Guild Wars 2

Raine.1394:

Ayrilana.1396:

Raine.1394:

Ayrilana.1396:

Raine.1394:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Personally, I’d hate to see adventure:

• They take people out of the MMO part of the game.
• They run the same regardless of profession.
• If I wanted to play console games, I would, you know, buy a console.

However, there’s no question that some people love having these in the game. So, I sort of hope that ANet hasn’t wasted the time developing the tech for these only to drop them already.

Have to agree with this. Do you remember when SAB dropped. There were a few more people in one corner of Rata Sum, but the net effect was emptying the world—never a good thing.

Any new content will do the exact same thing until players get bored of it or it goes away (such as with festivals).

Instead, I’d focus on the major complaint from those against adventures in HoT which was with mastery points tied to them. They could have bronze and silver give mastery points with gold reserved for unique rewards. I’m sure that would satisfy many people from both sides.

No, any new content won’t do the same thing. New content, an expansion for example, will change the distribution of players in the open world but it won’t take players out of the open world. Mini-games and other instanced activities will take players out of the open world. That’s what I was talking about. And, I said I actually don’t have a general problem with mini-games—at all—as a thing in themselves. I wasn’t familiar with adventures in HoT because I don’t play platformers. But, if they award mastery points, i.e., are core game by definition, then I would be opposed to them. Mini-games, of any type, jumping puzzles, and the like should be there for those who enjoy them. But, they should not be a vehicle for advancing the core game. Those who don’t like them should be able to avoid them entirely without penalty or opportunity cost. In other words, they should be exactly what they were in GW2. GW2 got it right. HoT was, and is, a completely different game.

IIRC, only a few adventures were in an instance separate from the open world map.

Whether or not mastery points should be rewards from adventures is a matter of opinion and will be nothing more than that. We each have our own opinion. There’s nothing stating what should and shouldn’t be included in PvE progression. That’s entirely up to Anet.

For those curious about one of the PoF adventures:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Refugee_Supply_Run

Whether or not mastery points are awarded for side content is not a matter of opinion. It is, rather, whether or not the core game is advanced by niche content that some enjoy and others detest. Arenanet had an answer for this.

Let me put it into perspective from an arenanet interview pre-release:

“There is, however, a fine line to walk here, and ArenaNet’s fully aware that one wrong move could wreck the nice balance of different elements Guild Wars 2 currently has going for it. So, for now, platforming’s a sideshow – not an individually viable means of progression.”

This was stated many times by Arenanet directly because it was of concern to many of us. These games within the game would be there on the side but wouldn’t be used to advance the core game—what is called a “viable means of progression” above. Mastery points would represent character progression.

I would prefer it that PoF stood on the shoulders of GW2 and extended it rather that continuing down the road of HoT.

This worked brilliantly in GW2. In HoT it is a constant irritant to the extent that many of us simply don’t play it.

It is a matter of opinion unless you can provide a factual source to support your claim. There are no rules on what can and cannot be in MMO’s as well as what can and cannot be used for progression. That’s entirely up to the developer which is what I said. The players’ say in this is nothing but opinion.

That quote of yours wasn’t actually stated by an Anet employee but the interviewers takeaway. Also note that the article was from mid 2012 and things can change over seven years.

If you care about elite specialization weapons, you can max out exalted. That’s about the only reason to go further on the mastery line.

The last mastery for Itzel (adrenal mushrooms) are useful but won’t be in the new expansion most likely.

Other than the gift of battle, I don’t think you really need to enter sPvP or WvW for anything else. What you described is probably the least PvP way to complete that reward track with minimal effort. Another way is to maintain your reward track participation by doing only PvE objectives like camps, yaks, and sentries.

Raine.1394:

Ayrilana.1396:

Raine.1394:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Personally, I’d hate to see adventure:

• They take people out of the MMO part of the game.
• They run the same regardless of profession.
• If I wanted to play console games, I would, you know, buy a console.

