Guild Wars 2

Erasculio.2914:

Azjenco.9425:

First rule is: Rewards need to be compelling, it’s what keeps players playing.
When designing content, this should take priority, above all else. In gaming, the loot is what you seek, not the journey.

False. Grinders need rewards, since rewards is what keep grinders playing. Normal players, those who like to play to have fun, value the journey more than the shiny reward in the end.

This is also what is best for the game. What do you think is better – a human player, or a donkey which would run whenever just to get a carrot dangling in front of its face?

What do you think is better – doing content and receiving the very lowest possible rewards, or finishing content and receiving something memorable and worthwhile for it?

I see where you’re coming from, but the only items on my characters that I treasure are my dungeon sets. I pretty much accumulated those from the mandatory token handout. Nothing I’ve picked up thus far has been worthwhile, there is no item I’ve looked at and thought “man, I remember when I got this from that boss, kitten it was a good fight” or “I got this sword from that amazingly insane jumping puzzle”.

But in your opinion, you’ll keep playing even if the game had no drops, because “you have fun and enjoy the journey”. Normally I’d agree with you, but after doing a dungeon 10 times, or done a meta for the umpteenth time, then there isn’t much journey left, and at that time you’re looking for something rewarding as you’re building your character. How exactly do you intend to build your character when the game doesn’t drop any items?

False my buttocks. Story and the experience may be facets of any successful RPG, but so is character growth, optimization, and gear.

Farry.8259:

Two KEY things thats Guild Wars 2 needs:
1. A more responsive and diverse combat. Fore example: My Warrior with 2 Axes has these following abilities:
Ability nr1: Auto Attack
Abiity nr2: Rotate once and deal damage to your surroundings
Ability nr 3: Throw your axe
Ability nr4: Attack with both axes
Ability nr 5: Rotate around for about 5 seconds

As you can see, these abilities are not that different. Each ability has not a purpose to use it in a specific moment. I use these abilities all after each other and keep pressing everything until their cooldown ends and my character uses that ability again, after and after again, until the monster dies. ( + Please remove the the gliding of the camera and put a first person view on the characters, I still don’t understand why it is not there)

This is the only thing I care to comment about. People can say what they want, but…

• 2 Applies Vulnerability to all surrounding foes
• 3 Cripples, meaning you can catch up to them
• 4 Grants Fury, increasing your crit chance
• 5 is an AoE Adrenaline Builder since it hits so many times in one move

Vulnerability lets you deal more damage, increased crits make you deal more damage, more adrenaline gives you access to a skill that does lot of damage. Why would you want to keep any of those on cooldown? Each have an effect that lets you do more damage, so players would want to use them as fast as possible to maximize damage. Cripple is situational, but since most enemies don’t really retreat, players would use it anyway, since the skill most probably does more damage than your number 1 skill.

This is what people mean when they say they’re mindlessly spamming abilities. For the most part there isn’t much thought in using your weapon skills, with a few exceptions of course. Most weapons have one or two skills that require situations, like the charge, or retreat, or combo skills.

There should be more skill diversity. It would be good it there were varying effects, a few skills that are completely situational. Or some that do something very intense that you’d want to do at a specific moment.
Mostly it would be great if we could customize our weapon skills. Perhaps have a few more to choose from and then get to switch them out. These can unlock with usage, like before the others, or you can buy them with skill points. Maybe there can be a system that allows you to modify your existing skills. Like changing a hit that burns so it hits in a line, but deals less damage and keep the burning effect.

Plague.5329:

I don’t doubt loot has not gotten worse. But I also suspect that what ANet believes is acceptable is far below what players consider acceptable. Setting to it ANet’s perception of “way too high” would probably be something akin to “only slightly bad” to most players. Who’s right on the matter is another topic entirely. But the answer is the player.

Good point. It’s one thing to talk about player perceptions, but the opposite is also true. ANet’s perception on the matter can also be unacceptable to the player’s. We are supposed to be on the same side, but sometimes the issues feel a bit like us vs. them. I hate that, it feels terrible.

Last night I thought this through and this is a theory I had.

What if the cause of the low drops is MF? What if the drops are intentionally low to balance out the high MF players out there? Imagine the drop rates get improved and the market gets flooded with rares and exotics, it will hurt the game.
In such a scenario I’d say, improve the drops, but remove MF from gear. MF is a stat with the only function of getting more gold. Why would anyone want this on their gear, which is supposed to be about build progression, not cash grabbing.
MF should be removed from gear, and be made solely available through consumables, and another game mechanic. Maybe shrine buffs or a designated inventory slot.

I’m not trying to start a wild fire, but this makes logical sense to me.

