Guild Wars 2

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Again, remember our experiences with earlier MMO expansions. And I’ll say it . . . a lot of our new players are first-timers from World of Warcraft. Now compare the content released from those expansions to Heart of Thorns.

For me the argument would be that the price of a WoW expansion only allows you to play it for a month. In order to play that expansion for a year you would pay the $60 or so plus an additional $165 for a total of $225.

WoW expansion cost = $225.
GW2 expansion cost = $60.

I do not care for HoT, but the price seems pretty reasonable to me.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

It also told a lot of those people not to bother with Justice League and Wonder Woman. Especially given their experience with Dawn of Justice too. Heart of Thorns also sold a lot of units. But does anyone seriously believe ANet will sell as many with the next expansion given our past experience?

That’s kind of the point of the Suicide Squad reference.

It’s also the reason I cannot wait for Guardians of the Galaxy 2!

I was under the impression that HoT did not sell well. Suicide Squad did. As to how many people have been convinced to not see future DC movies…we are all free to speculate.

People lime to mitch and boan. Its all talk. Smoke. But they have expressed in a truly concrete manner, with their wallets, how they feel about both HoT (poor sales) and SS (not poor sales).

Personally I think both should have been better, but we will see how the sequels go.

Moonyeti.3296:

Ashen.2907:

Moonyeti.3296:

Ashen.2907:

Silmar Alech.4305:

Djinn.9245:

When someone who is the equivalent of a NATO Commander decides to work with people, he can’t just pull some college student into his group without people asking questions (normally). And what would really happen is that the Asura would deal with the situation. Whether that would end up better or worse isn’t what I’m concerned with.

You are an agent from the Arcane Council, aren’t you? You report to Phlunt. You have as much imagination as the Arcane Council: none, apparently. For you, it is not RIGHT that a 15 year old child builds his own golem and designs part of the logistics behind the fight against an elder dragon. For you, it cannot be what MUST not be.

But, it is written in the script. There is precedent in (fantasy) history. It fits the story. It doesn’t violate nature laws or story continuity. She has a nice personality and a fault that balances her ingenuity.

There is one thing a child of this age is missing in comparison to an adult: the sense of responsibility. The ability to see the consequences of own actions and take responsibility for it with all consequences.

Because of this, in real life, you don’t want a child in a serious business. But in our story, we are not in a serious business. It’s all fantasy. If it were a serious business, we ourselves would not enter the jungle and approach Mordremoth without any clue how to defeat him. Remember: we found his weak spot as late as in the last mission. Instead, in real life, we would set up research about the elder dragons. Something the Arcance Council and the 3 orders do, and the Inquest. For years.

But we are the heroes, we go straight into the fight. And we win. That’s because we are the heroes, and Taimi is part of our heroship. Because of that she is as believable as we all.

In this regard, she is even more believable than ourselves as pact commander: Taimi in fact does perform research before she requests actions. We instead, we always went straight into action. We are the pact commander and let the fleet perish in the jungle – that’s nothing a commander with any responsibility would let happen in real life.

Are we still the pact commander? I thought someone else bore that title, and responsibility for the fleet’s destruction.

No longer the pact commander (though we keep the commander title) but we were still pact commander when Mordy took out the fleet, so some of the responsibility goes to us still.

My mistake then. I thought that Trahearne had commanded the fleet.

Trehearne was Pact Marshal – Top dog of the pact. We were the next tier below him, his right hand men / women. So yeah, Trehearne bears more responsibility than the commander for the fleet destruction, but obviously we played a part in that decision.

If our boss took personal command then the responsibility lies with him.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

virus.4370:

Hype and Communication is OK..but content draws people the more great content you have..the more people will cover it.?..if it wasn’t for gws1 ..i would have never got gws2 it wasn’t the hype,bloggers, and youtubers, it was all gws 1 that made me pick gws 2. gws 1 never hyped, it was all about content and story.

Bingo. Word-of-mouth creates the biggest buzz. You can have fantastic trailers and hype, but if your product fails to deliver . . . well . . . people will let you know.

Looking at you, Suicide Squad.

What people, the movie going public, let the makers of Suicide Squad know was that it was worth a 750 million dollar box office.