However, there’s no question that some people love having these in the game. So, I sort of hope that ANet hasn’t wasted the time developing the tech for these only to drop them already.

Have to agree with this. Do you remember when SAB dropped. There were a few more people in one corner of Rata Sum, but the net effect was emptying the world—never a good thing.

Any new content will do the exact same thing until players get bored of it or it goes away (such as with festivals).

Instead, I’d focus on the major complaint from those against adventures in HoT which was with mastery points tied to them. They could have bronze and silver give mastery points with gold reserved for unique rewards. I’m sure that would satisfy many people from both sides.

No, any new content won’t do the same thing. New content, an expansion for example, will change the distribution of players in the open world but it won’t take players out of the open world. Mini-games and other instanced activities will take players out of the open world. That’s what I was talking about. And, I said I actually don’t have a general problem with mini-games—at all—as a thing in themselves. I wasn’t familiar with adventures in HoT because I don’t play platformers. But, if they award mastery points, i.e., are core game by definition, then I would be opposed to them. Mini-games, of any type, jumping puzzles, and the like should be there for those who enjoy them. But, they should not be a vehicle for advancing the core game. Those who don’t like them should be able to avoid them entirely without penalty or opportunity cost. In other words, they should be exactly what they were in GW2. GW2 got it right. HoT was, and is, a completely different game.

IIRC, only a few adventures were in an instance separate from the open world map.

Whether or not mastery points should be rewards from adventures is a matter of opinion and will be nothing more than that. We each have our own opinion. There’s nothing stating what should and shouldn’t be included in PvE progression. That’s entirely up to Anet.

For those curious about one of the PoF adventures:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Refugee_Supply_Run

I’d only consider it gating if they’re required. If players can get enough from other sources then I don’t see any weight to that argument. They’re also part of PvE whether some players enjoy them or not.

You can always watch YouTube video playthroughs and skip past the combat portions to see the story. You can also read the summaries on the wiki.

The story episodes themselves don’t take all that long and you could probably finish them over a weekend at a leisurely pace.

Raine.1394:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Personally, I’d hate to see adventure:

• They take people out of the MMO part of the game.
• They run the same regardless of profession.
• If I wanted to play console games, I would, you know, buy a console.

However, there’s no question that some people love having these in the game. So, I sort of hope that ANet hasn’t wasted the time developing the tech for these only to drop them already.

Have to agree with this. Do you remember when SAB dropped. There were a few more people in one corner of Rata Sum, but the net effect was emptying the world—never a good thing.

Any new content will do the exact same thing until players get bored of it or it goes away (such as with festivals).

Instead, I’d focus on the major complaint from those against adventures in HoT which was with mastery points tied to them. They could have bronze and silver give mastery points with gold reserved for unique rewards. I’m sure that would satisfy many people from both sides.

I think PvP leagues will end up being the most time efficient way to acquire legendary armor. Just grind your way to the final reward tier and keep repeating it.

Rauderi.8706:

Pifil.5193:

I think they should lower the aggro range for those ice elementals at the least though.

Yeeaah.. getting the freeze transformation from range “trebuchet” is really irritating.

Though, really, the firebear mastery wasn’t well designed for the zone in the first place. It should have been tied to the special action key, included more passives and on-use abilities (immune to frostbite while off cooldown, use to do a bunch of burning damage and unseal chests, etc). Because no one uses beartorch 3, and having to carry the torch is a big nuisance.

Yeah. I think the only use that mastery got was for the chests.

I enjoyed then and WP’s video said he had found one.

notebene.3190:

Ayrilana.1396:

notebene.3190:

Aren’t they each a mastery, or did I misunderstand how the mounts were being implemented?

They are but acquiring them appears to be outside the mastery. You either earn them through the story or by simply interacting with them.

Oh so each mount isn’t its own mastery? You just learn riding once and then go get whatever mount you want, like gliding?

The masteries enhance a particular mount but I didn’t see any indication that any of them were required to use them. We’ll find out next weekend I guess.

