Guild Wars 2

You make the elixir again.

Ardid.7203:

I really don’t get the objective of the penalty box. It doesn’t seems to be anything similar to that in the game. Not letting you play because you died? It feel very strange for the GW2 standard.

Yeah. It should only be active in challenge mode if at all. It’s not like the instance really scales on normal mode with more players, and it can easily be done solo, which make you wonder what it’s purpose is for. If it does get removed completely, revive orbs should be disabled on challenge mode.

You don’t need ascended for the last chapter. I did just fine with exotics with all classes except for one class which had ascended. People over-estimate just how much ascended actually does for you and especially when it comes to survivability.

The issue with updrafts may have to do with ping.

The last chapter is nowhere near the level of raids. If you think otherwise then your first raid is going to give you a heart attack.

Charged quartz has priority. Do that if you haven’t done so already, otherwise just send the quartz crystals to your bank.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Bifrost_III:_The_Legend

Also:

The first set of Jade Maw Lens items (involving using the Lens with Quartz crystals) must be completed first in order for the options at the Metal Forest hero point in the Pyrite Peninsula in Malchor’s Leap to become available.

Most things respawn in under 90 seconds. I don’t see players camping starter areas specifically for enemies. Maybe events for the daily but that’s it.

I’ve been using guild commendations and using the converter for HoT currency.

You also can get obby shards for half the karma cost by using HoT currency at any of the map vendors.

You can also farm fractal 40 and use fractal relics to buy obby shards. There will be a gold cost but that should be covered by how much you make from the farm.

There’s also SW but it’s not run as frequently as it used to be. I also haven’t seen a chest farm advertised for awhile.

JackeryFox.8012:

As stated in the title, I’d like to get the Tier 2 precursor skin which is the Perfected Rifle but from the research I’ve done it would cost around 570g to craft it while buying the Tier 3 The Hunter it would only cost around 390g.

Someone mentioned once before that if you buy a tier 3 you unlock the previous precursor skins as well so I want to be 100% sure that it’s true so I don’t waste a ton of gold.

“Unlocking one of these new skins in your wardrobe will also unlock the two previous tiers of skins. So, should you get lucky and find a precursor out in the world, you won’t miss out on the skins.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

DeanBB.4268:

The wiki shows Perfected Rifle as being account bound, so how could you buy it?

Read the rest of their post.

Why should they fix this when it’s a result of players on the other two teams choosing to do nothing about it?

You don’t get these at a large enough rate that I would think would warrant needing something that eats them.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Is there a known breakpoint for the cost of crafting a prec vs buying one? Are there any Gen1 legendaries that are still definitely over the breakpoint? I noticed The Legend is like 900g.

It changes but gw2efficiency and gw2bltc show the craft vs buy costs. They don’t account for the time it takes to do the collections though.

Just checked and a lot are cheaper to craft that before. I still don’t think it’s worth the time and hassle to do so when you can just use that time to farm gold instead.

https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/legendaries

Rednik.3809:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t follow that line of reasoning at all.

The value of adding raids to the game comes from offering a type of challenge that can’t be achieved in the rest of the game. The rest of the game needs to appeal to a wide cross-section of players; raids only need to appeal to one subset.

Fractals are already the content that can be done with whatever builds people want to bring. Raids are designed to require more attention (at least, initially). That’s fundamental to the brand.

It’s a tiny fraction of the game, a tiny fraction of the dev resources. I simply don’t see that there’s an issue that requires ANet to create an easier version.

That could be true if raids were introduced as some kind of side content. Problem is, they are introduced and promoted as an ultimate PvE endgame.
Dungeons are abandoned. Fractals are no more “GW2-style ultimate PvE endgame” as Anet promised when they abandoned dungeons, but instead “stepping stones to raid” now. Lore? Anet sees no problem with introducing lore story lines in raids now. Content? Raids got 4 wings, fractals got 2 fractals, and dungeons got… well, you know. Rewards? Yay, they added a second set of fractal skins, which is retextured first one, and one legendary backpack, against 3 full sets of legendary armor, White Mantle weaponry and other unique skins.
Even almost all PvE balance changes are being made based on raid feedback now.
A lot of people have a feeling that Anet is promoting raids as their new and only PvE endgame now. That’s why raid threads are so numerous, and so many people are concerned. It doesn’t looks like side activity.

They are side content. Just because they’re pinnacle of challenging endgame content does not mean they’re side content. You do not have to participate in raids to enjoy other areas of the game.

Just because fractals can be seen as stepping stones to raids, this doesn’t diminish what fractals offer to players. There are many things in games that are stepping stones to other things within the games. It’s a sense of progression.