Just to add, I’ve done a lot of dungeons, it’s what I enjoy. Not so much fractals though, it’s not really my thing. I don’t do Penitant, because I’d rather play wherever I want, and not force play one area. I do love the dragon fights.

Around launch I’d get one rare per dungeon run, with minimal MF, which was decent. I also received one rare around every second dragon chest.
For the entire January I haven’t received 1 rare for all my dungeon runs, and I’ve done enough to complete two dungeon sets. In December I think I received one. I’ve also done about 10-15 dragon fights and didn’t receive any rares, not once. How exactly is the game working as intended?

While leveling my main, I always had around two rares equipped on my way to 80. Neither my ele nor engi alts had any rares on them. I literally went from blues and greens to exotics. Is this how the game was supposed to be?

I want to get ectos for crafting, and no, I have no interest in using the TP for this. I want to build my characters myself. But with the drops being what they are, I seldom get the opportunity. It’s better to spend tokens, which I’d rather use on exotic gear, buying rares and salvaging them. Is this the way it’s supposed to be?

I’m at a threshold as it is. I love this game so much. It’s been such a great ride, but I just don’t know anymore. I often exit the game feeling I’ve placed a lot into the game, and got so little back. Content building isn’t everything, it means nothing if there’s no rewards to back it up. Since this seem to be a DR issue/bug, then it seems the game is punishing you for playing. I thank Balthazar that I have laurels to look forward to, or I wouldn’t even be logging in any more.

First rule is: Rewards need to be compelling, it’s what keeps players playing.
When designing content, this should take priority, above all else. In gaming, the loot is what you seek, not the journey. Who’d do the same dungeon 50 times if they knew there was no loot inside. Everything ANet does it great, but this is the one area where they stagger, fall down the stairs, and break both legs. It has come up on many occasions, dungeon rewards, personal story rewards, vet and champ drops, open world rewards. Content you work for needs to have pay-off, and as off now there is none.

Oldbugga.7029:

Most players in GW2 (I think the overwhelming majority), want the best for the game in the same vein as the devs. The devs should be confident enough to be honest in their communications with players. Of course there will be times where the players disagree with what the devs are doing, but the game’s design is not a democracy and the devs can tilt it whichever way they like.

After the abysmal ascended fiasco, I really thought ANet was going to step up to the plate. But now we are in the same rut we were in back then. Honestly, if ANet told people they were planning an extra tear around release, none of that would have happened, and a lot of fans wouldn’t have left. I’m just waiting for the next bombshell to go off, which will send the people into outrage.

The devs need to understand, we aren’t frail children who needs to be sheltered from the truth. Conversely, we are all but slavering to have the facts thrown at us. And if the fans will remain and the dark and treated like this, the game will suffer loses.

You’re all right, of course. What you’ve said made perfect sense, so I re-evaluated my whole concept, and hopefully it’s more in line with the spirit of GW and offer more aesthetic options, rather than ruining gameplay.

Edited
At first I devised racial specific bonuses, but in hindsight it’s actually a stupid concept. Each race is should have diversity, but not like that, not with number bonuses. There’s no point in looking at each race and then deciding on one because of its bonuses, meanwhile you hate everything about that race.

Instead I think it would be better to come up with some new extras that defines the races some more, but in better ways.

Firstly I think races should have more armor sets. The cultural armors are quite nice, but there should be more options and more ways to acquire them than spending gold. Perhaps skill point costs, or exchanging race specific dungeon tokens, or even through racial standing.

What about a racial achievement section? As you accomplish race specific actions, you increase your race’s standing. Or even by playing in your race’s areas you’ll add to your standing. This rank will then unlock more armors and weapons pieces, and I think racial exotics and ascended inspired items would be great. The ascended gear can even come with race specific bonuses.

Why not create crafting recipes unique to each race. You can sell the created items on the TP, of course, but each race will have access to their own set of recipes that will be very in tune with their culture.

What do you think, how would you like to see each race stand out a bit more? Would you like to see it done in a different way than I suggested?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

I’m sorry if I’m being blunt, Colin, but that feels a bit like an offish response. Something certainly isn’t right, far from it, and 20+ pages worth of player feedback attests to this fact.

According to the November notes:

The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.

Firstly, there is no specification as to the increased amount, 1% can be considered an increase, but by all logic 1% means nothing in practice.
Secondly, it refers to places in the world, and what that means exactly is a mystery. Do you mean those not involved in events – so the event count as the reward – which is pure poppykitten, as they all deserve to be rewarding in equal measure.