Didn’t Ragnaros come with the Cataclysm expansion which was well after GW1 launched?

notebene.3190:

Aren’t they each a mastery, or did I misunderstand how the mounts were being implemented?

They are but acquiring them appears to be outside the mastery. You either earn them through the story or by simply interacting with them.

Or every map could have a world boss. It’s difficult to say right now.

Probably different skin types and/or accessories. Maybe something like an armor plated raptor. Who knows…

Malerian.8435:

LOL I was wondering what that achievement was. I just fought it the way I normally fight anything. Seemed to kitten. Not sure why you need to only do damage when the bar is broken though? I did damage the whole time and got the achievement. And I was doing it on my DH.

It resists most of the damage if the bar isn’t broken because it gains stacks of a buff. You likely beat it because of retaliation being your primary source of damage.

Doggie.3184:

They’re each a different mastery so you’ll have them once you gain the mastery xp/points.

The OP is referring to mount skins.

Avectius.3271:

Ayrilana.1396:

Factions: We have to prevent some guy from the past from further releasing a plague to the world and come back to the mortal realm. Meh.

Nightfall: We have to prevent some woman from further releasing Nightfall to the world and freeing her god.

EotN: Destroyers are bad. Defeat the destroyers.

There’s a difference between demonstrating the simplicity and lack of complexity in something and it being justified, and what you just did. You were pretty much just loosely describing things.

But you know what’s funny? Even in the way you described the events in the story, they STILL sound much better than what we got with GW2.

The story writing in GW1 was objectively on a whole different level. If “meh” is the only reaction you could muster from the Factions campaign, then you just can’t appreciate a great narrative.

What I just did is what you just did about the dragons.

I wnjoyed the GW1 stories just like I have the GW2 stories. I’m not going to say that the GW1 stories were superior because they weren’t as they were very basic and narrow.

Avectius.3271:

Ayrilana.1396:

The evil dragons being so simplistic can be said about anything in GW1.

How so?

Factions: We have to prevent some guy from the past from further releasing a plague to the world and come back to the mortal realm. Meh.

Nightfall: We have to prevent some woman from further releasing Nightfall to the world and freeing her god.

EotN: Destroyers are bad. Defeat the destroyers.

Avectius.3271:

Danikat.8537:

I remember exactly the same complaints about the story in GW1. The characters were terrible, the overall plot was unoriginal and predictable

You must’ve been dreaming, then, because the story was one of the most loved aspects of the game, if not the most lauded thing, especially in comparison with other MMOs back then.

Lokki.1092:

We learned 2 things after killing Mordremoth.

1. Killing an elder dragon causes all other dragons to gain their abilities and become more powerful
2. the elder dragons are tied to the fabric of Tyria, killing them would cause a cataclysmic event that would destroy the planet. We didn’t learn of it until after we killed the second dragon.

See, that just sounds like lazy story writing. It’s like they pulled that out of their kitten at the last minute, to be honest.

The point is, a narrative like “There’s evil dragons out there, we have to destroy them” is pretty much something anyone could come up with. It’s so simplistic it’s kind of laughable considering the scope of Guild Wars lore.

And as for Balthazar, he’s one of the six gods; he’s an important, mystical figure that’s been part of the lore since its inception. Making him just another baddie we’ll interact with directly just diminishes the character immensely.

Or you’re viewing it through rose-colored glasses. Pretty much the same complaints that people have made about GW2 were made about GW1.

Making Balth an enemy doesn’t diminish him. Depending on how they handle the PoF story, it could enhance his character. I’m actually pretty excited to see what they do with him in the expansion.

The evil dragons being so simplistic can be said about anything in GW1.

Since we’re stuck with mounts, I want my Charr mount for my Asura.

kluki.3915:

Miellyn.6847:

kluki.3915:

I just hope there will be more fractals than what we got in hot… I’d like to see at least 4 new fractals at launch.

There won’t be any fractal or raid at launch of PoF most likely. Those development cicles are independent from expansions and release at their own pace.

