Guild Wars 2

Jackums.3496:

Branded Devourer.

I’d love some kind of land-based jellyfish too.

Yeah, and sadly, more accurate too.

Jordo.5913:

Ellen Kiel wins the election, now what?

WE DON’T KNOW!

Why did Tequatl get stronger even though Zhaitan is dead?

WE DON’T KNOW!

What is Scarlet’s motive for going bat kitten crazy?

WE DON’T KNOW!

And this sums up ‘The Living Story’ plotline.

I’ve gotten four pieces so far from running with the Champion farm-train in Queensdale. No idea if the magic find helps the drop rate, but I’ll guess it does.

But, mine is only around 50% right now.

This would be true if ANet hadn’t set a standard early on where ALL content was made available to all players to the point where they temporarily increased levels. If this wasn’t previously done, throughout the year, then your point would be valid.

But experience has shown otherwise.

This is a huge reason for the increase in complaints. People are starting to worry the game is going the casual versus the specific player-type only.

And it’s a valid concern.

No one wants an us versus them situation with updated content. Well, no one expect those that benefit . . . obviously.

Harper.4173:

@Zoltreez.
You personally love helping new players. Other players don’t.
I do it if I have time – but I rarely do. After all I’m playing a game for MY enjoyment – and so is everybody else.
I’m not here to do a job.

I’ve found, helping the community complete an event, increases everyone’s enjoyment. No, I don’t expect everyone to think this way. But, when you have a group of people with an alike mindset, the community thrives because of it.

This is why certain servers have a great reputation and others not so much. You get back what you give. And sometimes, you get a lot more because people recognize you for giving that extra effort to help others.

Just something to consider.

Lack of survivability for pets with certain bosses. Unless it’s a devourer or spider, it’s going to die with certain effects in play. Hopefully, the Oct 15th update will help change this.

Amusing.

I got that a lot too. And then, over time, I keep getting asked to join guilds after proving a player can make the different no matter the class. No bragging, but I will say you have to prove otherwise to the overall community.

Besides, you don’t want to join a guild like that anyway.

The guild leader wants you to stroke his ego . . . and maybe something else while you’re at it.

Sorry about that. Yep, I agree.

Someone summarize please?

Edit: Oh nevermind. I found it.

TL:DR: Love the game, saddened by the direction.

Dagraan.2854:

Lostwingman.5034:

Rezzet.3614:

by the gods every single party i go as soon some kid is downed he rage quits if not someone else requests a kick

or worse if someone asks somethign as simple as Who’s gonna tank the fire eles on the ooze part he gets kicked cuz to the others he’s a “noob”

really people what is wrong with you you want everything handed to you without putting effort nor learning nor letting others learn about the content?

Those aren’t elitists, those are spoiled children.
Learn the difference, it could save your dungeon raid.

is there really a difference between the two?

No, not really. Some of the above replies prove this out too.

Ariella Goldstein.3562:

I’m unsure why the snark. Is there anything wrong with the idea that lower level characters might wish to participate in non-festival events in the living world, which is what we are discussing, not the general content of GW2 which has pretty much been there since day one.

I’m not saying level 80s should have no new content, but there has to be a better way to balance the content so that lower level characters don’t miss out on the entire experience. This is called living world for a reason, which means everyone should be able to be involved on at least some level, even if for lower level characters its tangential quests that still allow them to be a part of the story. I don’t see that as a large threat to any level 80.

Please ignore those ‘special’ posters. As noted, I believe the updated content is permanent. So, eventually, you should be able to do it if people are in fact still willing to do the content.

And yes, you are correct. Most of the ‘temporary’ content was accessible to low-level players to the point where their levels were bumped. This is a valid observation.

Hope this answer helped.

You know, a couple people asked, but why IS is temporary? If I was a new player to the game, I’d feel a little cheated and less ‘loyal’ than those who got to see all the content from the start.

Heck, add a yearly ‘time warp’ for those people and others who want to revisit the content missed. Make it happen around New Years if possible.

That way, it can literally be a Year in Review.

Just a suggestion.

SAB will return eventually. When World 3 is released, you should be able to play or replay World 1 and 2 again. Hopefully, with updates to World 2 that will cause less player meltdowns due to disconnects for example.

Here’s to hoping.

Skan.5301:

Dulfy the content, finish it in 2 hours, get your rewards, call it a day.

That’s fun, right? Every two weeks you get some new reward that you can show off with the rest of the GW2 players who have the same exact thing.

No. I’d rather some things that are there to stay and require using brainpower instead of reading some prewritten guide.

I hate to say it, but this is a very valid point. While I like the concept of Living Story, it’s a little shortsighted. For example, Kiel was elected and then . . . well, nothing so far as far as that story. Well, unless you count hunting down a bunch of mobs without trial because . . . well, because.

Story usually means: plot.