Moonyeti.3296:

Ashen.2907:

Silmar Alech.4305:

Djinn.9245:

When someone who is the equivalent of a NATO Commander decides to work with people, he can’t just pull some college student into his group without people asking questions (normally). And what would really happen is that the Asura would deal with the situation. Whether that would end up better or worse isn’t what I’m concerned with.

You are an agent from the Arcane Council, aren’t you? You report to Phlunt. You have as much imagination as the Arcane Council: none, apparently. For you, it is not RIGHT that a 15 year old child builds his own golem and designs part of the logistics behind the fight against an elder dragon. For you, it cannot be what MUST not be.

But, it is written in the script. There is precedent in (fantasy) history. It fits the story. It doesn’t violate nature laws or story continuity. She has a nice personality and a fault that balances her ingenuity.

There is one thing a child of this age is missing in comparison to an adult: the sense of responsibility. The ability to see the consequences of own actions and take responsibility for it with all consequences.

Because of this, in real life, you don’t want a child in a serious business. But in our story, we are not in a serious business. It’s all fantasy. If it were a serious business, we ourselves would not enter the jungle and approach Mordremoth without any clue how to defeat him. Remember: we found his weak spot as late as in the last mission. Instead, in real life, we would set up research about the elder dragons. Something the Arcance Council and the 3 orders do, and the Inquest. For years.

But we are the heroes, we go straight into the fight. And we win. That’s because we are the heroes, and Taimi is part of our heroship. Because of that she is as believable as we all.

In this regard, she is even more believable than ourselves as pact commander: Taimi in fact does perform research before she requests actions. We instead, we always went straight into action. We are the pact commander and let the fleet perish in the jungle – that’s nothing a commander with any responsibility would let happen in real life.

Are we still the pact commander? I thought someone else bore that title, and responsibility for the fleet’s destruction.

No longer the pact commander (though we keep the commander title) but we were still pact commander when Mordy took out the fleet, so some of the responsibility goes to us still.

My mistake then. I thought that Trahearne had commanded the fleet.

Silmar Alech.4305:

Djinn.9245:

When someone who is the equivalent of a NATO Commander decides to work with people, he can’t just pull some college student into his group without people asking questions (normally). And what would really happen is that the Asura would deal with the situation. Whether that would end up better or worse isn’t what I’m concerned with.

You are an agent from the Arcane Council, aren’t you? You report to Phlunt. You have as much imagination as the Arcane Council: none, apparently. For you, it is not RIGHT that a 15 year old child builds his own golem and designs part of the logistics behind the fight against an elder dragon. For you, it cannot be what MUST not be.

But, it is written in the script. There is precedent in (fantasy) history. It fits the story. It doesn’t violate nature laws or story continuity. She has a nice personality and a fault that balances her ingenuity.

There is one thing a child of this age is missing in comparison to an adult: the sense of responsibility. The ability to see the consequences of own actions and take responsibility for it with all consequences.

Because of this, in real life, you don’t want a child in a serious business. But in our story, we are not in a serious business. It’s all fantasy. If it were a serious business, we ourselves would not enter the jungle and approach Mordremoth without any clue how to defeat him. Remember: we found his weak spot as late as in the last mission. Instead, in real life, we would set up research about the elder dragons. Something the Arcance Council and the 3 orders do, and the Inquest. For years.

But we are the heroes, we go straight into the fight. And we win. That’s because we are the heroes, and Taimi is part of our heroship. Because of that she is as believable as we all.

In this regard, she is even more believable than ourselves as pact commander: Taimi in fact does perform research before she requests actions. We instead, we always went straight into action. We are the pact commander and let the fleet perish in the jungle – that’s nothing a commander with any responsibility would let happen in real life.

Are we still the pact commander? I thought someone else bore that title, and responsibility for the fleet’s destruction.

Obtena.7952:

scorchbomb.3750:

TL;DR I feel GW2 game lacks a way to level in PvE that rewards skilled gameplay.

For PVE? That’s partly correct … you can get through most PVE by pressing 1. Where you are wrong is that the idea that lacking this game mode indicates that it’s needed or Anet tried to put it in and failed. I see nothing that convinces me that there was any attempt to put solo content in open world that would challenge even the most base players.