Today I killed 10 veterans in Dredgehaunt, none of them dropped anything, and I don’t mean sucky drops, they literally dropped nothing, not a scrap. Clearly that’s not a conspiracy. You guys should go kill some karka, which requires twice the effort to kill, but rewards as terribly as the rest.

I’ve said it in the D3 forums, and I’ll repeat it here, MF has no place on armor. The point of armor is to crunch out your build, and efficiently design your character to maximize your potential, which is fun. Then comes MF, a stat that rewards you by replacing something. It pretty much doesn’t add anything in any form to improve the playstyle of your character, it in fact detracts from your prowess but adds a chance to be rewarded after combat. Why a stat like this is on your armor is beyond me.

If a designer was smart, he’d find a way to include MF in smarter shapes and forms. I mean, even the blundering D3 team saw it that it doesn’t work, and those guys are idiots, they pretty much screwed around with that game beyond belief. And I think ANet is far more capable than Blizzard on a good day, so why can’t they work around it.

Consumables and boosts are good examples of where MF fits perfectly, it works as a buff.

Maybe add a dedicated inventory slot for an item that grants MF and/or GF and/or +XP. That way you can play around with those to your hearts content without it clashing with character building stats.

What about a way of implementing the same sort of buff that some sigils give stacks with kills, but instead it adds MF. It could be a consumable, or even fit in the aforementioned new inventory slots.

Or perhaps it can purely be an item you keep in your inventory, which then grants you MF, at the cost of space.

Why not introduce some form of shrines around the world, sort of like skill challenges? These can give you an MF/XP/GF bonus that lasts for a time, and a few can even be placed in certain spots inside dungeons.

These are small ideas from a mere player, so I’m certain an actual designer can be far more innovative than me. All I know is, MF doesn’t belong on items, and with drops being as harsh as they are, a person sort of starts to feel that it might be mandatory.

Sythus.2396:

WarMacheen.7124:

1024 posts

33518 views

and not a single kittening answer

I believe after another 10 or 15 pages someone will come and tell us how happy they are with our feedback and that they are still looking into it.

True story.

Yeah, you pretty much need to play with your eyes closed to not see how abysmal the drops are. I’ve ran HotW p1 (some days 2+3) and CoF p 1+2 almost every day for two weeks now, with Omnoms and no MF gear. Yesterday was the first time I received an exotic, and that was from a chest so MF didn’t even count. I received 0 rares.

Champions and veterans have normal drops as far as I can tell, because I’m yet to see a vet drop a rare for that matter. Whenever I see a champ or vet, I avoid them like the plague.

Of all the changes so far I’ve been very supportive, but this is the one part of the game that really gets to me, and it’s plain kittened up. The Nov patch was supposed to fix this, it said so in the notes for crying out loud, but it’s as obvious as day that absolutely nothing had been changed.

Rewards are supposed to be part of the game, but it’s become a shoddy mess.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Oooh, like what?

Personally I’d like to see rune and sigil like stats added to these item. I mean, since ascended items have no item upgrade slots, it sort of throws rune and sigils out the window. These sort of bonuses are really what makes builds interesting, and now they’re kinda being passed by.

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Blueshield.6291:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

How to kill karka:
[snip]

The thread isn’t questioning how to kill them. The point here is that the zone is purposeless.

Yet most here are saying that its too hard to even set foot there. Sounds more like a L2P issue to me.

No, your post seems like a L2R issue. See what I did there? XD

The problem is, Orr have temples, and they reward chests. There are karma venders and a number of DEs to keep you going.
Southsun doesn’t have any chests, and even the enemy drops are almost non-existant. There are no special vendors, and the DEs are scant.

The point of the OP is, there isn’t any rewards, at all. There’s no point in spending time there. There’s no L2P issues, because even if you know how to play good, you still wont get anything out of Southsun, no matter how insane good you are.

Writetyper.1985:

Every other monthly has something you do along the way while playing… Now if I want to get this done I have to buy 500 whites and spend 30 minutes salvaging them. So much fun!

Or — and bear with me on this, it might sound insane — you just play the game, and all the whites and salvagable items you pickup, you salvage all of those. It’s almost like it’ll be “something you do along the way while playing”…

I know, crazy, right?

Neverwinter I am excited about. The gameplay trailers have really piqued my interest to see more, it looks really good. What’s bad though is that instead of having full DnD customization, they’re rather boxing the classes into specific roles, and I don’t understand why. It’s just too bad the game is using 4th Ed, it should stuck with 3.5 or waited for DnD Next.

ESO looks like an utter waste. I’m not interested in it at all. I’ve played Elder Scroll games, and I like Elder Scroll games, but it doesn’t look good at all.