Thats really sad, to me its really odd to release expansion without so important part of content such as fractals imo. Not to mention in hot we get only like 3 new fractals. Im really bored of doing the same old fractals. But hey we will see.

Those are on different release schedules and would you really want Anet to hold up on releasing them so they could be included in an upcoming expansion? I think most people would prefer to have them sooner rather than later but I could be wrong.

Which happen in every other single story mission and used to happen in dungeons/fractals. Anet could make it so that the story instances are leaderless but there’s likely some technical limitations preventing that.

That’s how it is for every mission in the game and how it used to be for dungeons/fractals.

Warrior since people will need their might bot.

I think they just carry over to the new guild hall but you’ll have to place them across the map again.

Go for mystic clovers first before obtaining all of the T6 fine materials. The mystic clover recipe yields those mats. When doing mystic clovers, do the single recipe instead of the one for ten. You’ll be closer to the 33% drop rate and not run into the issues that people do with the other recipe when they spend twice as many mats.

I’d personally buy the PvP/WvW tokens as it’s more time efficient to do so. However, do this after completing the WvW reward track for the gift of battle. You’d get WvW tokens while doing that. If you dislike fighting other players, most of the WvW dailies don’t involve that so you can just focus on those every day. I think doing three WvW dailies every day completed the reward track within about a month.

Obsidian shards can be obtained from Silverwastes or bought with karma. You can spend 50% less karma from the HoT map vendors in exchange for map currencies. There are also other sources as well such as the HoT currency converter and guild hall commendation vendor to name a few. Karma can be farmed on the LS maps that have the karmic retribution buff that you can buy with unbound magic.

For spirit shards, currently the best way to farm them is the leather farm when it’s running. I was averaging about 30 spirit shards an hour. This of course requires you to have maxed all HoT/LS3/raid masteries. In October, the lab farm can theoretically yield 60 spirit shards an hour and you only need to have maxed core Tyria masteries.

For world completion, there are several guides which show optimal routes. I think there are a few that have been updated to include gliding and usage of waypoints to save time.

I always knew who the antagonist was in every GW1 standalone/expansion. There were just as many twists/turns then as there are now. Character development was almost non-existent in GW1. Be careful to not look at that game with rose-colored glasses as the same complaints that have been made now were made back then.

We’ll find out Balth’s reasoning in the expansion. Kind of pointless for them to explain everything all up front. It’s a rarity that any stories do this.

If you followed the story of LS3, you would know why we put a hold on killing elder dragons.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

When you have 3 Icebrood hounds, a couple norns, a griffon or 2, maybe some spiders, and possibly an elemental, all of whom are aggroing you from there respective spawns because they are so close together, and all of whom are on very short spawn timers, then even with full ascended you have trouble. And this is NOT a rare occurrence or you dragging a train on this map. This kind of aggro density REGULARLY occurs almost anywhere on this map, especially around berry nodes.

I don’t remember any such spot like that. You had to have dragged them from multiple areas despite what you claimed. All of the spawns are decently spread apart and they have around a minute respawn. This is more than enough time to kill them all, gather berries, and move on to the next node.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Ayrilana.1396:

Squee.7829:

Ayrilana.1396:

It hurts minion builds where the player relies on them for damage. For other builds, it’s not really that much of an impact.

Perhaps they’ll make players’ minion immune to it along with whenever they resolve the server lag on that map.

It hurts minion builds of any flavor. I rely on minions to take my damage, .uptick my bleed stacks and steal health for me more than do any direct damage. But they can’t do that if they’re getting wiped out constantly because I picked something up or are in a Balthazar temple.

I ran necro for dailies on that map and never had issues.

Well, that’s settled then. No need to provide any detail on how you’re playing or what minions you’re using or where or how. Just state it doesn’t exist and the problem is solved.

Viper necro build.

The strategy that Healix described and is probably the way that less of a hassle to get either of the two achievements. Be careful as they do sometimes change directions.

Squee.7829:

Ayrilana.1396:

It hurts minion builds where the player relies on them for damage. For other builds, it’s not really that much of an impact.