I think the argument here is that it’s not really necessary in modern MMO’s, or probably ever was. I don’t know too many games where leveling rewards skilled gameplay to begin with, since most games don’t want to exclude players from the most common denominator among players. I mean, imagine getting STUCK leveling at some low level, just knowing it’s the common element of the whole game. Pretty discouraging.

Honestly, the whole idea of ‘leveling’ is something I wish MMO’s would just dump. it’s a throwback and is holding devs back from creating a truly progressive open world that is limited ONLY by the player, not the game. Levels are so artificial.

Pretty much all of this.

castlemanic.3198:

I want a mainhand pistol for my mesmer, i’ve been dying for one ever since vanilla launch. No matter how unlikely it may be, I desperately want it.

Secondary choices are warhorn guardian, scepter/focus/greatsword/longbow revenant, scepter/focus thief.

tertiary is basically attempting to find lore reasons to match every weapon with every class (even if I may disagree with some like pistols/rifle for ranger).

EDIT: what’s with the bunny/hammer thing? i’ve seen that twice in this thread and don’t know what that’s about.

There was a popular buuld in gw1 for rangers called the, “bunny thumper,” which utilized the hammer.

Crinn.7864:

They actually fixed this problem to some degree in the expansion zones, where mobs have mechanics to them that the player is expected to counter.

Sadly most player’s response to this was to whine how “hard” it was.

They did add more challenge in HoT, but the OP is commenting on challenge, “while leveling,,” for the most part.

FrizzFreston.5290:

All content has an experiration date. SAB is mostly a linear platformer with very minor MMO reward structure. You can easily get all the non timegated rewards and still have tons of baubles left unspend.

It’s like saying you need something to spend your rupees on in any Zelda-game at the end of the game and running over the map killing every possible monster three times over.

If anything, there’s nothing for you to get from SAB anymore at this point and you can play it more and more and more, but it’s not going to offer you any rewards this year. Wait for the next year, and if they don’t have anything added then play the new stuff (if any) and then stop playing it if it doesn’t reward you.

If the currency is trash then trash it.

Or of course, try to do that one tribulation mode achievement. You technically do have 11,250 lives to waste in SAB.

but otherwise, there’s nothing to get for baubles that holds your interest. (no surprise really, it’s a april fools event, not everything is useful, and most things are just for subjective fun)

Very much this.

GW2 is a solid game with quite a bit of content for the price. I think that it is well worth giving a shot.

ANet will make the decision based on information that we do not have. In the end it will be a matter of return on investment. A race change token that takes X hours of dev resources needs to not only generate more revenue than the cost, but also more revenue than whatever else could have been produced for that cost.

I think that it might be profitable, but only ANet can possibly know. Past dev comments against the idea need to be taken with a grain of salt though as priorities and business realities do evolve over time. There have been plenty of changes to the game that contradict past dev statements.

Interesting stuff OP.

Very glad to see devs take note as well.

Dawdler.8521:

Do you think I enjoyed spending months farming and getting masteries? kitten no. It was tedious as kitten.

Do you think that, “tedious as kitten,” is what our paid entertainment should provide?

Facepalm indeed.

I like the idea of spears for land use because of the aesthetics of spear and shield, and the hope that work done on them for water use would make them easier to bring into play than an entirely new weapon type.

Amaimon.7823:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I don’t know how this became a ‘mount’ thread, but…

I think players might be disappointed if mounts were introduced. There is much talk about ‘collecting’ them. Well, it would likely be like Glider skins; almost exclusively Gem Store-only. So, yes, it might be a source of income, but not the way some might imagine.

Personally, I think I’d rather resources go toward something else; regardless, it is ArenaNet’s choice and I’m fine with that.

Every “what do we want” thread becomes a “1 person says they want mounts, and 10 people explaing why that is simply not feasible”

Of course those explaining that its not feasible are mistaken.

Perhaps not a good idea.

Not something that is of particular interest to me.

Potentially very expensive.

Likely to be disappointing because, based on the pattern set with gliders, mounts seem likely to be gem store items if ever implemented.

But certainly feasible.