Funny thing is, I’ll be playing Neverwinter and GW2. Why give up one for the other. You can leave GW2 for a while and come back, there’s nothing wrong with that. Besides, Lost Shores was bad, but Flame and Frost made good changes, and the content looks promising. It seems a little like you’re being over dramatic.

Added a few more ideas, and changed a few details for clarity.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’ll look into making a safety net for the iron forgeman fight if you die in the lava. Thanks for letting us know.

I also think you guys need to look into the loot issue. You’re already being punished for dying, or is that a double punishment for dying during a boss fight? Repair cost and no loot.

Medron Pryde.6850:

I haven’t been to Dredgehaunt Cliffs yet, wherever that is. I’ve been slowly completing areas when I feel like it, and just haven’t made my way there yet.

Honestly, it’s by far my favorite zone in the game. It has a lot of events, great creature variety, and I just love the feel of everything. I’ve been doing my dailies here for months now, and that hasn’t changed since the patch came out.

I mainly play with my guardian. My breather is masterwork, which I bought at Orr, and my spear is exotic.

The 1st attack is a projectile, it’s pretty slow and soft.
The 2nd skill does a good jab, but I’ve found that if the enemy is just above or below you, the attack will miss, so it kinda works on a flat plane and doesn’t quite register the 3D environment.
The 3rd attack is aoe, but the cooldown is quite long so when you’re swarmed it can’t really be relied upon to save your neck.
The 4th skill is a retreat that creates a wall of blades, which is useful, but the blades rarely damage foes all that much.
The 5th skill pulls a foe and burns the target. One would think it’s gold in conjunction with skill 4, but isn’t all that reliable for good damage.

My main problem is when I’m swarmed. Though I love skill 2, it frustrates more than anything. You need to position your target perfectly, or else you’ll see more misses than numbers. I used the trident more while leveling until I switched to spear, so I’m considering giving it a go if I can pick up a decent one.

As for my alts. My engineer is killer underwater due to grenades being brilliant. I love the spread of damage, and consistent battering it delivers. Although, this is mostly due to grenades being great all round.
I haven’t used my elementalist underwater a lot, so I’m not sure which attunements work best. I used fire and earth a bit, but remember both feeling a bit underwhelming.

Wait, I remember that the combo kills weren’t working for everyone, so they reset the daily requirements a bit after that. Couldn’t that be why some people have one extra, because they were able to do the combo kills?

But weren’t laurels introduced at the same time the dailies were reset? I know my dailies reset at 02:00 each morning and that was the time when I started downloading the patch.

To be blunt, I dislike the underwater combat. I’d really, really, really want to like it, I’ve even forced myself into water DEs just see if it wouldn’t grow on me, but no. If anything it’s pushing me away, which is a real shame. Underwater graphics are amazing, but the combat feels finicky, it’s dull, and I can’t help but feel insanely weak compare to the feeling I get above water.

So, last time I tried it I really scrutinized the entire session, trying to see what it is that made me dislike it so. And that made me think what I’d like to see that would change that.

1. Movement. I feel don’t know why, but down there I feel so very sluggish and not in control of the situation. Sure that might add a certain level of realism, but it just detracts from fighting, and with enemies coming at you from all sides.

2. Skills. There are some skills that you can’t carry with you underwater, which is fine, it makes sense. Though it made me wonder why the opposite isn’t also true. Why aren’t there any underwater specific utilities? If underwater combat is a strong feature, then perhaps a few skills focused in this area might be useful.

3. Fighting. Another reason I realized I felt weak was while fighting, it felt as if I just didn’t make a real impact. Above water some most of the time it feels to me that my weapon attacks carried some oomph, but underwater I don’t feel that. Maybe the skills can be update to have more impact. Something else I dislike is the fact that enemies pack you not only from the sides, but from above and below as well, now there are so few skills to really deal with that. A rapid jab will sometimes not even hit a target right under me. I think skills should interact more with the vertical plane, and have more aoe or cone effects in different directions.

Well, these are my gripes. I’m sure you might have a completely different perspective on this. So what bothers you, and how will you change it? Maybe you love the water combat, which is good, but if there;s anything you’d lack to add onto it, what would that be?

That’s really stupid. I finished this in less than 15 minutes Dredgehaunt Cliffs. The events there have NPCs constantly battling the dredge and didn’t even need anyone to suffer a durability loss.

Southsun needs to die. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Kidding aside though, the place is beautiful, the creatures are interesting and the idea is great. Just too bad its so poorly designed. There’s so few events going on, and the enemies are a bit tougher, especially the big karka, but they drop nothing. There is even a slayer achievement for the karka, which doesn’t make any sense.