There’s nothing wrong with introducing lore storylines in raids. Raids wouldn’t make that much sense without some story to tie everything together. People still give Anet flak for no stories about the elite specializations or Revenant. Do you think they wouldn’t complain about the same thing if raids were just nothing but a bunch of random encounters?

Yes, raids got 4 wings. We also got four living story episodes that each contained a map. So what’s your point? Raids are still a very small part of the game meant for those that wanted a challenge. Yes, raids have unique rewards but what areas of the game don’t?

No, PvE balances are not all based on raids. Some things will be more prone to need to be changed because of how they are in raids but are not a large issue in the rest of the game. It’s really no different than how some things were changed because of their impact in fractals but weren’t a large issue in open world PvE.

Raid threads are not really all that more numerous. I’ve actually seen more mounts threads but that doesn’t mean the game needs mounts. There are those that want to experience the story which you can for the most part in cleared instances. Cleared instance isn’t enough because they consider fighting the bosses as part of the experience but they want it brought down to their level. This would also be a waste of resources as players would likely only play the story mode once like for dungeons. Then there are those that want an easy mode because they want the loots but without having to put in the effort to earn them.

Did they even do one last year?

I’m thinking that they may not do one since some people were unable to take a joke in 2015 with the aviator one and even disappointedly tried to use a tragic plane crash to get it removed.

It’ll tell you when you view the tooltip for the weapon.

Rambitshouse.8712:

Why was it created in the first place? Just for a pve jumping puzzle AP thing?

Probably just to have a JP on the WvW maps. Probably the same reason why the borderlands have one.

If you’re in Auric Basin, you’ll likely need to progress the story, even if it’s inactive, past that point.

Or just give a real GvG arena

Zephyra.4709:

While I appreciate the apparent proposed changes Soon™ I can’t help but die a little inside when I remember the release date of Heart of Thorns alongside the current date that ANet has decided to even consider fixing that lovely part of the game.

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns release date: 23rd October 2015
AKA: 508 days ago from today (14th March 2017)

508 days.
508 Days.
508 DAYS.

Five. Hundred. And. Eight. Days. And. It. Still. Full. O’. Bugs. Mah. Boy.

For real.

I’ve never encountered a bug in that instance other than his bar not automatically breaking at the end and needing to do it myself. I’ve done that instance at least 15 times but probably about 20. If a bug is very rare, and difficult to reproduce, it’s not unreasonable to expect it to not get fixed immediately.

Blaeys.3102:

OnizukaBR.8537:

As i said in other post, show me this comp that you tried and didnt work, and only pros would make it work.
Because its not true, if its come and show the comp or stop telling lies just because people want rewards for no effort.
I’m really far away of being a pro and i play with 180-200 ping still manage to clear raids with many kinds of builds.
The only boss that you have a lot of options but not every single build is viable ( like 10 healing tempest ) are Sabetha and Gors because Gors insta kill everyone, and Sabetha will eventually destroy the platform.

I have no clue what builds all of these people were bringing – and it doesn’t really matter.

The problem exists in game – whether you believe it to be a perception issue or not. Maybe it’s something that players could fix, but we all know how unlikely that is – even if it were possible. There are a lot of people who just don’t want to put the work into it (and, that is okay – again, its just a different way of playing the game).

As long as the perception persists, the issue will persist – and it will hurt the game (whether you think that is justified or fair or whatever – the perception will create the reality).

The answer is greater accessibility, even if you – or even the raid team – have issues with that answer. Changing gears this drastically 4 years into the game – which is what the raid model has done (even if you dont agree – perceptually, it has) – is only going to alienate players and hurt the game.

What were their skill levels? Do they know their class? Do they have much experience with the raid? There’s more than things that can cause a fail than gear/build. I’ve seen plenty of groups fail repeatedly using meta gear/builds.

All ascended provides to players is damage. It doesn’t provide nowledge of mechanics which is where most groups that fail will fail at.

Eudoxus.5302:

slashlizardy.9167:

This would be fixed if there was a different legendary armor that was obtained in PVE/PVP/or Fractals.

I really do not fully understand, why some peoples are so obsessed by the legendary armor.

Firstly, it seems that it will be incredibly expensive and time consuming to make it. According to the wiki, every part of the set will be approx. at the same price/material level as a Legendary weapon, besides those LIs from raids.

