Guild Wars 2

4. Temporary Content in Living Story 1. I understand the desire to experiment and to be cutting edge. I also understand the first blush appeal of turning the game into a series of “I was there!” moments. However, from the start I never thought those things were enough to offset the loss of permanent content for players. And at another level, from the perspective of an employee I thought it robbed the developers’ jobs of something intrinsically satisfying about their jobs which is the ability to look at something in a game, that people are playing and enjoying, and say “I did that” or “I helped make that happen.” I figured the results of relying on temporary content to keep players engaged would be fairly low quality and buggy content – and at times (not always) it was both and nearly always at least the latter. With a little forethought they could have set it up so that most of LS would have been replayed as a series of “storybook” style instanced content a la GW1. But unfortunately they didn’t, and as a result ANet sacrificed a lot time and effort that will now require even more time and effort to salvage for an ongoing payoff to the company and the players.

5. Megaserver and Cities: To this day the megaserver system still makes guild missions an occasional serious annoyance but that isn’t the primary reason I see the current megaserver as a poor decision. Simply put ANet should have pulled the city zones out of the megaserver system. Doing so would have provided a haven for the CRPG player base and kept server identity meaningful for WvW purposes. Btw – neither of those things are things I enjoy but these are two fairly significant portions of the GW2 player base, and companies need to make an effort to NOT alienate significant portions of their player base. Prior to the megaserver system, players on certain servers that enjoyed CRPGing could do that on those servers and players on every server could use the cities for WvW guild recruiting and real-time pushes for more players in WvW. Now, not so much and not at all.

6. Shelving SAB. Confession – I don’t have any nostalgia about old platform games and I didn’t particularly like SAB. It was ok, but I was very “meh” about it. On the other hand I knew a lot of players that really, really liked it and it seems like there was/is sizable portion of the GW2 player base likes it and would like to keep playing it. So, why not at least turn Season 1 and 2 back on for those players to grind away on, or for new players to experience? But “NO” because it didn’t fit in with their Living Story direction – that direction that turned into an expansion and doesn’t seem to stop them from doing holiday events on a continuing basis. Add to that the sale of the “permanent continuation coin” or whatever it was and even my response was “Wth ANet!!?” And I don’t particularly want to play SAB. What ANet should do is simply take the current set of mini-games (with their relatively lackluster participation) and have Moto “update” them as part of an “arcade” along with SAB in LA or Rata Sum and keep it as permanent content that they can then add to on regular basis (here’s a thought – while ANets at it they can add Polymock – another thing I didn’t and probably wont play but a lot of GW1 players did and GW2 players likely would play – to “Moto’s Arcade”).

So I think I could probably keep going for awhile (balancing PVE and PVP together based on PVP, combining “traits” with “characteristic” points in a manner that often lacks synergy, over-reliance on RNG loot, etc), but its making me a little . . . down . . . so I think I’ll just stop now.

I remember when the previous host of POI made a video with two basic messages – one to the development community (message: Involve your customers/players in the development process) and another to the player community (message: Smart people make games and you shouldn’t assume you can do better). Paraphrasing those messages from memory so forgive the inaccuracy and brevity. I think she got the first right, but like most of the development community she missed on the second. I don’t think the issue is building better games and who can do it that bother most most of ANet’s customers – its the quality, soundness and thoughtfulness of the decisions that get made in the development and implementation of the game. By a certain point in almost everyone’s working lives they have endured poor decision-making that directly impacted them in some negative way, and when that happens in something that is supposed to be “fun” and not “work” it becomes especially annoying and difficult to passively endure in silence.

My list, in relatively loose order of importance:

1. The Gag Order Communications Policy. This actually deserves to be #1 IMO because it exacerbates every issue and problem that arises in the game. Its like a multiplier effect. Can’t stand “X” and want it changed . . . too bad now multiply your personal annoyance factor related to that issue by large dose of silence from ANet that comes off as indifference and/or contempt. BTW – minbariguy’s post is a brilliant take on this ANet policy.

2. April 2014 Traits Revamp. This one is especially puzzling since it just seems so obviously a bad idea that from the outside looking in that it makes no sense that it actually made it into the game. This is a decision that alienated a large portion of the player base that it seems to me MMOs want to keep in their games and keep happy – the “altaholics.” Altaholics play the hell out of these games and this choice feels like ANet went out of their way to alienate and annoy them. There are two long threads (probably about 100+ pages by now) about the current “Trait System” and how much it sucks and how it might be improved so I won’t rehash that but instead focus on my experiences. Since April 2014 I’ve not started any new characters but I’ve helped my wife level of 2 new characters. In both cases she managed to stumble across about a handful of traits – none of which could be considered to result in any kind of “build.” So, in both cases she simply bought the traits she needed to have an effective build rather than grind map completion, visit WvW which she hates, or play a game of hide-and-seek or wait-and-see with the traits she needed hoping to pull a build together eventually. So, if the intent on ANet’s part was to push players out into various PVE areas and WvW, the system was pretty much a complete fail. If the intent on ANet’s part was to promote build experimentation it was a complete fail since she bought the traits she needed for 1 build for each character. The only reason I can see for this change is that ANet thought it needed another gold sink AND a serious skill point sink. The skill point cost of purchasing all the traits is actually significantly higher than the cost of buying ALL the skills on that same character. If that was ANet’s real motivation, there are smarter, less annoying gold and skill sinks they could have implemented. I jokingly suggested adding a collection for mystic weapons which are 50 skill points a piece and with a decent payoff of say, an ascended weapon, they would clear out a lot of banked skill points – I still think its a better idea for a skill point sink than adding skill points to the cost of traits.

3. The “New Character Experience.” Note that I did not call it the “New Player Experience.” since that phrase is a lie. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been playing PC games since the “trash 80” days and MMOs for a decade or more or if you make a new character in GW2 you get the NCE. I personally hate level gating basic features of a game like this – every time I am in Ebonhawk and I see the empty platform/pedestal where the guild banker was I think “wth made them think this was necessary or even a halfway decent idea?” What is so annoying about the decision is that all that would really be required to make it acceptable (or at least far less annoying) to most GW veterans or veteran PC gamers generally is an “opt out” option. At the start of the new character personal story instance ask everyone if they are a “New Player” – explain what that means in two or three sentences and give them a yes or no choice. Yes, means you get the full NPE. No means you get the “Veteran Player Experience” including no rewards but also no silly level gating of basic game features the like the downed state or vistas or underwater combat, etc.