A few things I think will definite spruce this place up are:

• Huge meta events: Basically scrape all these lame small events. The island feels larger than life, but suffers from inactivity. Not only on the players’ side, but across the board. Design large scale events that escalate across the entire islands.
  The Consortium should definitely play a role here. Look we all already know they suck, they’re the reason the karka lashed out, and most of us dislike them. Play them off as the ignorant kittens that they are, and use that in the events. Let us challenge they’re ideals as much as we’re battling to save they’re idiotic hides from the karka.
  For instance, there can be a large event chain where they become interested in an artifact and take large scale initiative to get it, however, this item seems to rile up the karka. So the event chains require us to stop them, while also making sure the karka remain in check.

• Underwater: This was what a lot of people initially expected from the Lost Shore event. However, when there wasn’t any underwater sections, I heard a lot of people sigh with relief. The first problem is to update underwater combat first. A lost of people aren’t keen on it.
  Then the potential for underwater Suncove events can be implemented. Now the large scale chain events can go over and under the island, even take a person from one side to the other. That would be great, as this place is perfect from some much needed underwater epicness.

• Karka abilities: I was somewhat disappointed that all the karka possessed a crowd control ability and that was about it. I think they have far more potential, less CC more crazy. Like the crabs grabbing hold of you, or them rolling over players. That’s great, I love that, they should have more of that. For instance, the small ones spray you with a crippling effect. Why not rather have they’re spray apply a debuff called karka saliva. As it stacks you’ll receive odd effects, like dodging causes damage, and dealing damage causes bleeding, and higher stacks cause confusion, and then cripples you.

• Rewards: As of now the drops are terrible. But I’m sure this is a bug, as none of the vets drop anything, which isn’t right. Still I’m thinking the island can maybe have it’s own reward system. The game has so many tokens and another resource would be too much just for Suncove, so perhaps it can be a UI thing. When you arrive there, you’ll get a karka (or Southsun) kill meter, and the more you kill the higher you’ll score. Eventually you can give in your totals to chose a reward, like coins or karma or mats.

Since the update, whenever I log out of the game, I’ll receive an error message stating that the game is “Already Running” and that GW2 is unable to start because another copy is running or the copy has insufficient rights…

If I try to open the client again, the same message will popup. I then need to restart my PC for the client to work normally again, but when I exit the game again, the same error will repeat, and I need to restart again.

Did the patch break something, or what am I doing wrong?

TheDaiBish.9735:

• Weapon Skills 2 – 5 can now be chosen from a select pool (this is to facilitate balancing). Skills, however, will have to be ‘captured’ from mobs before they’re unlocked. Skill 5 will be able to house an Elite Weapon skill, which is only obtainable from the toughest foes.

That’s actually a very good idea! It captures (pun intended) the skill feel of GW1. There should just be some structure when it comes to dual weapons though, like there should always be 1 main-hand and 1 off-hand skill, while the other is optional. There will also be specific elite weapon skills depending on which two weapons you’re dual wielding.
I really love this idea.

• The buff / debuff system will be improved upon to give skills additional effects. This may lead to the introduction of Profession-Specific debuffs and buffs, such as Deep Wound for Warrior to take advantage of.

I’ve been going on like a broken record player how professions need something added to differentiate them, a mechanic that sets them apart and makes them contribute in a prof centric way when in a party. This is the best idea I’ve seen for this yet. Sort of how aegis is Guardian specific, each profession needs something like this.
Like deep wounds for a warrior, each profession should have a unique mechanic that only they can use. This would really differentiate them in a good way.

• We’ll also use our Fractals system to develop a system where Events get progressively harder a) the more times you complete them and b) the more players that get involved.

I suggested something like this a while ago, and I’m glad someone else said thought of the same thing. Event escalation could be a fun way to really amp up the intensity, especially if players have seen and done the same events over and over. This will allow some diversity in the event mold and bring a sense of uncertainty and life to what’s happening in the area.

• The Legendary process will be improved. This will include: Adding lore to weapons with is unfolded in Questlines reducing the Resource Grind required, add achievement requirements in their place.

Yes! So very much please. The scavenger hunt should only be the start. From thereon the journey of your legendary weapon opens up. I really like your randomization idea. Having the weapon build with a set of objectives, each assembled through numerous and challenging task, all the while learning the lore of the item. That’s what a legend should be about.

• While the Dragons still pose a threat, each of the races still have their own problems to contend with.

What I like about this is the self selectable objectives. Like starting a mission to find a lost child, or stop vermin from spreading through the city. It would be a nice break and fun task inside city borders.

• Blim the Bard is also looking for heroes to tell tales of their adventures for him to sing about. He’s handing out books for you to fill in with tales of epic battles and dangerous delving, which can be exchanged for some rare items.