Secondly, I don’t think that the armor will be much more usefull than Ascended armor. Yes, there will be selectable stats on each piece, like Legendary weapons have. But even the possibility to change stats on weapons is not too practical, because it is not possible to change the sigils easily, because the sigil/rune extractor is an expensive one-time device from gemshop.

Technically the entire cost for the set is around the cost of a HoT legendary. The only time consuming but would be the collections it’s not really any worse than what we do for existing collections for precursors and gifts.

As you said, legendary armor won’t be as useful because you cannot change the runes. It also lacks portability in the sense that it will likely be weight bound. If you make heavy armor then only three out of nine classes can use it. Until they give sigils and runes slots independent of armor, like in sPvP, I personally don’t see a use for them unless you want the skin or are a completionist.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Ayrilana.1396:

Not really as raids are more mechanics driven than gear/build driven. Sure gear and builds are important but we’ve seen with these low-man runs, as well as those consisting of all of one class, that there’s is a decent degree of flexibility. It’s just that, like for speed running dungeons years ago, players want what’s the safest and most optimal. Just like years ago, those that do not want to conform to these standards can join a group that doesn’t stress them or create their own group.

Opening a PUG with flexible terms for a raid does not work at all. While for a dungeon thats usually more than enough. If you know the mechanics of raids well enough you definitely should know the difference between a dungeon and a raid. They are not on the same level, and just saying peole should simply open a group on their own terms is pretty much ignorant of that obvious difference.

They have similarities ofcourse, but those aren’t all encompassing of a players identification of the game. A raid is not a dungeon and both have very different “identities” and speak to very different groups of players.

Raids were designed and intended to be the most challenging content in the game for those interested in that. Instead of stepping up to the challenge, some players want it brought down to their level by means of an “easy mode”. Some use arguments such as the story, but to be honest, how many would do raids again after they’ve experienced the story? How many watch all of the cutscenes in the dungeons or even do the story modes?

Because alot of players just want more story to explore and play through. Be honest, how many players play through personal story or living world seasons more than once. Some people don’t want to repeat a possible easy mode/story mode of the raid endlessly. They just wanna fight some new bosses and use and deal with sme new tactics with a different teamsize. Just that experience alone is enough for some people. Missing out on that is enough to complain about for some people.

People pug raids all the time. Players learn raids this way along with raids organized by someone to teach them. Just because raids happen to be more difficult than dungeons doesn’t mean that they cannot be pugged.

There’s really no more story to be gained that couldn’t be gotten from a cleared instance. So Anet’s raid team should go through the trouble of creating an easy mode that will only be done once. Seems like a waste of resources. If players want to fight bosses with new mechanics then lo and behold, look no further, we have that right now in the existing raids.

After an update or on new maps but very rarely.

DeceiverX.8361:

maddoctor.2738:

Now we get players with severe memory issues saying that all builds were fine before Raids. Maybe you never touched an instance in the past? Or you only went with your guild and experimented because there is zero difference between pug dungeons and pug Raids.

Hint 1: there was build exclusion long before Raids. Rangers in particular should remember this VERY WELL and any Ranger who ever comes here and says they weren’t excluded from dungeons and fractals is a liar.

Hint 2: Raids have been cleared with multiple types of builds and compositions. There is no one comp working for everyone but there is good variety. Again, moot argument.

This was entirely player-determined, though. The same thing said about the zerk gear meta. People just wanted efficiency because the dungeons gave good gold and the content became stale and trivial. Most people didn’t do dungeons because they intrinsically thought they were fun (they did at launch/when new, but it gets boring). It was about cash money.

So arguing that just because there was elitism and a meta before and having it be a dev-side focus is not valid, because the justifications were totally different.

I never in my hundreds if not thousands of runs played an all-zerk group, and never got kicked for being a ranger, and neither have any rangers that I personally know.

Not joining the “10k AP zerk only no ranger” listings on LFG would have helped a lot to avoid being kicked. I always just made my own “all welcome” groups which typically filled in about thirty seconds. They weren’t speed clear runs, but I wouldn’t expect that having not been playing a meta build. But completion times were still typically quite good, give or take maybe three to five minutes over the all-zerk groups and so on.

The differentiation is that those who complained about the dungeon meta were misinformed, lazy, disrespectful to how other people wanted to play (without them) or just bad, and subsequently got kicked. In raids, the elitism is stemmed by the very nature of the content design itself.

Not really as raids are more mechanics driven than gear/build driven. Sure gear and builds are important but we’ve seen with these low-man runs, as well as those consisting of all of one class, that there’s is a decent degree of flexibility. It’s just that, like for speed running dungeons years ago, players want what’s the safest and most optimal. Just like years ago, those that do not want to conform to these standards can join a group that doesn’t stress them or create their own group.