Continued

Spent my time playing a Revenant almost exclusively on Mallyx Legend with a hammer (only really switching to Jalis to heal – I found the mace/axe combo uninspiring). Redid my traits to be 6-6-2 which seemed pretty effective.

While others have noted that the Wyvern could be simply handled at range I discovered that the most effective thing I could do was stand under or next to the Wyvern and spam skill #9 and the hammer attacks – properly positioned I could avoid the fire and the wing buffets could not hit me. Skill #9 displaces opponents and inflicts Torment on them while it creates a dark combo field – with lots of blinds and life steals/leeches from other players as well as myself as a result. The #9 skills was just a little too spam-able – seemed like it created tons of CC in a group event. The Wyvern had a near constant 25 stacks of torment on it. I might be wrong about causation but it seemed like when a couple (2-3 at most) of Revenants did that the Wyvern was unable to actually take off for long periods and got quickly dps down pretty significantly. When it did finally attempt to take off the Revenant Jalis taunt/chain skill (maybe plus other cc) frequently brought it right back down.

Other Stuff: The mastery screen was too hidden – couldn’t find it at first asked in chat and got the answer. Not very intuitive when skill and trait screen are integrated into the Hero panel and you expect the mastery screen to be similar. Also, did not understand I had to check the mastery in order to progress.

Overall Impression: Fun encounters with nice loot but a little too repetitive since it was so limited. Seemed very stable for a stress test – did not encounter any memorable bugs.

Thanks for letting me try the beta.

There are two kinds of people: Those who think there are two kinds of people and everyone else.

Seriously though: Probably jungle first Revenant second OR both simultaneously if the final version of the class looks fun enough.

Simon.3794:

Conncept.7638:

Simon.3794:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Simon.3794:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Simon.3794:

Mirdave.2014:

Elites with no cooldown (with the exception of the energy cost)? Is this fair?

do you know what is a thief?

Did you know that Thief utilities and elites use cooldowns, not Initiative?

did you know that thief weapon skill use initiative?

Yes, yes I did. That was not the question however. He asked whether or not an Elite that has no cooldown is fair. There is no precedent for that.

do you think weapon skill has no cooldown is fair compare to other classes?
that will be your answer.

You… wait, what? Do you English?

Did you mean: “Do you think it is far, them having weapon skills which have no cooldowns, to compare them to another class which does?” (Or possibly, “to another class which does not?”)

That’s the best I can come up with, and while it makes sense grammatically I still can’t see how it makes any sense in the context of the conversation.

I asked whether or not weapon skills that have no cooldown is fair
and that will be your answer.

Yes it fair. Initiative is a lot closer to energy than anything else in the game currently – a replenishing resource pool used by multiple attacks with weapon swap becoming meaningless unless you NEED the other weapon set – when its zeroed out its painful. You’ll have to pay attention to that resource an manage it OR you can play another class and do what every other class can do – hit 1-5 weapon set one then swap and hit 1-5 on weapon set two ad infinitum (with eles changing attunements instead of swapping) assuming most of your attacks are not off CD by the time you get through the first set. I wish they would rebalance all the classes by giving them an initiative pool – might improve the play of a lot of players.

No. And I’ve been playing since launch.

So, if I understand this correctly there will be no news any time soon on the trait system? It will not in any way shape or form resemble the mastery system? That is, this entire thread is simply a restart of the old thread?

I guess I will come back when ANet finally releases some information on what they intend to do regarding the trait system. My unsolicited advice to posters is to avoid this thread as much as possible – give then your single post on what’s wrong and how to fix it then walk away. Even if its a regurgitation of the old good idea you provided in the last thread.

So, taking my own advice and (while I might say this differently and add more these days) here is a regurgitation of my April 27, 2014 post (sans one part I no longer believe is necessary/reasonable) on the trait system:

The new trait system, as other have noted, is a very poorly implemented excellent idea. In my opinion it is also the most worrisome part of the recent update. The system is much harder on new players than established players and creates a “barrier to entry” that is likely to result in fewer new players staying with the game over time. To thrive, every MMO needs a constant, healthy supply of new players to replace those who (inevitably) leave the game.

First Suggestion: Get rid of the unnecessary and unwarranted delay in attaining traits. Delaying them an additional 10 levels was completely unnecessary and did not improve game play at all. In fact you went the exact opposite direction you should have gone. Players should begin earning trait points every 5 levels after level 10. They should have an incentive to hunt for traits and see the attainment of traits as part of developing the character. Backloading/delaying the availability of traits until well into the game makes that portion of the game more onerous than it should be.

Second Suggestion: Traits should be separately earnable within both PvE and WvW (I am assuming PvP character have access to all traits, if not they should). I think your community thought the message about not forcing them to play styles they did not like had penetrated – apparently not well enough. Anet should move the WvW obtained traits into PvE and open up a CDI with the WvW community focusing on how players who focus on that area of the game can earn the traits by playing WvW.

Third Suggestion: The biggest issue with earning the traits (as opposed to buying them) is clearly with the adept level traits. The work needed to unlock a trait should be appropriate to the level of the character that would be using the trait. This is all too often not the case. Also, all three trait tiers need variety in how the traits are earned. ANet should open up a CDI for each of the races and/or classes that focuses on PvE and solicit suggestions for different methods for each race and/or class to earn each of the traits.

Fourth Suggestion: You missed an opportunity to add build diversity with the update. There is no good reason to have mandatory traits. There never has been. There are no mandatory skills. There should be no mandatory traits. The basic level traits at each tier (Adept, Master and Grandmaster) should be simply another option to choose from. So, for example: the 16 total traits would become available in two sets (Basic, Advanced) in each of three tiers: Adept – Basic #1-4; Adept – Advanced #1-7; Master – Basic #1-10, Master – Advanced #1-12, Grandmaster – Basic #1-14; Grandmaster – Advanced #1-16. As part of the CDI in Suggestion #2 ANet should solicit community feedback on the rank/number/order of the traits as well. ANet has consistently failed to acknowledge some of their traits are extraordinarily underwhelming or simply completely outclassed by other options, and while they will have to pull the wheat from the chaff, here’s a hint – players asserting that “Executioner” is an Adept – Basic trait are trolling, those that think “Hard to Catch” is a Adept – Basic or Adept – Advanced trait are not.