Why people are mad is not particularly relevant. The topic is behavior.

Because when it is good it is truly amazing.

Very little in such matters is impossible. The real question is whther or not it should happen. There are always costs of some sort associated with any change or addition to the game.

Donari.5237:

Shanna.4762:

Remember when GW2 had content updates? Me either.

Yes I do! My memory reaches waaaaaay back to February 8, 2017. 65 long days ago, when we were younger and more care free and GW2 took us to the then-new land of Lake Doric. Those were the good old days of content, I must say. You younger sorts don’t know what you missed.

Ok, that was funny.

But you forgot to yell at us to get off your lawn.

OT: thank you for the heads up MO.

Last night I was headed for a monument to cap for the daily when I saw an “enemy” player or two closing in. I entered the colored border and turned, prepared to fight for my cap if necessary.

They stopped outside of the monument, one sitting while the other bowed. I returned the bow, capped the shrine, and went on about my business.

I kind of felt bad about dropping an array of traps while they approached, before it became clear that they did not intend to fight.

We are all in this together. Every one of us against the demon RNG. Some, certainly, to a lesser extent than others. Pinging a good drop is sharing the good news that our side won a battle against the demon. Rejoice in OUR victory and be heartened that more such victories may come, and be shared, in the future.

Wondrouswall.7169:

You know what they should rename instead?

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

“Strength of the Pack!” back to “Rampage as One!”

Agreed.

Retreat and Save Yourselves are being shouted at the enemy because the player and allies are about to charge in with buffs on.

AliamRationem.5172:

Any chance you want to extend the Super Adventure festival to cover the gap a bit better?

Seems like a reasonable request.

The genre of the game has already undergone some degree of alteration. I am not certain that tying story progression behind another such change would be well received. If this was delivered outside of main story progression I would be fine with the survival elements.

Sounds like it could be a new WvW (ish) map.

Fatalyz.7168:

Blaeys.3102:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

the introduction of Raids is where GW2 lost its identity. welcome back holy trinity.

In fairness, they seem to be backing off reliance on tank/healer/dps, even in raids. Most fights no longer require a tank.

That said, raids – in the form they chose to introduce them – were definitely the primary catalyst behind the shift in how the game plays and is perceived (and not in a good way).

Specifically, raids have moved endgame to a more mathematical, rather than character or experience based, style of play. While some people enjoy that, it most definitely isn’t what we saw in the first 4 years of the game. For many, that is depressing.

I know a lot of people will say that “you just dont have to do raids,” but I think that is shortsighted. As I explained above, players need to feel like the hero of the story. When you take that away from them, the game is going to feel less exciting – thus the “identity change.”

(and, to anticipate the typical response – it has been taken away unless you are willing to compromise how you enjoy playing – basically the core identity of your character)

And yet, it has been proven that it is not as mathematical as you make it out to be, see people low-manning or running in Green gear. Yes, they have mastered the mechanics of the raid, as well as their class, that is the point. You are intended to master your class and the mechanics of the raid, to beat it.

Are you suggesting people shouldn’t have to master their class (however they choose to play it) and master the mechanics?

It is mathematical, its just that the required minimum numbers arent as high as some believe.

To me regen is about rewarding active defensive play through maneuver, mobility, and the like.

By moving in a manner to reduce opponents’ rates of attack, using dodges effectively, and various temporary invulnerability options, incoming damage is reduced sufficiently, often, to allow regen to act as an ongoing means of dulling the edge of incoming damage. It seems intended to work in conjunction with other defensive capabilities rather than on its own. It would lose much of its appeal to me if turned into yet another burst heal.

Haven’t run into this one yet (my other preferred game has more and better aerial movement options) but I’ve died trying to dodge in a game that doesn’t have that option.

AliamRationem.5172:

Wow. A lot of responses about how it would become boring. But isn’t that true of any content? I mean I’m pretty bored of Queensdale. How would you guys feel about making access to that map restricted to an annual 3 week festival? Raids seem pretty repetitive, too. Festival. How about PvP? Only one game mode over and over again. Festival time!

As for rewards artificially adding replay value? Show me the content that stands on its own with no rewards. Rewards are used in the exact same way across pretty much every type of content we have.