Raids were designed and intended to be the most challenging content in the game for those interested in that. Instead of stepping up to the challenge, some players want it brought down to their level by means of an “easy mode”. Some use arguments such as the story, but to be honest, how many would do raids again after they’ve experienced the story? How many watch all of the cutscenes in the dungeons or even do the story modes?

It all comes down to loot. Those that do raids get something that those that don’t raid do not. I’m pretty sure that if legendary armor got moved to be acquired in other areas of the game, all of these threads running under the guise about how raids are ruining the game would go away.

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

Also in long sustained fights. But let’s go ahead and assume that the build was only useful in raids. How was nerfing it affecting players outside of raids? If they never used it then how did it impact them?

Build had high damage in raids, not “was only useful in raids”.

So “only meaningful in raids” does not equal “only useful in raids”?

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

This isn’t about PvP and WvW.

The amount of damage that burn warrior could do was very large. It was no surprise that it would get nerfed. That same build could be used in other areas of PvE outside of raids. In fact, burnzerker was created before raids released.

The optimal builds for raids were quite often the optimal builds in other areas of the game. It’s easy to forget that and mistake them fixing an issue that was present in multiple areas and assume it was because of only one area.

Except it was not. It was only overpowered for large hitboxes, which was only meaningful in? Right.

Also in long sustained fights. But let’s go ahead and assume that the build was only useful in raids. How was nerfing it affecting players outside of raids? If they never used it then how did it impact them?

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

All of those impacted other areas of the game too. The optimal builds for raids were quite often the optimal builds in other areas of the game. It’s easy to forget that and mistake them fixing an issue that was present in multiple areas and assume it was because of only one area.

Every build is impacting the game as long as it being played. This is not an excuse. Or maybe you are going to tell me that zerk ele was dominating spvp or wvw? Or 5 burn warriors conquered fractal meta charts?

This isn’t about PvP and WvW.

The amount of damage that burn warrior could do was very large. It was no surprise that it would get nerfed. That same build could be used in other areas of PvE outside of raids. In fact, burnzerker was created before raids released.

The optimal builds for raids were quite often the optimal builds in other areas of the game. It’s easy to forget that and mistake them fixing an issue that was present in multiple areas and assume it was because of only one area.

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

What makes you think it’s because of raid balance? Regardless, this has nothing to do with restricting the builds that players can use outside of raids as nothing there requires specific builds.

Want examples? Burn warrior, zerk ele (multiple times), butchered rev natural resonance and mesmer alacrity. But no one outside of raids needs them anyway, I get it.

All of those impacted other areas of the game too. The optimal builds for raids were quite often the optimal builds in other areas of the game. It’s easy to forget that and mistake them fixing an issue that was present in multiple areas and assume it was because of only one area.

Someone said that you just need to progress the story past that part even if you don’t have it active.

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s not a weak argument because nowhere else in PvE requires specific builds.

So, everyone else must be okay with their class being nerfed, or changed, or ignored, purely because of the raid balance? When same thing happened due to sPvP or WvW balance adjustments, a lot of people was upset, and rightfully so. But somehow, in case of raids it must be ok because “you don’t need your builds anyway!”? Lolwhat?

What makes you think it’s because of raid balance? Regardless, this has nothing to do with restricting the builds that players can use outside of raids as nothing there requires specific builds.

Blaeys.3102:

Ayrilana.1396:

The game would only potentially grow that way within raids. It would not anywhere else in the game.

That is a weak argument. Basically, it’s saying that raids need to be a separate entity that in no way influences the rest of the game.

That isn’t really possible as long as there is any interesting story (even if it is secondary to the main plot) in raids that players want to experience.

That isn’t really possible as long as players (justifiably) want to experience all of the PVE content in the game without compromising playstyles they enjoy.

That isn’t really possible as long as developers feel a need to “balance” PVE professions around raid performance.

Raids will not and cannot exist separately from the rest of the game. They impact story, the experience, the community, the ongoing development, etc – and therefore have the potential to fundamentally change the nature of the game (to get back to the point of the thread).

As such, they need to better fit with the feel of the rest of the PVE experience – and the single best way to make that happen is tiered levels.

It’s not a weak argument because nowhere else in PvE requires specific builds.

Blaeys.3102:

Ayrilana.1396:

Players were carbon copies before raids. There were always meta builds that players followed. You’re blaming raids for something that it didn’t cause and existed before it. Outside of raids, you can use whatever builds you want for PvE. That still hasn’t changed in the last 4.5 years.