If its not the Tengu then second most likely would seem to be Watchknights/Steam creatures. Scarlet created them and noticed that they were becoming independent/sentient and learning/evolving before she shipped them off via her portal magic. Who knows where they all ended up . . . some in Timberline but others could have ended up somewhere that we have not discovered yet. There is also the alternate Tyria where an evil version of the PC uses them as their army. Could come from there as “refugees.”

I noticed as well that the new boss event is the same as LS – no on kill activation. The only “good” part is that you can walk into the event with a partial to full stack. Seriously, this is just becoming pathetic – just stop it already ANet – make every mob in the LS and/or new boss give 1 xp or 1 copper (or whatever the hell it is that is creating the problem) and fix it already.

Hayashi.3416:

They work on anything that gives experience and nothing that does not give experience on kill. LS is not the problem here.

You are correct – the problem is a mental infarction that occurred in the decision making and/or coding of the LS. Apparently ANet is so hell bent on no one farming any of the LS that everything is zero XP and zero loot (the 2 things I’ve heard mentioned as possible triggers for “kill an opponent”) thereby rendering a significant number of sigils, food and few (sometimes critical) traits worthless in the LS. LS is the only place I’ve encountered this with any regularity.

Bear on the job.6273:

Works for me. Try reinstalling.

No. They don’t work for you. They don’t work for anyone. On kill sigils, traits and food do not work in LS (with I believe only one exception – they worked underground maze in S2 EP7?).

Sube Dai.8496:

You pve’ers seriously…you’re not even going to notice.

For PvP this change is bad.

Ah . . . yeah, I’m thinking that after this nerf, the next time and I’m trying to solo down half a dozen mordrem in Silverwastes on my thief . . . I’ll notice.

ANet long ago made the (bad) decision to balance all parts of this game based on PvP. I’ve always believed this was a mistake, but done mostly to manage workload so I could accept it somewhat on that basis. And as a thief main I’ve endured their crappy “balance” nerfs ad nausem and still play the class. HOWEVER . . . If they are going to keep making even average mobs in PvE with better and better AI, who are also hard hitting hit point wells + condition spammers + buffers and healers . . . they should really reconsider balancing PvE separate from PvP.

@Ayrilana – you really are the chief apologist for ANet on economic issues its just amazing to me . . .

I have 17K plus AP and over 5000 hours playing the game. I’ve gotten two precursors – the spear gun and the pistol. The first I sold long long ago for about 20 gold, and the pistol most recently for about 650 gold. There was never any question in my mind about trying to craft a legendary out of either one. When I got the first I looked into what it would have taken at that time to craft it and laughed. Seriously, I laughed. Then I was kind of offended when I realized ANet really does think we are all lonely skritt. That much time and effort for what – colorful particle effects and footprints? My recommendation is to let it go people – appearance is not all – its actually pretty inconsequential even in this game that is supposed to be all about appearance. Don’t get me wrong I’ve got a price point for appearance in this game but it is dammmed low (maybe $2 real currency). Figure out what yours is and act accordingly . . .

Basaltface pretty much got it right.

One sincere piece of advice as a returning veteran – do not delete any character you already have. Seriously – DO NOT DELETE ANY OF YOUR OLD CHARACTERS YOU WILL REGRET IT. If you delete and roll up a replacement character you will run face first into the “new and improved” pay 43 gold + 360 skill point trait system OR you will have to go to everywhere and do tasks that are often over-leveled, bugged, or grindy (map completion to unlock a trait for example). Or some a combination of both. Check out the trait thread that is usually on page one or two of this section of the forum if you want more info.

Up front disclaimer: I am a PvE-only customer who has no interest or willingness to PvP or WvW or run Fractals. So after giving the new daily system a couple of weeks play testing I have the following feedback and comments for ANet regarding the system:

1) On a positive note the dailies are being done much quicker and I suppose more reward (10 AP instead of the 6-8 I used to get) for less effort is a good thing. The chests with the exp scrolls and karma bottles are also appreciated.

2) On the negative side the dailies are being done much quicker because they are often too easy (“View a Vista in X” – I get casual gaming but that just seems silly) or because everyone is on the same map calling out events and zerging them into oblivion.

3) The choice within each community/mode (PvE, WvW, PvP) is unnecessarily restrictive – that is completing 3 of 4 four within a given category seems unnecessarily restrictive and I believe that your customers should be able to complete their dailies within their preferred community(ies)/mode(s). Simply adding one additional option in each community would increase he unique sets of daily options by 6 within each of those communities/modes (5/4/3, 5/4/2, 5/4/1, 5/3/2, 5/3/1 and 5/2/1). That one change would probably significantly lessen the lack of choice criticism of the system. The double fractal day was the first time in many many months that I did not finish the dailies. Given that I’ve been getting 10 AP instead of 6-8 per day it was no loss. However, I did think it was an obnoxious thing to do on your part; and again having the option to chose 3 of 5 choices within a mode would probably have allowed me to finish that daily. MESSAGE I WOULD LIKE TO GET THROUGH TO ANET: If your intent is to push your customers into other modes than their mode(s) of choice then in my case your attempt is an abject failure and will continue to be an abject failure.

4) The PvE dailies are overly specific regarding where they have to be done. I would recommend stopping at the regional level (Ascalon, Kryta, Maguma and Orr) and not require the general events daily be done in a specific map. I think I understand why you chose to specify a map but requiring a specific map sharply limits the synergy of the dailies with goals your customers may have in trying to level up alts or complete maps, etc. I say “I think” because frankly your communication policy stinks so bad that your customers often have no real idea why a change was made and have to interpolate the "why’ based on the impact on their gaming experience.