And, so far, that’s sorely lacking in “Living Story.”

Best:
1. The Mad King
2. Winter’s Day
3. SAB World 1

Worst:

1. Karka Queen One-Time Event
2. SAB World 2
3. Teq Update

Have to say this is the third or fourth update I’ve been less than satisfied with or had content I just ignored. Being rather fanatical about achievements, this is unusual for me as a gamer. I ignored the Gauntlet, SAB World 2 was a frustrating mess, Teq was a disaster, and now this dungeon. . . .

I hope to God that the Halloween with The Mad King event is as epic as it was last year. Otherwise, I’ll have to conclude this isn’t just a bad trend, but the way the game is now.

Astral Projections.7320:

From an interview with ANet:
Q: Tequatl update is nice but it destroys your party, home server due to overcrowded home servers and overflows
A: We are aware of it and actively discussing it.We were hoping originally it would take days/weeks for players to defeat Tequatl instead of 12 hrs.
http://dulfy.net/.../26/gw2-eurogamer-expo-livestream-notes/

Good Lord. They were expecting people to fail for WEEKS! And still be doing this in the hundreds, every 90 minutes. Is this a sound judgement of player behavior? Especially since this game was supposed to be casual friendly.

Interesting. I guess they thought it would something like one of the raid bosses from WoW. Like Molten Core or something. Yeah, some players and groups are a lot smarter and more devoted than developers think.

But, yeah, that statement was rather telling.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mini_Tequatl_the_Sunless

I’m hoping to God it means the Halloween event will be epic, and they’re putting most of their time into that instead.

After what happened with the SAB discussion, I’m going to guess it’s become policy for most to say nothing. Or, their responses have to go through some kind of inspection to see if the post can go live. Lately, it seems a bad move for careers.

So silence if preferred.

Also, a Dev response tends to light the forums on fire. Gas to the flame and all. So, again, silence appears to be the best route lately.

I have to admit I’m getting disenchanted with the game after the latest patches and fumbles in difficulty. When I’m spending more time on the forums than in the game, it’s a telling point to me.

Also, another MMO from years back, it getting my attention more than this one.

That’s also not a good thing for ANet. Honestly, Guild Wars 2 has held my attention longer than any other MMO since WoW. But, if this trend continues, I’ll be done.

Hope Mad King is as good as it was last year.

I can’t get into my home server and keep getting pushed to overflow. The lowest I’ve seen is around 80%. After I got the wings, and all the Boss Week achievements, I haven’t been back since.

If nothing else, I’d love to kill Teq simply for the rune so I can get that mini, but it doesn’t look like that going to happen any time soon.

I have to be honest. After I completed all the achievements as far as Boss Week, and got the Wings . . . I haven’t gone back. With guesting making it impossible to join my server, and I’m not waiting 9+ hours to get into the main area, my desire to try and kill Teq disappeared.

Yeah, that’s probably a problem.

So, maybe, the updated changes need to be addressed. Personally, I don’t think it’s impossible to do . . . obviously. But the guesting and AFKer aren’t helping the problem either.

A little tweaking may be in order. Again, personally, if they removed the timers, it would fix the issue. It may take overflow over an hour to achieve victory, but an epic battle doesn’t necessarily mean 15 minutes either.

Longer can be better.

Being a ‘commander’ means nothing. I’ll listen to the person who knows what he or she is doing. Ranting about ‘noobs’ in a channel tends to make me ignore those people.

Well, it seems my server killed him multiple times now, on the second day. Second or third now on North American servers.

So, it’s not impossible. It’ll just take time depending on the knowledge and listening skills of your player base.

The fight is epic. Please don’t nerf it because it isn’t a cakewalk. A dragon should be a challenge. Weren’t there tons of complaints about how easy Zhaitan was?

No nerfing the event please.

Great job guys! Hope to see you out there later. Well done.

I actually very much like it. It’s no walk in the park, to be sure, but I didn’t want that. Granted, my server hasn’t completed it, and the kitten was more epic than the event at times for those vocal people in the channel, but still . . . it’s different and fun.

It’s frustrating, but not Super Adventure Box, World 2, Zone 2 frustrating. So, I’m happy.

That would also make sense, Chemiclord, being that it appears near all the world bosses, including Shadow Behemoth, are now on this timer.

I wonder what brought about this change.

Agreed. The area is brutal for pets. Had to use every trick I know just to keep my pet alive in the event itself. Random fish head pops?

Boom!

Dead. No chance the pet survives.

I think that’s fair, Ohoni. I know some servers may lack the people or teamwork needed to complete the event in the needed time. Yes, if the timer was removed, I’m betting it’ll make all these complaints go away.

Again, it’s an excellent suggestion.

Well, to be honest, you don’t need genius-level intellect to come to the conclusion Atrabelos did. You only need to remember Karka Queen in Southsun. Even without the level of difficulty posed from Teq, the Queen could be farmed.

