it’s required by anything else or not, because it was implemented as a new tier of gear with higher stats than what was currently available it inherently is causing a disruption between players because the game design does not support a power creep. As-is it may not turn out to be a power creep once the full set of Ascended gear is available, but if it does turn into a power creep with new tiers of gear for new dungeon mechanics then it still may not be “required” of anything but special dungeon mechanics, but it will constantly be a reminder to everyone that there is a carrot in front of them and they aren’t going to reach it or catch up to the people with it unless they work for it. Again, ANET stated very clearly they were not okay with this and it is something that did not change with their AMA.

Trying to say “well the stat difference is insignificant” is missing the point. If a power creep starts, eventually it will be significant. Still not trying to say ascended gear needs to go away, but ANET would have avoided all the backlash and simultaneously given the vertical progression crowd something to reach for within the original and never-corrected-until-they-realized-they-mislead-the-players interpretation of the Manifesto by simply making alternative exotics with the same stat distributions as the ascended gear (core stats + upgrades with no upgrade slot) and slapping the infusion slot on it. People with Exotics that don’t have the infusion slot would have still had the same overall stats minus agony resistance and people with the new exotics could have continued as they are doing so now, feeling like they are getting more powerful because they are resisting more agony and getting deeper into the Fractals than the average bear.

One last point about the stat difference. Exotic → Ascended feels insignificant now, but it won’t once the full set is available. Having a full set of Rares and bumping three trinkets up to exotic is similarly insignificant, but when you have a whole set of Exotics above Rare the difference is tangible and therefor significant. If a power creep starts, those that try to ignore it “because it’s not required” are going to be tangibly less capable than those that participate in every aspect of the game, whether that difference in capability is masked by a group effort or not.

Mkalafut.1273:

So the answer is yes. You want Anet devs to invest time and resources into uncovering the left breast of the character when they can spend time on other more important issues?

Assuming it’s not a bug they invested the time and resources to cover it in the first place so yes. Not unreasonable to ask them to undo that seeing as how the original concept is more suited to the design.

Dante.1508:

Vin Valkarion.1790:

It also never fails that someone always finds a way to complain.

It really does sound silly offering total conversions though and not being able to Rename, honestly to me this is a valid complaint if ever i’ve seen one.

Total Transformations. Think of the gender change like you would in real life. Does your self-identity change just because the physical bits did? Every single person I know who’s opted to go by another name in any relevant situation has done so separately from the physical change.

But that’s more of a meta/roleplay perspective. Practically speaking maybe Names are just linked to a different string of code than appearance. It’d probably take a lot of extra programming to have one item affect both. Or perhaps something about name changes are currently linked too closely to Moderator/GM/Administrative functions and they’re working on a way to separate the process so there aren’t any nasty consequences.

I hadn’t actually noticed anything like this but now that I’ve seen this thread I’m probably never going to be able to stop hearing it if it’s really there. >:c

@Ryuujin

+1 to you, sir.

Mercucial.6759:

I really don’t understand the big deal. You guys don’t have to do fractals, you can literally do exactly what you were doing before the ascended stuff came out, so what’s the big deal? Let those who want gear progression go and hunt their gear, and you guys just keep running around doing jumping puzzles or whatever. And so what if they raise the level cap. Again you guys will be doing exactly what you were doing before the level cap was raised.

The big deal is that if ANET continues the power creep above and beyond Ascended gear it is no longer a thing that every player can ignore. It will become a thing that needs to be worked toward and those who are not having fun working toward it be kicked by a Kitten and left behind. ANET was very clear that they are not okay with such an outcome. To sum that up, the big deal is ANET said it’s a big deal and we’re waiting to see whether they were telling the truth or not.

(… continued from previous page)

The thing is, I’m not saying the dungeon shouldn’t exist or that ascended gear needs to be removed. What I am saying is that ANET panicked and dropped the ball. They presumably had more players than they were ready for and several of them wanted more vertical progression than was present currently, and it wasn’t a completely unreasonable request (though it was often worded so). So they opened up their pocket-watch and examined the gears inside to see how they could solve the problem and decided to spread a bunch of jam all over it (+1 internet to every one that gets that).

Now here’s the other thing. I am of the understanding that ANET is releasing Ascended gear pieces for every weapon/armor/trinket slot. If they are going to continue introducing more gear with higher stats beyond that then as a player I am effectively unable to ignore it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a dungeon, crafting or WvW, the things I did for fun will be required of me in order to not fall behind the progress of those around me and if I stop having fun along the way, that’s too bad for me. ANET said this outcome was not okay and I sincerely hope they meant it and that Ascended is simply a new gear cap and not the beginning of a perpetual power creep. A lot of people have already stated that they don’t have the time or patience to put up with a 180 in design philosophy like this where fun is no longer just fun, but work to be done in order to have fun. If this design trend continues with more power creep and Endless Grinds, ANET will lose quite a few of the people that moved over from GW1, those that were attracted to the game based on the advertisement of “no gear treadmill,” and those that would rather play World of Warcraft for their vertical progression fix.

This thread from the start was not about the dungeon being optional or not, but that its design is in blatant contradiction to the original design of the game and the original philosophy of its developers. I have not discussed it from a personal standpoint. Nowhere have I said that I do or do not run Fractals or that I do or do not enjoy running Fractals. I am merely discussing how and why the Fractals are poorly designed and have even gone so far as to give an example of a way to make the grind less demanding as I see no way to stop it from being a grind without altering the nature of the dungeon itself (i.e. giving it a clear end/goal/final reward).