5) The variety of the dailies seems to have been reduced for PvE but increased substantially for WvW and PvP. That does not seem to be a necessary trade off. It seems like part of the larger ploy to push customers into different modes than their mode(s) of choice. The clearest example of this is that I can think of is that the “Personal Story” daily option seems to have completely disappeared. Both my wife and I would complete this daily for characters with incomplete Personal Stories. We could still do that but after the third or fourth time through the PS is just not as engaging (especially after a certain point at which the PS becomes very uniform from character to character) – which made the Personal Story daily a nice impetus to do that and add some variety to the dailies.

Farzo.8410:

Must be really hard to become one if you aren’t allowed to be infracted, since you pretty much become infracted for everything.

I wear my infractions with pride. Not sure I would want anyone as a glorfied “hall monitor” who didn’t have enough spine to get infracted at least once.

Vayne.8563:

Gamer personality was a system that went nowhere. Seeing as it went nowhere, they probably shelved it.

Not telling us about shelving it though is a bad oversight.

The only impact it had originally was in providing dialogue choices. It is quite possible they did drop it since apparently providing more than two options in most of the living story dialogues was too much work. Not telling us about dropping it would be pretty typical of ANet these days.

Dave.2536:

nGumball.1283:

Guhracie.3419:

Absolutely nothing, until traits are fixed.

You can get the gold to unlock all the traits by running a couple of dungeons.

And the ~300+ skill points?

Apparently nGumball can get the ~43 gold and 360 or so skill points needed by “running a couple of dungeons” . . . not sure what game those dungeons are in but apparently its QED.

rozowykubek.9703:

Rauderi.8706:

Gregori.5807:

Traits matter to some classes as you are leveling. I have felt this pain firsthand with a Mesmer (I want to do JPs with my wife on her mesmer).

I gave this system the benefit of the doubt and tried it out via leveling a Guardian with full traits..

I hated most of the process and vowed to not do it again.

However, as I said, I decided to roll a Mesmer. Playing this toon with no traits was much more painful than a Guardian. It was painful enough that I bought my trait tree.

People who say that we don’t “need” traits at lower levels are correct… technically. However, if you want to level alone, or have to level alone, you are going to feel the pain. For classes like this, while its true that you may not need traits during leveling, without them you are going to have a much more difficult and less enjoyable time.

Even with a buddy, the experience was painful. Most of the trait unlocks were above our level, and it made our play time very disjointed.

It must be pain when someone took your toys away but I can not imagine possessing all traits by level, let’s say 30 0_o it would be game destroying IMO. Sorry but honestly I do not get what all fuss is about but I have feeling that you all want “easy” time. Now everything must be “casual friendly”, “easy”, “buy it now”, “have all now” to me it’s fun when there is challenge, and you have to think how to get something/there/ et cetera.
I wish old times come back, where every game was hard

You didn’t have all of your traits by level 30, just the first tier I believe.

I have a feeling you haven’t played this game very long. Come back here after your third or fourth alt and have spent about 100-200 gold and 600-800 skill points instead of the <15 gold and 0 skill points it used to cost and then explain to us how everyone here really just wants an easy button. Or better yet don’t do that just level them to 80 and then come back and tell us all about the builds for your characters – you know after you’ve done all your “experimenting” – ought to be worth a chuckle or two

This daily seems bugged. I participated through an entire song, got a score of 100 (considering how bad I suck at and that I have zero desire to get any better at it this is a good score for me). Still no credit on the daily. Even tried going through a complete session more than once. Never get credit for “participating.”

yolo swaggins.2570:

But restricting existing features will only irritate the playerbase more than motivate them to explore other parts of the game. You simply can’t push players into content. All you can do is attract them.

In my eyes, this decision is meant to suppress the hunger for content by getting players used to content they would not normally try. It is not going to work as well as they want.

Wanted to second this.

Its been an ongoing issue with ANet since LS 1 (maybe before then). The assumption seems to be that their customers don’t know what they like and want to do in this game. So, every time they attempt to push me into game modes I don’t like I ignore it – then come the forums and tell ANet as politely as possible to go pound sand. And every time it happens I lose a little more respect for them for attempting to “push” me into a game mode(s) I am simply not interested in.

I also agree that this is mostly about suppressing the hunger for new content. I don’t think it works but they seem to always go back to that same tactic regardless of how alienating it is.

@Lothirieth: Unfortunately this is a required achievement for the meta achievement.

I find this achievement completely counter-intuitive and have never been able to complete it. When I look at the playing board I see a piano-style key board and when the sliding ball appears on the key I hit that key. I don’t wait for it to slide down to the bottom and “hit” me/disappear and THEN hit the key. That does not work for me and I find it completely counter-intuitive. Given this is a once-year thing I have been unable to break myself from hitting the key when the circle/ball is on the keyboard so in the past few years I’ve not completed it.

This year for the first time I was playing this game with my wife and she has absolutely no problem with this mini-game – I let her take over and she ran through the 500 notes in short order. Makes up for all the JPs I’ve ported her through.

This is just another example of ANet limiting choice when they really didn’t have to and nothing good was foster by doing so. They could have made it 10 instead of 11 or allowed the infinite achievements to count once or allowed the windersday dailies to count. More poor decision making on ANet’s part but I’ve kind of come to expect that from them these days . . .

Dodge toward/over the projectiles – they will not heat seek effectively then as the projectiles turn but don’t reverse course.

Also, run a little less glassy – I stand and take the hits from them most of the time on my Ranger (combo of berserker, celestial and PVT equipment) and they do very little damage.

GuzziHero.5104:

I think this is a good analogy of where we, and the game in general, is headed…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKZT2u3gYQI

+10,000

@Zaklex

This is only similar to GW1 if in GW1 you had to hunt down every skill by doing tasks far beyond your level or entire map completions or to play through buggy open world events that may or may be working for weeks on end or get up-leveled into PvP-land and get ganked repeatedly trying to get a skill. Guess what in GW1 you didn’t have to do any of those things. Somehow ANet went from “hunting elite skills” – you know the last skill on your skill bar – to hunting down every trait (a completely different basic build component). If they wanted to do something similar to GW1 they would have limited it to Grandmaster traits. That at least would have some consistency with the way GW1 worked. Oh and by the way you are correct you can also just spend ~43 gold and I believe around 360 points and just buy every trait to experiment with builds. As opposed to the previous system where you could unlock all the traits with about 3 gold. The new system is clearly such a deal! What could their customers possibly be upset about! I have 6 grandfathered level 80s and one grandfathered level 40 that don’t have to buy or hunt every trait and I disliked the 8th class (Engineer) when I played it previously so I will not be building another alt until ANet introduces either a new class or race. In other words probably never . . .