Not that any of this indicates that we MUST make SAB full-time and expand upon it. But how about letting individuals decide for themselves how fun and rewarding it is, huh?

Is anyone asking for dev resources to be diverted to a major investment in queensdale?

Frediosz.2718:

Alex Shatter.7956:

During the first 2-3 years of this game, the festivals were the strongest. Halloween had story progression, and SAB was new and carried novelty. Obviously, festivals are now being rolled out without changes or preparation. But it’s hard to blame Anet when they are clearly devoting their resources to more important, year-round permanent content like raids, new legendaries and fractal content.

No, if anet would be smart about it, they would take few people to work on festivals only as well. Otherwise remove them completly from the game and do not bother with them if you cant finish them off.

Alex Shatter.7956:

Think about it- what was there to do in this game before HoT? Basically the festivals and wait around for LS episodes. HoT added massive amounts of end game content that need resources to maintain, and my guess is that’s why we don’t have as many festivals.

Massive amounts of end game content, eh?
Like what ?
1 and 1/4th raid? Legendary weapons ? fractal ? 4 unoptimized maps or maybe new elite specs ?

As to raid i might agree, it’s a endgame content even though they are done in the worst way possible with outdated mechanics, for sure but rest isn’t.

Legenadries are something that is identical to ascended gear and only about 5% better then rare gear with the ability to swap stats which is something not really awesome since there is a thing called meta. Though it might be useful if ever meta would change in which i doubt. I call them more of a convenience and would not dare to call them end game content.

Fractals – slight changes were made there but it’s more about QOL then endgame, only that new fractal might be called endgame – still it’s only a fraction of whole. Plus fractals were here before hot and hot alone added 1.

Maps – meta maps which not only are plagued by closing you also have everything timed and you need to have a kitten load of people for those meta events. As for endgame thing you would expect to be crowded with people – they are not, most of the time you’ll find a handful of people on them farming flax or other kittenz.

Now my favorite – elite specs.
They nearly destroyed endgame – PvP and WvW. Fact that they are way more powerful then regular ones almost killed PvP and WvW by making them pay-to-win.
A player that was all about competitive gameplay against other players and didn’t care about PvE shenanigans would not buy HoT and therefore they were f at the very start.

You would not believe how many of my friends did quit because they refued to pay 60buck only to be able to have elite specs to their disposal to PvP.

WvW is f-up beyond all repair – dead and there is only HoT to blame for with it’s free to play GW2 policy which stuffed all WvW with fake accounts instead of creating separate servers for them. (but i don’t think you would understand why im telling this unless you are WvW player that used TS)

And why do i consider PvP and WvW as only real endgame content ? Because no matter what, programmed NPC enemies will always be predictable and a real human won’t – it’s the very peak of end game.

Lastly about waiting for LS episodes – it’s still the same, only two things had changed:
1)the scale of LS. We went from epic things like Molten invasion, evacuation of LA, retaking of LA, Tower of nightmares and Benchmaker to basically 2h of talkshow with little action – i know – new maps sob sob but there is nothing to do there. And repeating story is my arch-nemesis with it’s unskipable dialogues which if i would have to listen to on my every character i would go out on killing spree – so no, im not repeating any of the new story, no f-ing way.
2)meanwhile waiting for new episode I was playing WvW which is now destroyed so no WvW for me here to kill some time, raid completed and i won’t bother with it’s half-bottom mechanics taken out straight from 17th century games. Now i only logon do the story when it comes and logoff ain’t even bothering to login during halloween or wintersday anymore since nothing new to do there.

Alex Shatter.7956:

Although I would like for Anet to step up their festival game, I don’t consider the recent lack of attention to festivals a “failure”

I do consider it a failure. If you start something that you can’t finish it’s sure ain’t a succes.

Legendary and ascended gear are only 5% better than rare?

I suppose that there is always the option to expand upon all of the seasonal content in the game, but other than SAB, a niche mini game developed by one dev in his free time originally and then expanded upon as a gesture by the dev team to the community, what is not finished about festivals in GW2?

They seem fairly finished to me.