Raids can be cleared with non-meta builds. The only thing is that they’re not as efficient and leave less room for error. No matter what changes Anet makes, there will always be a meta build that is preferred. We had this with dungeons.

That was true among min-maxers, but not necessarily among the greater game population.

With dungeons, there was always much more wiggle room. Any build and playstyle was reasonably (very important word) viable, no matter how far from the meta. Players that chose not to min-max could still enjoy the content while retaining some unique character identity.

Tiered difficulty would bring back that wiggle room – restore the ability to enjoy content with a wider range of playstyles/builds/etc (all without taking away the challenge the min-maxers want) – similar to how fractal levels do so in that game mode.

Without that flexibility, the game will continue to grow more more restrictive and focused on carbon-copies – either by design or by player/community inclinations.

That isnt good for the game – and it definitely isn’t the game many of us bought and loved.

The game would only potentially grow that way within raids. It would not anywhere else in the game.

Players were carbon copies before raids. There were always meta builds that players followed. You’re blaming raids for something that it didn’t cause and existed before it. Outside of raids, you can use whatever builds you want for PvE. That still hasn’t changed in the last 4.5 years.

Raids can be cleared with non-meta builds. The only thing is that they’re not as efficient and leave less room for error. No matter what changes Anet makes, there will always be a meta build that is preferred. We had this with dungeons.

I can reproduce it every time. The only way to prevent it is to log in with another character and then relog with the original character as this prevents it from going to the default location on the map.

Map currency vendors on the new LS maps.

Should be able to get them from the vendors on the new maps using map currencies.

Frediosz.2718:

…

Base game wasn’t stripped.

Raids in other games were a primary focus point for endgame. If you didn’t do them then you’d be at a disadvantage. In GW2, players are not at a disadvantage for skipping raids. They miss out on legendary armor but there’s no stat difference from ascended.

Specific required gear being enforced is a result of players imposing it on themselves. It has nothing to do with Anet. Pretty much the exact same thing when people did CoF farms or just speed runs in dungeons.

You’re trying to make it as if GW2 has changed by adding a small amount of content geared towards those that wanted a challenge. If jumping puzzles didn’t exist until now, and they then added them, would you go about stating that Anet changed the game’s identity?

I don’t get what you’re trying to say when replying to my comment about a raid DLC. It looks like you regurgitated part of what I said without arguing against it. If so few players would be interested in it, and Anet added it for the few that were, it’s unlikely to change the game’s identity as it doesn’t impact the other players.

I have absolutely no idea what your point is in regards to raid accessibility. You lost me with your abilities that made absolute no sense.

Like I said above, gear is player imposed. Raids have been done in exotics. Raids have been done with everyone being a single class. Raids have been low-manned. Any restrictions on that regard is by the players who want efficient runs.

Could you rephrase some of your points for clarity as they come off as ranting and are difficult to follow. Thanks.

DeceiverX.8361:

Ashen.2907:

CptAurellian.9537:

I don’t get all the QQ about raids being evil. Haven’t ever set a foot into them, but it does not feel like I’m missing something important with regard to the rest of the story.

As to the original question: no, it doesn’t feel as if GW2 had lost its identity.

This.

My favorite restaurant adding a new dish to their menu, while continuing to serve the dishes that are my reason for eating there, does not bother me. If I dont want to eat the new chicken dish I can continue to order my favorite steak dinner.

This isn’t a valid analogy. It indicates that there aren’t resource contentions over what’s being released. More comparable is that your favorite restaurant is busy and is thus adding more seats to cater to more customers while not increasing the waitstaff or number of cooks. This will negatively impact the experience of dining there. Or, to go with the menu example, is like if your favorite dish being moved to an occasional special since it’s not ordered often and the restaurant is out of room on the menu to fit it.

Raids are undeniably getting a lot of attention from developers not even in the raids team (like profession design and balance), and that’s a resource problem and a very big contention problem between formats which has led to a lot of mixed responses and negativity. You can do some numbers tweaks, but a lot of the issues people have complained about have been design-level and intention rather than numerical complaints.

Except the raid team is comparably smaller than the rest of the staff so it doesn’t really matter.

JTGuevara.9018:

Carighan.6758:

JTGuevara.9018:

However, I always thought raids were a bad idea. There’s just no way anyone can expect to keep players if you make content for 1% of the playerbase. I’m not against group content, I’m against group content being accessible to the majority.