Gregori.5807:

Mo Mo.1947:

Guhracie.3419:

I was mapping tonight and heard someone in map chat being advised to buy a trait linked to a bugged event (devourer queen). As I always do, I pointed out that traits used to cost less than 3g to unlock all of them.

There also used to be a lot less gold in the market. You can make 1 gold quite quickly in this game now even if you’re a newbie. 1g isn’t that big of a deal anymore.

My newbie friend had about 10 gold in their first couple weeks of playing just from going around doing random stuff they came across. And she was around level 20 at that point so she has plenty of time to accumulate more gold as she gets into the higher level areas and starts getting better drops and doing more profitable activities.

And how is your hypothetical newbie doing with skillpoints? You know, the things that go to buying actual… skills… along with traits? And, which have been overall reduced since the beginning of the game?

If this newbie is swimming in skill points, give me his secret.

I dislike the gold cost but can live with it… as a leveled veteran. The skill point cost, on the other hand, that is both often forgotten in these discussions and much harder to meet than the gold.

Given the overwhelmingly negative reaction most veteran players and many newer players who eventually end up on this thread have, I have always believed this change was far more about creating a skill point sink as opposed to a gold sink. My wife who has been playing a fairly short time compared to me and she’s sitting on 4 level 80 characters (3 were grandfathered in and the other simply bought most of the traits necessary for the build she wanted) with 5 crafting disciplines to level 500. She has around 500 gold banked (I helped a bit with that) – but only around 200 skill point scrolls banked. She could make 11 alts and pay for all their traits with gold EXCEPT she would likely never have enough skill points to do something like that. I have 6 level 80s (full ascended equipment on 4 of them) and 1 level 40 but I’ve been playing much longer than her and have about 600 skill points banked.

My only thought as to the “Why do this?” – ANet felt it needed a significant skill point sink (maybe because they are planning on adding new skills? or want to add a skill point-based objective at some point later?) and that the cost of kittening off a bunch of players was worth it to add that sink to the game.

Not holding my breath for them fixing this sooner rather than later. We used to be able to get along without the LFG tool. The regular/consistent player population has clearly dropped and although megaservers covered for that somewhat ANet’s been producing new content that needs fairly full maps that are at least somewhat coordinated. Its become an important part of the game. Gonna be a long annoying time till January 13, 2015 without a functional LFG tool.

My advice – Don’t try to do this one as Caithe solo. Caithe has crap movement for a thief in that she appears to have no sustained movement boost or ready access to a quick boost and no enhanced endurance regen – I’m used to having both on my Thief and I could not adjust to her slow movement and lack of basic (not skill bar-based) dodges. I would have killed to have been able to switched out Scorpion Wire skill for any one of three signets (Infiltrators, Shadows, Agility). However, she does take on your armor so if you have a heavy class with traveler or speed runes she’s just that much more OP combat wise.

The real annoying part of this achievement is that it requires absolute perfection – one slip and you have to restart and endure the dialogue and first combat over and over again. The problem I found in trying to complete it normally was the sand pits – which have the same basic color as the terrain and no circle to define them – and the boss occasionally will toss one on top of you when you are in melee with him (and I hate giving up a burn phase when Caithe has no significant ranged attack). The solution is shockingly simple – have someone else go as Caithe – hit the boss a couple of times at the start of the fight then go hide on one of the ledges as she finishes him off. Given how annoying I found that achievement I felt only satisfaction taking the easy way out. I thought the challenge mode version was actually easier . . . or at least less annoying.

I found this one actually more difficult than the challenge mote version since it is absolutely unforgiving with any single slip up ending the achievement. The real problem is mostly the sand pits I think they are basically the same color as the terrain without any circle outlining them and occasionally the boss will throw one right on top of you when you are in melee with him.

The secret is simple to completing this – go with one other person (that person should be playing as Caithe since she is OP). Hit the boss a couple of times at the very start run up on to the ledge (there are two places obvious places you can go to get away from the wind walls and pools) while Caithe kills the boss. Shockingly easy that way.

Can confirm it happening on my PC and my wife’s laptop. Cannot search, can still sell though and can buy if you use the filters and know what the icon of the item you want looks like (bought ancient wood planks that way).

Lishtenbird.2814:

spoj.9672:

Probably because mesmer gs is a pretty poor weapon for PvE except in extremely niche situations.

Lendruil.9061:

Dont use greatsword on mesmer.

Lendruil.9061:

greatsword on mesmer is really bad dps, you should use sword instead

If you guys stick your heads out of speedcleared dungeons, you might see that GS is a great weapon for 90% of Tyria for 90% of players. Dungeons = PvE, but PvE =/= dungeons, even if you solehandedly write a “Dungeon class guide” and call it “PvE class guide”. I’ve seen players who are looking at metabattle builds and dulfy.net guides and thinking those will make them happy, while in practice more AoE and skill spam is better for what these players actually play most of the time. In short:

• If you’re speedclearing dungeons in a balanced organised group which knows all encounters, stacks, fights in melee and pre-stacks might, you as a mesmer with GS are a liability and should feel bad. That way you use sword + offhands, help your team and enjoy the game.
• If you’re running a dungeon with pugs who are very likely to range and you’re not a pro with some 1k+ hours on the class, you use GS and enjoy the game.
• If you’re running around the world tagging mobs for loot, you use GS because it’s fast and efficient since it provides good AoE and cannot be reflected, which lets you enjoy the game.

Amazingly enough you can actually use both weapon sets on the same character!!! /sarcasm

Seriously, unless you are going condition build on a Mesmer GS is your ranged weapon choice and your best melee choice is S/F. Have to disagree with with a poster above regarding the GS phantasm – its one of the best for one simple reason – it moves beyond normal melee range of its target with its attack. In PvE you can stack several of them during the same encounter against a tougher target.