I always enjoyed the april fools gimmicks in gw1 and the first years of gw2…for a while. Then they lost their appeal. Generally I would have fun with the gimmick (chibi Gwen was my fave) for long enough to take a few screen sbots, get my friends to log in, show off to my wife…and then go back to playing.

In all honesty it was amusing for about as long as are tbe patch notes (which I do enjoy very much). I guess my point is that joke patch notes are pretty much on par with tbe events for me. I enjoy both, but wont mourn the event….except chibi Gwen.

Auralae.7482:

Feanor.2358:

Auralae.7482:

Less emphasis on mega guilds and group content. More content for solo and groups under 5.

It’s a MMO bro. Sounds like you’re seeking content typically found in single-player RPGs.

Not a “bro,” dude but thanks. I’m also aware of what an MMO is. I’ve been playing them since UO and every single one has had plenty of content for groups under 5 and guilds that aren’t 100+, so get a new line because that one is long played out.

On a positive note, the vast majority of content in GW2 is just fine for solo or small group play.

Can you give an example of content designed exclusively for guilds with over 100 members?

Not a matter of fault, rather one of communication and/or expectations.

If you know that you have long load times, for whatever reason, its a good idea to let your group know. If they are intending a fast run, they should let you know that the additional load times will be a problem.

Everything after the tutorial instance is a coma hallucination. Our characters are some nobody who got hit on the head and dreamed of a rise to fame and fortune. Come on, really, could the pact, and its supposed veteran members and leadership really be so inept? Just waiting for us to come along and make everything right…

Orpheal.8263:

I would find it very good as part of working agaisnt Gold Inflation, Gold Sellers ect. if Anet would introduce into this Game more Gold Caps.

Example.

Player Characters should have on their Characters never more than say 1000 Gold
Account Chests should have never more than maximum 10000 Gold

The Gold Cap for Trading Post Offers should get significantly reduced, now Item should be able to be placed there basically with 10k.
That cap should have gotten already reduced a lognm time ago down from 10k to maximum 1k

by limiting significantly the maximum amoutn of gold a character can have with him and how much you can own maximum as account would drstically improve the economy of this game and reduce gold inflation and would work massively agaisnt Gold Sellers, if players can’t have anymore unlimitless Gold as logn they pay real money for it, either legally through the gemstore or ilegally with RMT sites on the internet from Gold Sellers.

People would learn to re-value items in the game then better, and the gold cap would work also against the greed of some players, which think only because the got something rare, that they can become this way instantly rich by selling something in the TP for absurd high amounts of gold in the hope to find some kind of lazy idiot that has just way more than enough gold to buy it from the TP due to daddys credit card or due to TP flipping all day long and destroying the market this way for alot of other players for their personal gains and driving further this way the gold inflation wheel infinitely.

This kind of rich player club lobbyism you see occuring in MMROPGS quickly is it, which creates also gold inflation, where the rich get only richer and richer and those, which can’t follow, get left behind in the dust and stay too poor to be ever able to get the thigns they want in the game, unless they get their credit cards out as well and buy gems to turn them into gold.

GW1 had this kind of strong Gold Caps as far as much I can remember and it would be very good for GW2 to return to these strong Gold Caps.
Strogn Gold Caps also help the game economy, because alot more gold will become this way naturally quicker flowing, because you are much more likely to spent gold on something, if your next farming tour is most likely to bring you to hit your Gold Cap of either your character or your account completely, instead of gamers playing hamsters and constantly trying to save gold only to become richer and richer, instead of using it for either something or helping with it somebody, that can make use of it,. so that enough gold sinks in the game, what will work against gold inflation.
Gold has to be used and needs to sink equally good and fast out of the economy as like new gold is created so that the marked stays stable.
If one side is unbalanced and in case money is always faster created, than it sinks out of the game, then its just natural that gold inflation will happen.

So the most effective medicine agaisnt gold inflation would be to cap more gold for players and to incentivate players better to spent the gold in the game more constantly, because peopel will do so by nature, if they are likely to hit a cap otherwise, just not to waste their gold they have, until they just can’t gain no more gold due to a cap.

There is only an account gold storage option. Individual characters do not hold money any longer.