This is so reminiscent of the GW1 storybooks. What I loved about those was that you could do a dungeon for a reward you needed, which happened to be a Zaishen mission and it’s completion was added to your storybook. I loved that your objective overlapped, and this is something GW2 needs more of, rewarding additions that you gain from different sources.

Just like with your Amaranth the Traveler idea, more tasks that will get you involved in the world is always a good thing.

• The Orders are also busy. So much so, they’ll be sending you Missions as and when they arrive.

Oh yes, I’ve been keen to see the orders play a larger part, especially for your character as a representative. Order centered tasks will really be great, and building a standing sounds great, because right now, you’re just part of an order, but it really doesn’t mean much.

• Mercenaries will be available for hire for Story Mode dungeons only.

This is actually very smart. Story dungeons are meant to, well, experience the story. It’s an introduction to dungeons, and since people don’t do them any more and the rewards kinda suck, I think having a party of NPCs would be a great way for solo, or even small party players to clear them.

Boss
I find it odd that Orr lacks a massive battle on the scale of the dragons. Instead of a rehashed Tequatl, I’d like to see something huge wade across the landscape, wreaking havoc. So as an example I’ll introduce something new, let’s call it the Grotesqosaur. Lame name notwithstanding, this large risen beast, built from discarded risen parts, can appear either at Malchor’s, Cursed Shore, or Straits. It has a specific place it will appear in each of these zones, but it’s timer wont be set, and the zone will be randomly chosen.

Like the other battles, it’ll be huge and you’ll require methods to take it down. Maybe deal damage and have it move into a specific spot to allow an airship bombardment to take care of it.

Rewards
All in all the drops will be the same, but with constant DES and risen swarming them, the drops shouldn’t be a problem. However, I’d like the game to implement something, though this will count across the board. For each step in a meta event you take part in, the reward should accumulate. That way you’ll be rewarded for taking part from its beginning and sticking around, and also for partaking in the story thereof.

Keeps
Another idea I had that might add a certain epic flair to Orr would be if there was a keep that stood as strategic value to whomever controlled it. Now the keep will be under constant risen assault, and while it’s under player control, the waves will grow larger and feature more advance enemies. Eventually giants will slam into the walls, while wizards rain fire and catapults batter away.

The keep can act like a WvW structure of sorts. When risen control it, there will in response be more veteran risen, but while under Pact control, more friendly NPCs
will actively patrol.

These are just a few things that I think would bring some insane flavor to Orr, and some of these additions could possibly even be applied to other zones as well.

I love the recent changes, it’s definitely an improvement. It feels like ANet have set it up for something larger when the heavy world updates roll out. To build on the design modifications going on, I’d like to share some of what I’d like to see in the future. And maybe you can share some of your own inputs.

Risen
As of now they are a lot like any other enemies you’ve faced since level one. It gets a bit old to see the same things repeated across enemies, and I think the risen should really differentiate themselves from those before them.

Enemies should have ways of fighting and require tactics. Instead of merely packing anti-CC skills and just wadding through them without really caring what they can do, it would be great if enemies had different strategies. For example:

- Brute – Melee players acquire constant stacks of bleed. At half health the Brute will raise its arms, taking only glancing blows. After three seconds he slams, knocking melee players back while dealing more damage the less health he has.
- Wizard – When two wizards come near each other, they’ll cause spouts of lightning to erupt in their proximity. When three wizards come close, a chaos storm will surround them.
- Pirate – Throws ricocheting daggers. The projectiles will bounce between players. Each hit renews poison duration.
- Preserver – Steals boons, place conditions on players. Nearby risen regenerate, nearby players take damage. Can fully replenish self from nearby risen corpse.
- Corrupter – Their arrows deal more damage the further a player is away. They have a rapid shot which deals accumulating damage and possibly chills if a player isn’t moving.

Just a few examples. Instead of merely smacking Brutes, a player need to be more aware of its proximity. Wizards become dangerous when close to one another. Pirates will need players to steer clear of one another, as close groups take the most ricochet damage. Preservers cause more trouble the more risen near them and the longer they’re in battle. Corrupters are dangerous at a distance and forces players to be on the move.

This is what I mean by strategy, the risen each have a strength, which will require tactics to fight. Especially so when different risen come together in a group.

Events
With only DEs in Orr, the place should be a hotbed of constant chaos. The place will come to chaotic life if there are always between 3 and 5 DEs happening, with risen swarming these places, creating anarchy. Wherever you go there will be mass fighting and places being swarmed, camps assaulted, and NPCs battling in the road, risen towers being taken by the Pact, siege weapons pounding them, siege weapons pounding the Pact.