But, for the most part, there’s no interest due to the lack of rewards.

You don’t need time travel . . . just common sense.

Charak.9761:

I also don’t like that Blackgate beat it because that just makes everyone go “Well, Blackgate beat it, it’s doable” and this event won’t get the rework it deserves.

That’s kind of a strange thing to say given that they did it, with massive teamwork, on the very first day it came out. While I understand it’s frustrating, I think people are overstating the difficulty.

Please give more players time to learn the event before anyone screams, “Nerf!”

It’s only been a day.

On the opposite side, remember the recent Queen event in Southsun? Everyone was underwhelmed with that and complained too. Again, just give the player-base at least a week to attempt this fully before you throw in the towel.

I don’t believe that’s too much to ask.

Very impressive. Well done.

Must agree with the OP as well.

Yeah, I’m definitely waiting until these issues are addressed before I attempt the bauble achievement in World 2, Zone 2. Definitely. The level of frustration with this achievement voiced on the boards isn’t coincidence.

Crise.9401:

If you think baubles are a chore, then you must have missed all the pumpkins/snowmen/pinatas/sky crystals.

Other than the sky crystals, I don’t recall instant death if you missed a jump. Also, none of your examples, including sky crystals, required you to find them all without some form of tracking.

Again, it’s not completely a question of being a chore, but one of not knowing if you achieved the goal until and after you kill the boss. If it’s bugged, or you missed something, your other examples didn’t require you to redo the entire thing from scratch like is needed in SAB.

Once again, your citing of the other ‘collecting’ events didn’t punish players that way.

Not even close.

More frustrating than fun.

I believe the problem is the standard the first World in SAB set as far as players’ expectation. World 1 was fast, easy, and took little effort to achieve satisfying results.

World 2 isn’t fast, it isn’t easy, and bugs can deny you the achievements for your efforts.

Big difference.

Honestly, to get the players to try World 2 again, it’s going to require a massive revamp and toning down. Yes, I know some players are going to scream that ‘whiners’ ruined the content. But, from Josh’s own blog, the numbers state participation in World 2 is dismal.

His words, not mine.

To change that, it’s going to require some do-overs. Right now, and I’m sorry, World 2 just isn’t fun. There are too many factors that frustrate as compared to the World 1. World 2 needs to be brought inline with World 1 and what made it fun.

Not frustrating.

Charak.9761:

Did Josh get silenced?

ANet criticized his commentary with the community on this thread. He speaks about it in his blog as well as his feelings about how World 2 was received. Given the circumstances, and it’s conclusion, I think it’s a safe bet he’ll hedge his responses from now on . . . if he’s ever allowed to speak again on these forums.

On that note, I follow Ayin’s guide on YouTube and got the Secrets and Bauble achievement for World 2, Zone 1. But, to be honest, I doubt I’ll even bother for Zone 2.

Even the video looked frustrating and too long.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Piogre.2164:

Crise.9401:

Yes, and my point is why should they let you get infinite bauble’s for almost no effort and by extension bauble bubble’s.

They should have made them all character bound, and capped the runs per day at the number of available character slots. At this time, the blue skins simply take too long- I’ve gotten six tribulation skins in three days, but only enough bubbles for 2 regular skins.

The original sab release, meanwhile motivated me to get the sixth character slot I’d been debating.

Yes, that’s the only thing bugging me too. I finally have all the upgrades from world 2, so now all my baubles can go into bubbles, but no way will I be able to get all skins. Now, if we know they’ll come back when world 3 will be released, I don’t mind because I’ll have another shot at them. But as it is, I’m a bit miffed I cannot complete my collection of skins.

I must agree. It’s not so much ‘hard’ now, but long and annoying. It feels like you MUST farm baubles to get the upgrades, skins if you want them, and/or the mini as well.

Grinding for baubles in an 8-bit game isn’t exactly what I expected from Guild Wars 2.

For me, personally, I have to say yes. I got all the achievements in the first World. This time, I think I’ve done two if that. And, sadly, I have no interest in the others. Everything is too long, too annoying, and none-too-fun.

Even after the patch, I found my general dislike for SAB, World Two, too much too stomach.

Vince Ste Marie.2081:

Did you kill the cage boss at the end? The achievement only awards when the boss is killed and the timer runs out.

Can we please get a counter to this? Something akin to the Secrets Counter by percentage or something?

Thanks.

Vince Ste Marie.2081:

The drop rate of continue coins in JP chests is identical to what it was in April. Continue coins are also more abundant since one drops out of each Zone completion chest.

And the drop rate for chests that aren’t JP chests or Zone completion?

Minos.5168:

Any idea if the drop-rate on normal continue coins was nerfed in this patch (as opposed to April)?

I’m sure ANet will just claim that it was “higher than we wanted” (as has happened with dyes and such).