The hard caps you mention would only push the game into an alternate currency barter system. You mention GW1 but seem to forget that all trade in anything of real value was conducted using non capped materials in addition to or instead of gold. The rich player would stockpile ectos (I had dozens of stacks myself) in order to buy valuable items. Seeing items advertised for 100k +50e or something of the sort was the norm.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ashen.2907:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

I spent well over the 4500 gems mentioned, as in double, attempting to get the two minipet tickets that would allow me to buy an avian minipet. I got one ticket, insufficient for one of the only minipets in the game that interest me…and absolutely nothing else of value to me. I understand that encouraging their customers to gamble can be more profitable than offering a desirable product for direct sale, but it can also have consequences. Encouraging people to not spend money on gems at all, for example.

I’m sorry that your experience was miserable. Does that negate the experience from a huge number of people who didn’t spend a thing to get theirs?

Again, I’m favor of ANet reducing the risk of opening 50 without a sword. I just don’t think it’s as simple as accusing ANet of encouraging people to gamble with real money.

I wi be honest here in admitting that I was, and am, unaware of a means of getting the minis without spending anything. Personally I spent about 1500 gold as well as real money (around $100) hoping to get enough tickets for at least one minipet.

Did I miss another option?

The thing is that it is about encouraging people to gamble because people will spend more, incrementally, on gamble chances than they would otherwise have been willing to pay for a given item. That is the entire point of the gamble box trend in games.

I did not buy HoT at release, only deciding to do so when LS seemed to be approaching.

Is it possible that revenue is down more due to a lack of desirable items in the gemstore than to a problem with HoT sales this long after release?

The ability to pay for gem store items, in part or in full, with in game earned currency rather than just real world money means that they are always on sale, sort of.

Astralporing.1957:

OniGiri.9461:

Interesting. You and everyone you know stopped playing – but you still care enough to be on the games forums.

Yes, that’s the really sad part of the changes. Among People that left there were many that really cared about the game.

Miellyn.6847:

This got added with the introduction of ascended weapons, you are still four years too late. Switching stats without switching the rune or sigil is worthless most of the time.
This was a non-issue when weapons got it and now with armor it is evil?

Because, as has been alreadymentioned, the problem is not the armor, but it’s acquisition method.

If the problem is not the armor, but rather the acquisition method, then go about acquiring different armor with a method that appeals to you.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

I spent well over the 4500 gems mentioned, as in double, attempting to get the two minipet tickets that would allow me to buy an avian minipet. I got one ticket, insufficient for one of the only minipets in the game that interest me…and absolutely nothing else of value to me. I understand that encouraging their customers to gamble can be more profitable than offering a desirable product for direct sale, but it can also have consequences. Encouraging people to not spend money on gems at all, for example.

Acrisor.8097:

I hate copy/paste too. Too much reforging in this game. Developers should be more creative in my personal opinion.

Argument “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it” does not stand. Players should have the incentive to buy those virtual items. If players do not like the content, they will leave the game, and what is now “don’t buy it” will become “don’t play it”. The game will desolate and the community will scatter in time (like it already does?).

I am not saying copy/paste should be avoided at all costs, but new content should outweigh reforging and revamping, by an extremely high percentage, since the percentages of players and guilds from GW1 are not that high as we may think.

Not to mention accounts who post on these forums are a very small percentage from active game accounts, and even a smaller percentage from all game accounts. Listening to only a few players requests, some from GW1 used with forums and chat, is extremely bad for business.

To survive in those fast economic days , any product has to always come with something new, creative, never seen before, never thought before, using “out of the box” thinking. I hate to copy from other people thinking and make it my own idea, I hate not evolving into something new and interesting and unique.

If many players are not from gw1, as you imply, then gw1 skins are new to them.

Remember to move and to dodge. Mobility is important and the game is often balanced around the assumption that you will be actively avoiding damage rather than just taking and shrugging it off.

Hmm, if we are going to attire asuran as humans perhaps we could make them taller, change their facial features, and even change the skin tone options as well.

Pifil.5193:

I’m reminded of Spinal Tap’s “but this one goes up to eleven” bit.

I was thinking the same thing.

I agree with the OP. I preferred the original name as well.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Since day one the game has gated rewards that interested me behind content that didnt. Armor that incorporated elements not to be found elsewhere in the game are gated behind content that doesnt interest me at all.