Cannot speak to GS on Warriors but its a good choice for Guardians and Rangers. I recently went back to GS on my Ranger because (although the S/D or S/W were better dps) of the issue with the sword staying on your targeted foe, the apparent rooting during part of the attack chain and I found using it anything “inanimate” being a pain. GS 1 on Rangers is still a little lackluster but overall I find it less “annoying” to use.

Mo Mo.1947:

I don’t recall saying you were doing something worth reporting. And no I didn’t read 70 pages and don’t expect anyone to. And no I haven’t read your entire GW2 forum life story. But I did read a few of your post that you’ve been posting recently.

Guhracie.3419:

I’m personally recommending my friends stay away from the game in its current state. You should also know that if you create a new character, you’ll have to unlock all the traits, too.

Guhracie.3419:

Normally I’d be saving up for the sales in GW2 right now, but the last of my November entertainment money went to Steam. Feel free to drop me a message if you want my Steam name to add me there and keep in touch.

You’re talking about telling people to not play the game and that you’re moving your money to another game and people should hang out with you there instead of in-game.

And you’re doing it in the same entitled voice that I’m seeing all over the forums from people who complain unconstructively, cry foul-play and injustice at everything that doesn’t work 100% perfectly, and make outrageous demands thinking that they should get whatever they want because they spent some money on the game. (You could spend a few hundred $ USD on the game and you still haven’t paid for even an hours worth of work by the ANet staff.)

I don’t care what you’ve said or done in the past, because in the present you’re just another bag of complaints doing the exact opposite of what you should do if you want something to be done about the problems you perceive.

I offered a suggestion for how to change traits. And I suggest you share your own alternative solutions in this thread instead of telling everyone you’re giving up on playing the game.

And you are just another entitled self important white knight telling people what to think, what to say and how to behave. The only entitled person here is you. You haven’t read the past 63 pages of feedback have you? No of course you haven’t. I pegged this as kitten on this game very quickly after the April patch and I’ve followed this thread since then. I have read every page and I can say unequivocally there is more than enough constructive feedback in this thread. I can think of at least three or four options suggested in the first 20 pages (probably including yours btw) or so that would have been a distinct improvement over the current system. In response we’ve gotten a minor tweak to the system and dev showing up and asking for a TL/DR in 8 months.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

First off, anyone including this reporter and the OP and those accused of making stuff up are all guilty of assumption and that fault lies squarely on the shoulders of Anet. What amazes me is that people tear at each other every day and either try and prove their view is the right one when the company who knows the answer just sits idly by letting their own community turn to shambles. It’s pathetic to think that their is so little respect for the player base that they cannot trust us with the truth and think that letting this happen is justifiable in the end.

Anet/NCSoft has been the cause of all of this negativity, they brought it on themselves pure and simple so before you run out blaming others perhaps blame should be assigned where it belongs and that’s the company not filling in the blanks left for their community. Please don’t come back with they can’t tell us look at the reaction they got before….well boo freaking hoo, you’re a gaming company it’s to be expected, get a backbone.

It’s so pathetic and I am not participating in this charade any longer, I may or may not stick around but frankly the aggravation of trying to get answers just isn’t worth it, so I’m done posting or caring. If this strategy fails for them I hope the one responsible for the policy never works in the industry again, because its been pure poison on many levels.

Anet’s communication policy is a self inflicted wound they just keep reopening and reopening day in day out. I have the exact same reaction to the Anet “apologencia” who defend the company with “people will complain even if they are open and honest” crap. Seriously, that’s like saying Anet employees have the emotional and intellectual resiliency of 12-year-olds. Complaining customers are part of every business and if that is Anet’s underlying reason for this they do need to grow a spine, suck it up and learn to deal with it.

As for the OP: Personally I don’t doubt they work hard and are always working on “stuff” but so what? By not keeping us even minimally informed about whether what they are working on is something people have been asking for (and no I’m not talking about mounts – things like expansions, guild hall improvements, new pvp modes, wvw improvements, fixes to the trait system etc.) OR something that will land like a solid blow to the crotch (new trait acquisition system, personal story “revision,” megaserver and roleplaying, etc.) to one or more segments of their customer base.

Stop defending, stop making excuses and put the blame for the state of the game and these forums right where it belongs: On Anet/NCSoft.

Thaddeus.4891:

That would be nice. But still the reward is good. What is really bad are collection like :

Spirit Crafter : These weapons have a curent value of 3 000 gold on the TP right now. And the reward is a exotic back item with the same skins as one of the crafting exotic bag item, just semi-transparent with a blue glow. This is ridiculous. At that price, it should be a kitten unique skin on a ascended back item. Not an ugly exotic back item.

Treasure Hunter : The concept is super nice. Go around the world with some scavenger hunt to complete the collection that give you a chest in your home instance that you can open everyday. But some of the item you need are super rare and the top 4 costly items are 80 gold, 275 gold, 400 gold and 500 gold. That’s a huge amount of gold that you buy them or decide to not sell them. Worst, is that these items are worth nothing by themselves. These 4 items are all exotic trinkets. Ok, but a chest that you can open everyday in your home instance seem super cool. But from loots reseach available it seem like this chest is like any other chest in the world. It give only kitten. Bloodlust dust, empyreal fragment, masterwork gear, bag of jewel, bag of runes, bag of sigil, dragonite ore, if you are lucky you get rare gear or cores. This is insane. Even if you get the best items (that we know so far) everyday from that chest. It would take more than 4-5 years to get your money back. Remember, most of the items in that collection don’t have any use outside the collection.

Trash Collector : At least it was nice to complete. But really. The reward for completing it is a big bag of trash. Literally. It was a good smash on the check after a couples of hours running around tyria collection trash.

Style Guide : It’s about 300 gold of stuff and the reward is a ascended accessories. It’s nice if you already crafted Koss on Koss since it’s the most costly item in the collection. But, who would craft koss on koss now when so many ways of getting cheaper ascended back items exist?