Perhaps they’ll make players’ minion immune to it along with whenever they resolve the server lag on that map.

It hurts minion builds of any flavor. I rely on minions to take my damage, .uptick my bleed stacks and steal health for me more than do any direct damage. But they can’t do that if they’re getting wiped out constantly because I picked something up or are in a Balthazar temple.

I ran necro for dailies on that map and never had issues.

Sondergaard.8469:

Ayrilana.1396:

Raine.1394:

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s the point of progression if it’s done passively?

It’s not done passively if done through XP. Progression will then occur through playing the game. Playing the game is never passive. Progression, and reward itself, should always come through playing the game. The benefit with using XP is that it allows the player to largely play the game their way and still progress along the horizontal scale.

I know “play it your way” sounds foreign to many ears, but it didn’t to the original developers of GW2.

Earning XP from just playing the game is doing so passively. It’s the difference between farming gold in SW or Fractal 40 vs earning gold from monsters/events as they do whatever. It’d be like Anet removing all farms and increasing that players earned from just playing the game. Earning that gold becomes a passive effect just as earning progressing masteries if they only needed XP.

You also forget that the masteries of HoT tended to be spread out to get players do to a wide range of content to experience more of HoT. Otherwise, players would have done the AB farm only and have all of their masteries maxed. It makes the masteries kind of pointless as a progression system at that point.

I see where you’re coming from on this but I feel that the Mastery point system is two concepts that don’t mesh well with the rest of progression in the game. I think the Mastery Skills and trait lines are one concept, and the points earned for special achievements are another entirely and should be treated as such.

If you are willing to go above and beyond to achieve special goals and complete specific content, GREAT! You absolutely should be rewarded for that. I do not feel that continued lateral progression should be directly tied to these feats. They are two different concepts, achievements vs continued progress after cap.

I personally have no issues if the entire thing was scrapped as progression was instead done by using those masteries. Kind of like what Elder Scrolls does with its skills. One difference being that you have to meaningfully use them instead of something like AFK stealth walking into a corner like in those games.

Raine.1394:

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s the point of progression if it’s done passively?

It’s not done passively if done through XP. Progression will then occur through playing the game. Playing the game is never passive. Progression, and reward itself, should always come through playing the game. The benefit with using XP is that it allows the player to largely play the game their way and still progress along the horizontal scale.

I know “play it your way” sounds foreign to many ears, but it didn’t to the original developers of GW2.

Earning XP from just playing the game is doing so passively. It’s the difference between farming gold in SW or Fractal 40 vs earning gold from monsters/events as they do whatever. It’d be like Anet removing all farms and increasing that players earned from just playing the game. Earning that gold becomes a passive effect just as earning progressing masteries if they only needed XP.

You also forget that the masteries of HoT tended to be spread out to get players do to a wide range of content to experience more of HoT. Otherwise, players would have done the AB farm only and have all of their masteries maxed. It makes the masteries kind of pointless as a progression system at that point.

What’s the point of progression if it’s done passively?

The OP should provide their own source first that Anet intends to not provide new raids rather that have those that disagree with them prove otherwise.

No.

Cromx.3941:

Um like I won’t be buying it. Oh look more gated mastery garbage. I’ll pass. I haven’t bothered with all the HoT mastery gates already because frankly its a chore and a bore. So my toon is at +33 and maxed xp for the bar.

I simply don’t care. And the game has really poor balance where its just a face roll DPS race as the damage you receive in PVE is so out of control that nothing short of a dodge roll matters for mitigation. So Vitality and Toughness are just worthless stats overall.

Likewise to healing builds, you cant heal dead and thats what most people are if a mob so much at looks at them the wrong way. Overall this is one of the most dumbed down MMOs I have played.

Fantastic artwork, but the obvious gates on content and poor balance rob this game of what makes a MMO great.

Gated mastery garbage? Like if other games had increased their level cap which then gated the story and map exploration?