But none of that content has the same overhead as raids and very few of those rewards “do something” other rewards don’t.

There are cool looking skins in the game, but they don’t animate when you go into combat. That’s more than just a skin. That’s a thing that nothing else in the game does.

Let’s say you wanted exotic gear. Easy to get. Many ways. You may like a particular skin but there’s no shortage of other skins.

There will be in the game one set of armor that animates in combat.

And then there’s the issue of the buy in. How much you have to do to get any of the other stuff. If I want a legendary weapon, running a dungeon 9 times (and 5 nowadays) is much much easier than every beating a single raid once. Not just in the ease of the content, but in the ability to get into a group, the time needed to invest to set up.

I never had to look at metas to get into dungeon groups or beat dungeons and I never needed to depend on finding a dedicated healer. Ever. Not once. Didn’t need a healer for Arah, didn’t need a healer for TA Aetherblade path, but it’s very hard to do a raid with healing, if possible at all for most people.

At the end of the day the buy in for raids to get this is too high, in spite of the fact that I really want it. But I won’t raid to get it, and that is a problem. Because there’s no alternative path to get it and there’s nothing else in the game that does the same thing.

Even with legendary backpacks they provided a PvP and PvE path.

Animation on armor is a cosmetic flourish not inherently better or worse than any other cosmetic option on another armor set.

Those other rewards that you say, “dont do anything,” do actually do something…they appeal to people who might very well want them but not enjoy the content that gates them.

Again, the game has ALWAYS gated rewards that are desirable to some behind content that is unpalatable to them. Details regarding what specific cosmetic option is desired and what details of the gating content are unpalatable are just that…details. Details that add up to the basic truth…the game gates many cosmetic rewards behind specific content.

That isnt to say that those details wont matter to a given player, but it seems off, to me, to define the game’s identity as having changed, not because rewards are now starting to be gated, because they always have been, but rather because one desires a specific reward and does not want to play through its gating content.

Its not that the identity has changed due to legendary armor and raids, its that some people werent affected by specific rewards or ther gating mechanisms in the past and so didnt care. But, now that they see the combination of a rewards they might desire and content they dont enjoy, its a big deal.

Essentially the game’s identity was just fine as long as only other players were being affected by reward gating, but as soon as they were affected it was some drastic, awful, game changing identity alteration.

Since day one the game has gated rewards that interested me behind content that didnt. Armor that incorporated elements not to be found elsewhere in the game are gated behind content that doesnt interest me at all.

If regen outhealed incoming damage it would be completely overpowered to the point of breaking the game.

If you have 16k health, and mobs hit for 1k (as mentioned in the OP), and mobs hit every 2 seconds, and your regen ticked for the less than 400 mentioned in the OP (lets use 300) then:

It would take 32 seconds for 1k per hit (every 2 seconds) to ablate the 16k health pool. In that 32 seconds the 300 per second regen would restore 9600 health, requiring the mob to spend another 20 seconds to ablate, during which time regen would restore an additional 6k health, requiring the mob to spend an additional 12 seconds to ablate, during which time regen would restore 3600 health, requiring the mob to spend an additional 8 seconds to ablate. During which time regen would restore 2400 health, requiring the mob to spend 6 seconds to ablate, during which time regen would restore 1800 health, requiring the mob to spend 4 seconds to ablate, during which time regen would restore 1200 health, requiring the mob to spend 2 seconds to ablate, during which time regen would restore 600 health, requiring the mob to spend 1 second to ablate….

at this point, assuming that the character has not dodged or avoided any attack in any way, has not used their healing skill, has not killed their attacker, etc, the character is down….after 84 seconds of doing absolutely nothing to defend himself.

How many normal mobs survive more than 3-5 seconds? How often does a character do absolutely nothing to reduce incoming damage or defeat attackers?

Ive only done this on my (melee) ranger so far. The close quarters do add a bit to the challenge. I am curious to try with one of my light armor characters.

The point of SAB is the same as the point of every other piece of content in the game…to entertain players.

It doesnt interest me, but, clearly, others enjoy it. I guess it is fulfilling its purpose.