Right now Orr has hot spots, but the entire Orr should be a hotspot of madness. When you leave the zone it should be to take a break.

Continued below

Red Falcon.8257:

One does not simply walk into Orr.

Yes, you do, actually. I do it all the time, it’s quite a leisurely site, take strolls through it all the time. On my own actually.

This patch feel like baby steps in the right direction. Next some bigger strides would be great. Orr could do with more DEs, a lot all at once, make it feel chaotic. Enemies can also do with a few crazy abilities to spice them up, and less of these mundane abilities we’ve been seeing from level 1. And one big boss enemy also wouldn’t hurt.

I don’t fee lied to, not at all. Instead it feels like there’s a lot of places the game still needs work. The game has had hits and misses, and that doesn’t mean we’ve all been lied to, just that we should give the devs our thoughts to help make the game better.

Legendary
I feel that the legendary system could do with more a bit more design. The scavenger hunt sounds like a very good start, but I’d really like the rest of the journey to acquiring your legend of a weapon to be a meaningful endeavor. It should involve an epic quest, a story that tells you of the history behind the item while you compile unique components to your exact that slowly builds its strength. The system right now feels like uber-crafting mode, and there’s noting legendary about that.

Gold
I’d like there to be more ways to get gold. The harder DEs should award more gold, and completing meta steps should accumulate gold with each step. Among other things, the game should throw spurts of gold your way in random spouts, like the heavy bags of coins available in more way, like from champion kills, or even a random reward from dailies. Then there should also be more things for you to use your coins on. More options are always a good thing.

Ascended
What a point of contention. I love the purpose, but hate the idea behind it. I love that it’s meant to be extremely rare items that are for the hardcore and dedicated players. I hate that it’s meant to replace exotics. I wish ANet could have made a compromise here, something along the lines of ascended gear having an extra slot for infusions where you can put magic find and gold find, while still having the gem stats built in, though at level with exotics. Ascended gear is making runes obsolete, and I don’t think I like them all that much.

Karma
More ways to get karma would be brilliant. Maybe veterans and Champions can have a chance to drop taste/vials/swigs of karma. Then I’d like the devs to keep on coming up with great karma rewards. The stuff added in Frost and Flame are brilliant!

Not really, no. It’s just arbitrary numbers that goes up to reach a new power peak. Besides, the game has scaling, so this can easily be used in expansion content.

It would make sense for the expansion zones to have a few low level ones for new races, and then the rest can be 60+, with a few 80s. Having a straight 80 zone already has an epic feel to it, so just throwing a 90 out there seems a bit redundant.

I’m curious though, how will a raise in level cap change trait designs.

I must say I like the new hero attributes design, it shows everything plainly at a glance, and you can build your character with more understanding.

However, the only attribute I’d like a bit more clarified is the armor amount. It says in its description that it reduces the damage you receive, but by what amount. All other attributes can be easily identified, either in the amount given or in skill descriptions. The only attribute that leaves its designs to your imagination is armor.

It would be useful to display just how much damage your toughness build is mitigating.

coldfire.3628:

6- Before the patch, I was doing my dailies while playing, and it was ok. If one day I missed something, I never felt punished for it. I was happy to unlock my daily while playing. And I really don’t know if i’ve even done one monthly (played this game since the first beta, I’m not a new player)

This sort of logic I don’t quite get. Beforehand when you didn’t complete dailies, you didn’t get rewards, now when you don’t do dailies, you wont get any rewards. So what if you don’t do them.

How are you being punished? Laurels aren’t an integral part of the game. In fact, they are rewards for completing certain tasks, but you moan because you don’t want to perform these tasks. Again, it’s a reward, not a freebee, or do you expect just to get them. The idea of dailies changing is to get you out of a routine, to get people playing and experience different facets of the game.

Actually, the dodge daily is a good way to actually let new players get a grasp of this mechanic. I completed it in two events, because dodge is a good way to avoid damage, no matter which prof you play.

I love the changes. Obviously it didn’t fix the game. There are still places I have gripes with, but at least ANet have acknowledged most of my gripes, which goes to show that they’re learning as the game progresses. This system is new, give it time and let them refine it, I’m sure it will improve over time.

And the game isn’t in beta, the feature is. Think for a second, they’re releasing something completely new, and give to the masses mid game. They can’t shut the game down and run a few week’s worth of tests every time a new system is incorporated. This is how MMOs refine new content, we play, they receive feedback, and improve.

Aboriginal.3796:

Well to be hones it’s just another broken promise in a looooooong line.
If that WvW update doesn’t totally blow my mind I’m outta here.