That’s the thing, raids have two key problems:

• The combat mechanics and design aren’t intended to work for 10 players tight-balanced content.
• GW2, on the PvE-side, is all about a rather casual way of playing a MMO. Not necessarily an easygoing one, but the HoT maps showed amiably well that you don’t need weak enemies to make something friendly to casual play. Raids are totally not the same type of gameplay, and just muddle the strengths of GW2 in this “please like your game”-desperate motion to appeal to everyone.
• Bonus! The combat balance is quite bad in GW2, which is mostly due to the slow speed at which balance updates happen. And when they happen they do very little, moving a few CDs around, merging and effect here or there, never doing any “big” reworks. This makes it very difficult to design tensely balanced content in the first place.

Overall, raids could work.

They just need to be designed for GW2. The ones we got feel more like something taken as directly from other MMOs as possible.

Precisely. Raids cannot function without the trinity. HoT kinda went there, but it’s not enough. There aren’t really any dedicated roles. At the end of the day, this has been an ongoing problem with gw2. Gw2 still has the ‘soft’ trinity—control, damage, support.

Now, when I say trinity and roles, I know that players will reflexively recoil in disgust. Still, hear me out. The trinity has nothing to do with classes but with combat roles. It’s simply a way of structuring combat. Roles are about tradeoffs and dependency. They add a sense of challenge. However, it’s also important that people should not be limited in their roles by class or profession, only that the roles exist.

At the end of the day, I’m vehemently against raids. Gw2 IS casual; meaning that it’s for the majority and the mainstream. It’s nothing to do with being “easy” or “hard”. However, HoT changed that a bit with the release of raids. Raids are content for a minute minority of players. IMO, they should have never been released.

Explain why everything in a game has to be catered to casual players? Is WvW casual? Is PvP casual?

Despond.2174:

Sadly you have to buy the “original” again but wait for the sale. I am in the same boat as you, next month the standard and deluxe version should be 50% off, I’ll be grabbing the standard for $25.

Don’t wait and hope for the next xpac to have hot free, that’s still awhile away and HOT power creep is quite significant, hence why I am definitely buying it.

You’re not buying the original game again.

Frediosz.2718:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

To answer that question, you first have to establish what that identity was and whether the needs of its players have changed.

Identity is something unique and what made GW2 unique among generic koreans – no raids and no trinity, no gear restricions and easly accesable content and anykind of gear for everyone to enjoy.

People doesn’t have easy acces to raid and what it offers, they are restricted to have specific gear and require basically a healer and kiter so yeah, game changed it identity.

Raids are a very small part of the game. Offering it to players that want a challenge isn’t suddenly changing its identity. Raids are very accessible if you’re willing to put in the effort. Gear restrictions are player imposed. Healer and kiter are two roles out of 10 slots.

Frediosz.2718:

People had no choice but to either stop playing or pay FULL-darn-price AGAIN for what base game was offering from the 1st day of it’s launch plus overpowered stuff and that was a scam.

Anyhow, if there would be option to purchase raids as separate DLC and not HoT DLC then AN would not even bother to do it because it would not sell on a large scale, raids were never a selling point – it’s a fatclub content and even AN knows that casual players are fuel for the game and not the fatclub – hell, even promised new legendary weapons had more fans then raids.

When buying the expansion, you’re only buying the expansion. If you’re applying it to a F2P account then it gets unlocked. Perhaps you should create a F2P account and see for yourself everything that they’re getting for free and what actually is limited to them. Of course if you still find it unfair, you can do the same as them and apply the expansion code to a new or F2P account.

It’s funny though that you first start off by saying that raids changed the identity of the game and now state not many people would purchase it if it were sold separately. How can something that only interests very few players be game identity changing for the rest of the players who do not raid?

Vaffelman.6954:

mtpelion.4562:

Vaffelman.6954:

I have 2 stacks of them and i have no interest in making any legendaries. Should i just sell them earning about 500 gold or keep them for some other crafting?

They can be crafted into weapon skins that are far more profitable to sell than just outright selling the coins.

Downside is that the weapon skin may take a while to actually sell, while the coins should move almost instantly.

Do you know of any good list where i can see a list of theese skins? using the wiki is quite messy.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Coin/Equipment

The story isn’t all that difficult and I’ve done it in exotics with every class. I wouldn’t worry about it. You can solo all LS3 stories with exotics. All content that can be done solo can be done with exotics.

I’d get the episodes regardless for the ease of obtaining ascended trinkets and backpacks which provide the bulk of the increased stats.

Even though this thread got necro’d, and will probably be locked, I do want to point out that there’s more than enough hero point challenges available on HoT maps to unlock elite specializations completely. I’ve done this on many characters in as little as a few hours. There’s also an old guide on Reddit that lists which those are. It’s also not that difficult to ask for help in map chat or LFG.