Yes, the drop rate appears less. But, I have no way to confirm this because it could be just a run of very bad luck. Of all the chests I opened in Queensdale, I got one coin in the last three days.

One.

Previously, I would get around three per Queensdale. To the point, I still had 53 from the previously SAB patch for World 1. That should also tell you how many times I had to continue due to deaths as far as World 1 again.

Draw your own conclusions.

matthewr.3980:

I’m seeing a trend here…

“The second I got into the game, I purchased the infinite life coin. I had a ton of fun playing World 2!”

“I ran out of extra life coins while trying to get past the rapids. This is so hard, I am done.”

Anyone else see the difference? Having infinite lives suddenly makes death trivial, making a stressful part of the game (running out of lives) suddenly stress-free.

Yes, I’ve noticed this as well. And, the Infinite Coin appears to be a required component to ‘enjoy’ the update. Yes, I know it’s been stated otherwise, but the reality as far as freedom from the frustration of multiple deaths appears opposite.

Maybe this wasn’t intended, but the reality again says otherwise.

Hinado.6291:

Well I played infantile again just now and 90% of the time you can walk over rainbows and skip almost everything.. Didn’t really find a part that I would call hard in infantile.. Could you make any examples please?

Seriously?

The spinning flowers, the glitched jumps, the dart gates, the assassins, the lack of weapons’ intuition as far as targeting, and on and on and on. The point, a lot of times, is not to ‘skip’ content, but attempt to gain the achievements as well. Yes, I believe Infantile is intended to make this easier, but in some cases it’s as hard as normal for the layman player.

Really? After 1000+ posts in this thread, where people have voiced their experiences ad naseum as far as frustration and deaths, this has to be explained to you?

Forgive me, but I’m just going to ignore your posts and replies now. Either you don’t get it or you don’t want to get it. That said, I’m happy for you that your experiences in SAB were fun.

Mine, however and so far, have been the opposite. I hope that doesn’t require further explanation too.

Bless you. Maybe I can finally get this done.

Thank you for this.

Hinado.6291:

Are we playing the same world 2? I have to admit I finished world 2 before playing infantile but I died 0 times at my first playthrough of infantile.. After playing tribulation I don’t intend to play normal yet infantile again except for the achievements because it’s so kitten easy (what makes it to boring)…

Well, of course it was for you. Do you know why? You played in normal, so you knew the overall patterns, traps, etc. Again, that’s common sense. For those that didn’t, and don’t really desire the challenge, that’s what infantile is for.

I would agree with your opinion about ‘not all content is for all players’ if the previous standard was exactly the opposite. In the first SAB, it was accessible to all players. Yes, all. So, that kind of makes your point moot as far as SAB.

Granted, Queen’s Gauntlet is set for a certain player that wants a deep challenge. But, this? I’m afraid not. Going for World 1 to World 2 was like night and day.

If you believe otherwise, you’re kidding yourself. Players have literally died in World 2 more times than in their entire run in Guild Wars 2 itself.

I know I have.

It’s not fun, it’s frustrating . . . to the point where I’m deciding whether or not overcoming the frustration is worth the attempt at fun.

That’s never a situation you want to place on your players.

As far as skilled players not complaining, and non-skilled ones complaining. Well . . . duh. That’s like saying all the happy people never seem to use customer service because they’re not having any issues. But, the unhappy people use it because they’re having massive issues.

That’s just a silly statement to make.

MakubeC.3026:

Screw people Josh. SAB is fine as it is. Is not perfect, I mean, few Buebles around to be honest, but the difficulty is fair.

The problem is people these days: They want everything as easy going as their mediocre lives, accostumed to getting things without any effort. People who are lazy even FOR PLAYING.

They want to have achieve things that are not really achivements. They want to do things their current skills doesn’t allow but don’t want to improve either. They want life to be tuned down to their personal level of comfort.

Screw them man.

Screw the people who play your game? Honestly, this post shows the divide between common sense and entitlement. Keep in mind, the previous levels were accessible to all players. Yes, some had it easier than others, but eventually, everyone could do it.

That’s not to say this isn’t still true, with World 2, but the learning curve even in Infantile Mode, went from casually easy to brutally evil.

Finally, also keep in mind, this thread asks, “Is it too hard?” For some of the players, yes. Very much so for the layman. This isn’t the thread where we show our sycophantic devotion to the person who designed it.

There are issues in World 2. Glaring issues that need to be addressed. Waving the designer’s banner and saying ‘screw the players’ who overwhelmingly state they are having problems isn’t helping.

Again, in my humble opinion, the difficulty isn’t ‘fair’, but unforgiving as far as missteps, bugs, and overall design. Most players have died more in the World 2, Stage 2, than in the entire time they’ve played World 1 much less Guild Wars 2 itself.

That’s a problem.