Koutalophile : The collection items is nice. The most expensive spoon have 5 differents ways to get it, so you can use the ways that you like the most. And 3 spoons are account drop in fractal, tequalt and WvW. This can be fun to go after even if the rng could be terribly frustrating. The problem is the reward. 3 levels, 5 level 20 masterwork items and a exotic ring. Are you kitten kidding me? All of these spoons are useless anyway except for the collection, so why would i spend any currency to get the Imperial Chef Yileng’s spoon (a ascended accessory with Condition, toughness, Precision and healing power as stats) just to get that really bad rewards.

I love collection. But some of them are just stupid.

Spirit Crafter : Not even going to bother unless the RNG gods bless me with multiple precursor drops.

Treasure Hunter : When most of the way on this then stopped when I got to the prices of the last few items. As you said the reward just doesn’t seem worth it.

Trash Collector : For some reason I remember getting something good out of that bag . . . I was surprised.

Style Guide : This is the one that bothers me the most for some reason. Got all but the two items (the most expensive ones – Godswalk and Koss on Koss). An ascended back piece is the reward – but I would have to make an ascended back piece to get it and I already have an extra ascended back piece with no character to put it on and I can make several more if I want (blade shards + 50+ ascended leather sitting in my bank) so . . . for 200+ gold thanks but no. Same reason I couldn’t be bothered with Mawdrey.

Koutalophile : Almost started this one and stopped. Saw that it had fractals and wvw components and neither of those interest me much so went no further. If the rewards are what you say then I’ll never touch it.

Also, I can’t bring myself to care about the rewards for completing the dungeon collections – the only thing that jumps out are the ascended accessories and I don’t need more ascended accessories.

Another bug fix that didn’t make it into the patch notes (as far as I could tell): Wanted to acknowledge that it appears that in the most recent LS update this issue has been fixed – at least for the maze encounter at the end.

Wanted to acknowledge that Anet appears to have fixed this bug – at least for Bags of Jewels from the Karmic Converter.

Just wanted to say thanks to Anet for this addition to the rewards. I made a similar suggestion regarding adding a key to the map completion rewards (except cities) earlier and wanted to say thanks and hope that you throw those in as part of future episode rewards as well.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

That seems the likeliest explanation for their behavior unfortunately.

The forums have become increasing hostile, suspicious, and generally negative towards Anet for a reason that can be summed up in three words: Anet’s communication policy. I’m convinced that some of the most ’questionable" changes made recently (trait unlocks, etc.), as well as most of the negativity coming from their customers could have been avoided or mitigated substantially by a professional/competent/sensible communication policy.

Their current communication policy can only be seen as professional/competent/sensible if in fact the situation is as Vlad suggests.

Orpheal.8263:

@ palador

When i saw that with Marjory, i was also hoping for it, that this is a kind of sign, that we maybe will see in a distant near future Sub Classes, like I suggested that in the Chracter progression CDI, which could be used to unlock for the classes new Weapon Options and new Utility Skills.

“snip”

I appreciate the hope and enthusiasm but . . . when I saw that and watched Majory hacking away with the greatsword later all I thought was that it was more of ANet’s “the rules apply to players not to our favorite members of the Scooby Gang” stuff. Done for drama and plot convenience and nothing more. IMO ANet’s behavior to date really doesn’t support any other more “hopeful” conclusion.

Just call me “destroyer of hope.”

Ohoni.6057:

You mention wanting to know there will be more to the game. The new and continuing episodes of the Living World count towards that, right?

I fully appreciate the living world. I fully appreciate that the game continues to expand the story and provide chapters like Echoes of the Past, and how that this continues.

However. . .

I also want to see a grander vision than three mini-zones added over two years. I want to see a new Caledon Forest sized map added every six months (or two smaller ones, or two Caledons per year, but basically that much scale on average). I want the map to expand considerably faster than it has at the current pace.

I want new classes, and new weapons added to existing classes. We’ve seen one shared heal and one unique heal per class since launch, and four new traits added to each class, in two years. I want to see a dozen new traits per class, I want to see a dozen new skills, per two-year period. I want to see a fix to Condition Damage that allows it to do 100% damage against zergged enemies and world bosses. I want to see Precursor crafting, Ascended Jewelery and Cooking. I want to see a new set of Legendaries added, to give some variety to players that might want a Legendary bow that doesn’t shoot unicorns, or a Legendary pistol that it’s a party-popper.

I understand that these features would come at a development cost and I’m willing to pay it, if you need a paid expansion to make these changes viable, go right ahead, but make it happen.

Yes, the living world counts, but no, it’s not sufficient.

Seconded. LS can be very good but it will never be (by itself) good enough.

calyx.9086:

Arrow.4619:

No, I don’t think so. Keep it gone. The major issue I had with it was many classes have what can be best described as “inadequate” or “minimal” boon stripping ability (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon). Only the Necromancer and Mesmer stand out for boon stripping.

Let me introduce you to thief sword/dagger.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Larcenous_Strike

Look ma, spammable boon stripping on a class that actually deals solid dps.

:) My main is a thief. Spent many hours earning the majority of the 16,000+ AP I have playing the class. I run D/D and P/P since I pretty much just PvE. You actually are reinforcing a point other posters have made. Rather than swap my ascended dagger for a crafted exotic sword or ascended sword (with a boon stripping sigil) so I could have spamable boon hate I went with what I knew best and liked the most. Just changed my tactics slightly, was a little more cautious and . . . powered through and killed them. Including the one that spawned in the Ley Line Hub you had to kill for the achievement during the LS episode (which I soloed). They were challenging but not particularly fun to fight and I noticed a lot of players simply avoided some Dry Top events where they were likely to show up (vine bridge comes to mind). If SW had Mordrem Wolves with retal as before . . . not sure very many players would show or stay.

No, I don’t think so. Keep it gone. The major issue I had with it was many classes have what can be best described as “inadequate” or “minimal” boon stripping ability (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon). Only the Necromancer and Mesmer stand out for boon stripping. On some classes I would interrupt the skill but that was still a tactic that had pretty limited impact when they were in groups. Khisanth pretty much summed it up – either you could power through the retal or you ran or died.

mXz.4512:

If you complain about something (in this case, farming) you’re basically telling everyone around who could possibly help you do achievements, to leave.