-edit-

And of course, none of this huge double-post even addresses all the other collateral damage the Fractals dungeon has caused in-game. There are even fewer people exploring the world in favor of grinding the dungeon which on smaller servers is essentially a death-of-fun-sentence for those exploring the higher level zones and especially Orr. Elitism, impatience and intolerance are going stronger than they ever did before the introduction of the dungeon which itself is causing groups to be harder to find for any given level below that of the Elitists. The Fractals design has tangibly punished the game world itself.

Galen Grey.4709:

Stuff

(sorry, Message Length)

The problem here is, and I don’t see you disagreeing with this, that the Fractals are a Pure Gear Treadmill. The dungeon serves no other purpose. There is no end boss, there is no final chest, it is just a literal dungeon treadmill that forces you to grind gear to take the next step. This is abhorrent game design, especially so in this game where such design was created in clear defiance of the original design philosophy and sticks out like a sore, bruised face.

Let’s look at the game everyone is afraid of GW2 homogenizing into. World of Warcraft. You race to max level and the real game starts. The end-game grind. The carrot on the stick. The ever-increasing stat plateau to keep you feeling like your character is progressing while you repeat the same activities over and over, day after day, week after week. The entire game is built around this concept and it is done superbly. World of Warcraft is an excellent game. The end-game PvE content is smooth, well-paced, has several options at the same difficulty and each of those options has their own individual Hard Mode option (Heroic Dungeons I do not count in this, they are not genuine hard modes, they are simply max-level versions of their lower-level counterparts). A player who isn’t thinking about it may never even realize they’re participating in a grind until several months or years in. The reason is because every dungeon has a clear end. There is always a final boss of the dungeon or a final chest to loot. You are given a beginning and an end to measure your progress against and to give you a sense of achievement and satisfaction while you accumulate gear rewards in preparation for the next power creep to reveal itself or to prepare for the Hard Mode of that end game scenario. The game actively discourages repetition of the same tasks ad nauseam through relatively organic means. You cannot repeat the raids rapidly because they are on a timer and will not reset right away. You can repeat the dungeons to your heart’s content and never be penalized by diminishing returns, rather the Additional Bonuses tacked on for a full-complete are reduced (but not eliminated). There are daily quests everywhere to help you grind toward certain goals, but there are only so many you can do in a day. The game is constantly giving subtle reminders that you need to stop grinding eventually even while giving you more incentive to continue as fast as you can. It is brilliant and it works.

Guild Wars 2 is not designed around any kind of grind or philosophy involving one, and that is exactly why the Fractals created such a distinct split in the community. ANET told the world that they don’t believe Gear Treadmills are fun and they had (still have?) no intention of putting them in their game. Then the Lost Shores event comes along and they drop a giant ball in front of us. We are given a Gear Treadmill and a developer telling us things that greatly conflict with what we had been told before. Not only that, but this Gear Treadmill is fresh out of the manufacturer with no fancy polish or decoration to try and hide what it is. The Fractals dungeon is a rapid repetition of the same series of events (albeit only 3 at a time and almost never the same 3 or in the same order) with no clear goal or reward, but the deeper into the dungeon you go the more you have to grind gear to continue. There is never a point where the game tells the player “hey, you accomplished something and should feel some satisfaction.” This is the definition of an Endless Grind. It was poorly conceived, poorly considered and answered for poorly. It defies the design of the rest of the game that existed before it and it does so in such blatant fashion that half of the vocal community was instantly on the same page about it and instantly disappointed with both the content and the developer and rightly so.

(to be continued…)

I’ll go ahead and support the OP’s opinion. Given the concept art and just the concept of time-worn tattered armor in general, the Beta appearance is more suited to the armor than its current incarnation. The difference might be small, but it’s the small things that are appreciated in big games.

The concept art for the armor is great. The early in-game implementation of that concept matched it as well as one could hope for. Copping out and copy-pasting the covered breast over the original concept to protect from some imaginary risk that it would offend people was premature if not immature.

Awesome.6120:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

Actually I just had a thought. If “soulbound” stuff is linked to a character name then that would probably be an issue – and bad planning on ANet’s part. :P

Forced name changes exist, making that theory moot I think.

Yes, but if the name and appearance are not linked together then it would have potentially caused problems by changing both at once with one code/item. Forced name changes don’t change the character appearance at all, you’ll notice.

I’m not entirely sure why anyone expected a name change along with an item whose name implies nothing but cosmetic changes either way, but to each their own.

I would like to respond only to the name of the topic. Yes, GW2 had the friendliest community of an MMO of this scale I’ve seen. Unfortunately a lot of it has been focused on Fractals and the general tone resulting from them is rather more negative do to the giant community split the new content has caused. We see more impatience and intolerance in Fractals now than I’d seen in the entire month I’d played before-hand.

The in-game community is still great if you’re not trying to find a group for fractals. Dealing with a couple semi-elitists who want to up their chances of having a fast dungeon run in AC or something isn’t something unique to this game. I see a whole lot less of such attitudes in this game than others. People exploring and leveling are still awesome and so long as the Fractal mentality manages to stay quarantined in the Fractals dungeon levels I think I can deal with it being left there. They really should move it out of Lion’s Arch though.

Galen Grey.4709:

Why is one okay but not the other?

Because as-is, the Fractals dungeon and the necessity of Ascended items to continue deeper into it is one of the purest most unashamed examples of a functioning Gear Treadmill I have ever seen in a game. It is literally “grind more gear to do more levels.” Hopefully they’re planning on fixing this, but currently that is how it is. A simple difficulty option with no strings attached is nothing like this.

And this brings us back to “ANET lied to/mislead us.” They said they were entirely against the mere idea of a gear treadmill, and now they have given us such a treadmill in raw form. Get more gear to do more levels.