The shared slot with the level 80 boost will require you to either exit the game or go to the character select screen.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

It’s not about uniformity. It’s about not constantly attracting 6+ enemies that take so long to kill that they have all respawned before even being downed (and keep this up till you die). That’s the kind of thing that not only can happen on this map, but happens frequently if you dare go anywhere alone.

It takes me maybe 20 seconds at most to kill them and they’re on a respawn of more than 60 seconds. Unless you’re hitting them with one of those foam pool noodles, I don’t see how you can take that long to kill them.

Wait. So they’re complaining about being left behind where the newest living story episode that they have is episode 1 which released a year ago? I seriously hope they don’t expect Anet to slow down on content because some people want to take absurdly long breaks from the game and not be left behind.

chemie banger.9624:

I know I couldn’t find a map today to do dragon’s stand daily.

Content for existing zones like the old living story 1 maybe \o/

Did you try when the map reset and used the LFG? That works for just about everyone as there’s always a map running.

Irijia.6073:

Ayrilana.1396:

It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.

I get that you like the story but the argument is less about that and more about the fact that it’s poorly written and executed. Multiple plot lines are good when they are done well and the proper literary rules of foreshadowing, climaxes, and the like are followed. LS3 doesn’t follow those rules and, to be blunt, the main NPCs in GW2 are pretty meh and can’t really carry it either. A so-so story can be saved by having good characters but if you have neither decent story nor interesting characters, your reception is going to lukewarm.

I thought LS3 was okay and but better than LS2. Except that I’m not arguing about that but that it wasn’t poorly written and executed which was my point. Where exactly in LS3 does it not make sense to you? Are you including the current events?

Have you read the summary for the season?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_3

Irijia.6073:

Ayrilana.1396:

JTGuevara.9018:

If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. When a story constantly changes focus, (Laz > Balth > Dragons > Laz) it’s hard to remember those things keeping it together. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while making sense of what’s going on.

No it doesn’t. It just means you forgot some things between releases and because it was released over a year’s time.

Eh, I’m with him. The Living World 3 story is pretty asinine and told poorly at that. Telling someone to play through a section again because it was all over the place the first time does not make it not all over the place the second go around.

It only seemed all over the place because they likely forgot pieces. That is of course they prefer very narrow stories and categorizes everything else with multiple plot lines as incohesive. I’d hate to hear their review on Lord of the Rings as I’m sure that was a mess of a story for them with even more plot lines than LS3.

Edit: Actually, what doesn’t make sense to you? Where in the story does it not feel cohesive or make sense?

JTGuevara.9018:

Ayrilana.1396:

I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.

I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.

If I have to play a story again just to comprehend it, that means that it wasn’t told in a coherent manner. The story just kept changing focus. When a story constantly changes focus, (Laz > Balth > Dragons > Laz) it’s hard to remember those things keeping it together. I think it’s asking a bit much to expect players to remember key details while making sense of what’s going on.

No it doesn’t. It just means you forgot some things between releases and because it was released over a year’s time.

I found the LS3 story to be just fine. It may help to play it again in a single playthrough as you’re likely forgetting things which are keeping it together.

I think Anet is going towards elite specs as being the core of a build similar to how elite skills were in GW1.

Maybe scrapped like the spider.

Ardid.7203:

Ayrilana.1396:

Ardid.7203:

Ayrilana.1396:

Why would the other races have new hairstyles with the expansion when they have nothing to do with the new region?

Because new faces and hairstyles are about offering diversity to all players, not about imaginary racial limits. Maybe you spect charr, asura, norn and sylvari player characters not to be admitted in the new areas because the problem is with a human god?

So when we go to the Charr homeland, humans will get new hairstyles based on the Charr there?

If there is going to be new customization items in the makeover kit, there have to be some for everyone. It is just fair for the players.

Well yeah, they could always add more for other races. I was just explaining what may be the primary reason why they didn’t with this expansion.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shadow

Yes please do all that at the expense of content. I’ll have less to do but at least my game will look and run marginally better. /s