Now that farming is nerfed (because of all the complaints), there’s no swarm of people around to help do the events.
Before, it was a profitable situation, now its empty. Think before you complain.

They were pretty much zero help – the farmers wouldn’t help hold forts except on rarely – hung out at Amber and scaled things up and that was about it.

BTW – The fort defenses suck a little too much on these. The fort closes to the wp gets some well positioned arrow carts. But Amber get “cannons” with crappy range and very limited field of fire.

Wrong place for this – check either the first or second page of “Game Updates: Traits” thread in the “Guild Wars 2 Discussion” forum. Its about 61 pages of negative reaction to/feedback on the April traits change.

I think you can get rid of the big circle around the boss by killing the smaller vortices that are around the area. When I killed the small mobile crystal creatures – I grabbed the buff and then accidentally destroyed the vortex in the area – bosses’ circle disappeared. With the buff on the small vortex was instantly destroyed. It may only work work if the vortex is in the bosses’ circle. Not 100% certain since it took me to near the end of the fight to notice that I could one-shot the vortex and that broke his circle when I did it.

Or maybe it was just a coincidence – I’ll try it again tomorrow and find out . . .

You’re in “luck” you can start an entire new character and experience the NPE and the new Traits system. They’ve also made significant changes to the Personal Story, and I think some parts are still bugged. You sound like you might be ANet’s target demo for these changes. Let us know how it goes.

Guzzi – Sorry to see you go. I appreciated your posts on the forum. Let us know if you run into another good game that’s less hell-bent on imploding. I suspect its was the inattention to the traits issue that was the last straw? I’ve been reading the trait thread since its inception and commenting occasionally. Right after the April patch I saw that change to the trait system as the single biggest threat to GW2 long term and still think that’s the case. Perversely, the trait change and the NPE doesn’t have much of an impact on me since I would only make a new character at this point if ANet decided to implement a new class or race in game. Would love it if that happened but I’m not expecting to happen. Like the change to Megaserver drove out a lot of RPers, those changes (traits+NPE) drove out a lot of Altaholics. Not quite as much fun playing a game that’s slowly killing itself by driving off portions of its player base.

A tale for the vociferous defenders of ANet’s decision-making prowess: I was playing the “Mad King Says” event last Saturday. With all of about 10 other players. I remember playing GW1 near the end of the new content and there were ALWAYS seas of people playing that holiday event. Keep in mind that GW1 at that point had a tremendous number of things you could do (three expansions in after several years). At that point in GW1 people had choices, lots of play what they want choices, but they still showed up to play “Mad King Says.” Megaserver delivered 10 whole people for that event in GW2 on the Saturday afternoon after Halloween.

I question ANet’s decisions because I play the game and see the impact their decisions have had on it. I suspect my turn to be part of the “sacrificed for the good of the game player base” will come sometime in 2015 when ANet yet again fails to release any expansion content . . .

minbariguy.7504:

You get the idea. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is it considered good communication or effective customer expectation management to allow an issue to sit and stew for months without an update. Please feel free to correct me with a source.

And again, Gaile, this is not directed at you. This is a deeply ingrained flaw in your company’s business ideology that continues to frustrate many of your customers and severely compromise the potential of a relationship built on trust and respect. The longer it continues, the less likely my continued customer loyalty becomes.

+1 each second of every day the ANet communication policy remains in place

Gregori.5807:

Brtiva.9721:

I play one other game and had 3 friends who joined me here in gw2 when I started playing gw2. They stopped; having joined after me they have several characters affected by the trait change and they lost interest. They simply don’t like it.

Perhaps they are an example of many people who dislike it. You see, they never posted here. They simply gave up when the fun was gone.

We were playing our other game last night, and gw2 came up. Their advice to 2 other people with whom we were playing? Don’t waste your time with gw2, they made awful changes to the game.

Anet has no clue how many sales they are losing. I know, for a fact, that I have cost Anet quite a few customers just by showing prospective buyers this thread and by them telling their friends, etc.

Us vocal ones are the minority. Most of the customer hemorrhage are certainly coming from those who quietly leave the game in disgust… and tell their friends.

Brtiva.9721:

I logged in gw2 this morning, as every so often I return for a short bit. I was actually told that only noobs need the “OP traits” by some “pro gamer” (he/she said pro gamers do not need the crutch of traits) . It has gotten very weird in the game.

In addition, I noted players still having no traits. I make it a point to talk to friendly players and see what they think, say, how they feel. Those who began after the patch just seem to feel that traits are optional extras. They have no builds, really.

A while back, I met someone who had placed points in the various trait lines, and had no traits. Just the minor adepts in each line….I was informed this was the “balanced build” that people should be using if they know how to play. I did not argue, I am just interested in how this has affected things.

I just cannot see this as a good thing.

^^This is scary. Whelp, maybe that’s why I am having better luck in WvW in my exotic gear w/ ascended trinkets. And here I thought I was getting better.

I have a feeling one day the few remaining veteran players with BiS gear (full ascended) and actual builds (with real synergy between equipment, traits and skills) will be looked at as “gods walking amongst mere mortals” even if they are mediocre or just marginally above average players. What a sad state of affairs.

Serophous.9085:

So when people rush through the expansion and start complaining about being bored after a month, need a new expansion again right?

Yes. Grow or die. The choice is simple.

All of the white knights going on about how the customers (not players – everyone needs to start seeing themselves as Anet’s paying customers not just “fans” or “players”) are the reason ANet shouldn’t expand or won’t expand the game are being foolish. Of course customers will complain – some will always complain no matter what. So what. Dealing with complaining customers is part of the business. Period. You don’t like that part of the business – tough kitten either learn to deal with it and accept that truth or find another job. If you do that you might also recognize a simple truth: All too frequently complaining customers are actually right . . .

My fear is that ANet may have made a bad decision (no expansion just LS) and would rather stick with it than ever admit their “vision” or “direction” or “leadership” was less than stellar. Its always good to experiment but its also good to understand that sometimes things are the way the are for fundamentally sound reasons. Other MMOs seem to get this – regardless of whatever else they get right or wrong – and at least try to grow.