They could just make a new daily category such like how all vistas are within one category. They can then add back daily dodger and interrupts. I think blast fields were a daily for a short time. They could then add breakbars to the list. Use these as a means to teach players through repetition.

I personally don’t know how impactful this would be though as I’m pretty sure the issue isn’t a lack of knowing about these.

Rhapsody.8650:

DougNotDougie.3590:

A letter was sent to my account during that time that said “I paid for 1000 not 500 so give me the rest.”

This was my favorite part, LOL. I hope you forwarded the player’s info to Anet as well. Although the player did not hack into your account, I would find them equally at fault for using a service that hurts a fellow player. I’m honestly surprised at this point that so many people attempt to buy gold this way (and then probably play dumb when Anet investigates).

I’m curious, do you use two-step verification? Seems the whole problem would have been avoided that way. If everyone was using it, they wouldn’t need to implement other barriers to hackers.

Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering too. If your email and account are secure behind verification, it’s unlikely that they’ll get through. Even more so if you don’t share the email address used for the account as well as use the same login credentials elsewhere on the internet. Not buying from gold sellers also tends to help as well.

While Anet could certainly make those changes, they’d have impacts on players not involved in gold selling. For as long as these situations can be prevented by players who protect themselves and don’t do stupid things, I’m against any changes.

Astralporing.1957:

Ayrilana.1396:

A story mode (easy mode) was not intended for raids. This is explained in the dev post.

There’s a ton of things in the game that weren’t originally intended. Raids themselves are a good example. So, “not originally intended” is a weak argument nowadays.

A ton of things such as? i’ll give you raids even though I don’t remember them commenting about it in the past.

So “not originally intended” is a weak argument. So that means, by your reasoning, we can now have mounts, new races, race change, heroes, soloable dungeons/raids/fractals, cheap legendaries, and so much more. After all, even if Anet never intended any of this, it could potentially change in the future. Sorry but no. Just because something has the potential, however small, to change doesn’t mean that it will happen. Unless you can provide evidence that something is likely to change in the near future, the “not originally intended” argument still stands.

Blaeys.3102:

Ayrilana.1396:

Blaeys.3102:

Ayrilana.1396:

How about instead of a story mode, just create an NPC outside of the instance to replay all of the cutscenes?

Been proposed and discussed. There is already access to cutscenes on youtube. Adding them in game doesn’t really do anything (neither does a cleared instance) – and more importantly, it doesn’t provide a gaming experience or sense that the player is living through the story.

In the game’s current form, part of the PVE end user experience – and part of the story experience (no matter how small or how secondary) – is currently limited based on playstyle and build/stat preferences. After 3+ years of experiencing a game that didn’t have that kind of segregation, it’s hard not to think things have changed for the worse.

It shuts down the argument for easier raids on the basis of missed story content. I’m not at all surprised that it’s been discussed before since we’ve had how many threads? If players want to feel like they’re playing through the story then they can do the actual raid in the manner in which it was intended.

Things have not changed for the worst just because content was designed for a subset of the players that wanted something a little more challenging. No one player can say that the entire games revolves around their preferred way of playing. Adding aspects that apply to different types of players is a move in the right direction. It expands the breadth of the game and add to its appeal.

It doesnt shut down any discussion because neither a cutscene – or a cleared instance – offer an interactive video game experience. Using video or a partial piece is similar to telling someone the plot to a movie over the phone.

And, again, almost no one is advocating the removal of hard modes. They are critical to the raid experience. What I’m advocating for is using the mote mechanic (and the development time that when behind them), which most raiders even agree didnt really add anything to the latest raid wing, to offer a story mote or training mote experience instead – something players are actually asking for.

Exactly what story is provided with the actual boss fights? If you want an “interactive video game experience” then do the raid.

Crystal Reid.2481:

This comes up a lot so I’m going to jump in quickly since it’s a new post.

Tier systems for Raids come up a lot as a result of what Fractals did. I worked on the original Fractals team and a tiered system with increased difficulty scaling was always part of the original plan for that team. It was never a plan for Raids. They are, and should remain, the most difficult content in the game.

Accessibility in terms of difficulty is something we talk a lot about internally. We’ve made efforts to help players get in by delivering entry level encounters that ease you into the content (STK) and you’ll see more of that in the next release. You’ll still see encounters that live up to previous raid expectations for mid tier and final bosses. And if you think Matthias is a chump then we have something for you as well.

Accessibility in terms of “Hey, my 5 man Fractal group wants to try raids, but we can’t find 5 other players!” is also something we talk about. It’s just a much more difficult problem to solve.

morrolan.9608:

Dare I say it, anet lost their way when they turned their back on the manifesto.

They didn’t. People just misinterpreted it into what they wanted and still do despite a more “recent” post from the one who said it.

Doam.8305:

Ayrilana.1396:

Doam.8305:

Behellagh.1468:

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s often a DPS loss to revive someone when they’re dead vs having them WP and run back. Especially if they’re one of the ones that can’t stay alive. There are also times where players should just WP regardless such as at the towers in DS.

This attitude existed well before HoT.

This existed during world bosses at the start of the game.

That’s because running back from a wp was quick and your wp wasn’t contested.

In HoT where travel times are worse and EPA are often contested your better off reviving that person. Not only will it takes ages for them to get back if they ran straight back to the event they’ve pulled half the map with them or arrived damaged by those mobs.

Completely different situation pre and post HoT thus revive the downed to have a smoother time in HoT

Specifically where is it better to revive someone that is dead?

Specifically?

How about everywhere that isn’t the later stages of the DS meta. This is an old topic debated at the launch of HoT and HoT isn’t core its a DPS loss in HoT maps to let someone Wp back. It’s rather basic that core maps have fewer mobs, less CC, and more WPs, in addition when a WP is contested another WP can be used to run back into the action easily. HoT maps have more mobs. more CC, fewer Wp’s, and a map design that is broken up into segments and narrow paths to support the vertical play style. VB is narrow mob packed hallways over cliff’s, AB is four sections around the central city and paths to their pylons, TD is the worse with multiple caverns, and DS is meta the WP’s don’t open for usage till the way is clear.

If your in core maps leave the dead they can WP in HoT maps you rez the dead the content is of a more difficult nature. Simply look around during HoT events and core events and you’ll see people rezzing people on HoT maps and people telling others to WP in core maps. As stated this is something people talked about during launch and simply how things are due to their design choices with HoT maps to argue now is a moot point considering the months since HoT’s been out and the situation the game is in currently as a result. Though these were more reddit based discussions since these boards are all rosy pep rally everything is perfect thus discussing anything is typically pointless since its just met with dismissive responses.

Yes, you know how the maps are structured. I asked for a specific example and you said everywhere but the last stages of DS. For all of the metas, which have time limits by the way, having people stop what they’re doing to revive the few that got themselves killed slows things down. Imagine if nobody WP’d for Gerent and had to be revived. How about the axemaster boss in VB? Should people stop to revive dead players and risk getting downed because they weren’t able to break its bar? The loss of a handful of players is nothing compared to the loss of those that have to stop what they’re doing. This was talked to death when Teq got revamped so check out that discussion for more info about this topic.

It’s been generally accepts to revive those that are downed and to have those dead to WP. If you believe this to not be the case with HoT, provide specific examples and math to prove otherwise like what was done in the discussions about this immediately after the Teq revamp.

Astralporing.1957:

Ayrilana.1396:

Raid were meant to be challenging group content from the start. A story mode is unnecessary. This has been brought up almost daily in the raids subforum.

By raiders – because it’s not useful for them.

Ayrilana.1396:

Ascended equipment is fairly easy to obtain.

That’s highly subjective. For some it’s easier, for others it isn’t. Just as there are people that consider legendaries to be cheap, and players that never had over 50g in their wallet.

Ayrilana.1396:

On top of that, ascended equipment is account bound which makes it very multi character friendly. You can just swap them to another class assuming they are the same weight type (for armor) and stat combo.

Which they rarely are. For example, my mesmer, necro and ele use different stat sets. So do my condi ranger, healer druid and thief. Only among heavy classes there’s more uniformity, and only because i don’t WvW on a more invested level.

A story mode (easy mode) was not intended for raids. This is explained in the dev post. Whether it’s useful for raiders or not doesn’t matter.

There is subjectivity to it but the difference is not in the thousands like legendaries. All trinkets can be farmed over several days or more depending on the number of characters. This includes backpacks. Weapons require crafting but you’re looking at about 110G per profession with potentially less if you use a booster and/or are patient. Gold is even more accessible now than it has been in the past so they can save up for the weapons. Armor is largely unnecessary except for like one exception so can be skipped.

And again, even though different classes can have different stat combos, ascended armor is largely unnecessary. The 2% DPS for power builds isn’t going to make or break a build for any content. The only impact a lack of ascended armor would have is on fractals and that’s because of the AR slots.