What broken promise? They promised the WvW update is next month, but now you’re angry that they didn’t implement WvW content in the non-WvW update… O_o

The achievements have been there for over a month now. Why are they listed when it’s not in the game yet? Wonder when we will get to see it though, because although the patches are great, I’m curious if there will be an activities focused patch, or if they’ll be added along with patches like the one we just had.

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

Check in with the heralds for updates. There are hints of things to come already in the game.

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

The playable Living Story content will start appearing tomorrow (January 29) at around noon Pacific Time in Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. When the events start in Diessa Plateau, you’ll be sent an in-game mail letting you know about it. However, if you’re already logged in when that happens, you need to change maps to receive it.

Bah, thank Balthazar I decided to check the forums for information. I’ve been running around Hoelbrak, Black Citadel, Wayfarer and Diessa for hours now. Started feeling like a bit of a boob. XD

dargosian.2704:

Azjenco.9425:

This system can even be called Consortium Achievements.

I’m not sure how that would fit in lore-wise though, considering that the Consortium is a) hardly a worldwide guild like the Zaishen Order, and b) disliked by the majority of Tyrians after the Karka business. Although, I wouldn’t mind having them coming back for a bigger role in Tyria, perhaps to redeem themselves.

Very true. I really dislike the Consortium, they’re just bad business.

I’d really like this to be Zaishen Achievements though, as they still play a role in Tyria, albeit minor in comparison to what they once stood for.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zaishen_Order

dargosian.2704:

Kind of lost here. What was the Zaishen? What did the Zaishen Challenges give back in GW1?

The Zaishen Order was form of a large guild in GW1, and they worked to protect Tyria from dangers. They were situated in the Battle Isles, and since it’s been destroyed in GW2, no one really knows where they are now.

They had specific repeatable challenges that players could perform, such as killing a specific boss, completing a dungeon, and doing a mission. There were even extra objectives that you could complete which would in turn net you extra Zaishen coins.

Now Zaishen coins came in three tiers, copper, silver, and gold, the last being very difficult to get. Since you were only rewarded in coppers, and needed to trade them to get silver, and you needed to trade silver in to receive gold.

Each of these coins had their own set of rewards though, copper being base consumables and gold being valuable items, like backpacks and weapons for instance.

This was a great rewards system, and although the new laurel achievement rewards sound spectacular, I still think a new subset of achievements that lure people to specific areas would do great. And I think weekly would work better, because it wouldn’t necessarily force the entire player base into one zone, thus neglecting all others. Weekly would allow players to play at their own pace, and methodically trickle players into the featured zone as they will.

This system can even be called Consortium Achievements.

Yes, I’m rather disappointed about this.

Khisanth.2948:

As for the suggestion itself. No thanks, last thing I want is another 3 bank slots wasted on tokens.

That wouldn’t really be a problem if ANet would finish implementing a token section in your collectables storage.

Why are people freaking out over this? This daily actually inspires me to improve some of my under leveled crafts. If that’s not inspiration, then just make a few things with your chef.

Since Wintersday there was a right click option to move tokens to a collectables stash, but it’s been greyed out. I saw no information on this in the patch notes, which sort of disappoints me.

Tokens take up needless space, and since this options been “half” implemented, the developers possibly agree with this. The option is in the right click menu, so why isn’t it being added into the game yet?

Chorel.1720:

It`s about 1100 MB… so a lot.

Holy kitten! And this patch is “small”. How freaking huge is the Feb and March pathes going to be?

Yeah, no idea what uncommon is supposed to mean, Also not sure what form of chest they’re referring to. I initially thought you’d have a chest above your minimap and when you click it, the items will go to your inventory. Now I’m not so sure.

DarksunG.9537:

*Honor of the Waves: Every Boss & mini boss

Yes please. Path 2 and 3 are already a schlep, though mostly because of the sticky underwater combat.

This was probably the only reason people still went to Southsun Cove. XD

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Just be patient…..my god!!!

Again, I don’t see how people get so worked up about this. It’s not like my suggestion somehow attacked you personally or even offended you in any way.

The point is, does the date mean the patch will hit when the clock strikes Monday, or just before the clock ticks over to Tuesday. I’m not attempting to get anyone heated up on this, and it’s odd that it somehow succeeds in doing so.

Basically, at the end of the day a lot of people on both sides get angry, therefor I thought there might be a better way to deal with this entire issue. And please leave divine beings out of this.

Vorch.2985:

I hate that suggestions like this will be placed into that god-awful suggestion forum and buried within 30mins…

Which is pretty much what happened in the end. :/

I still think a return of this concept would work though, and if more people had input we’d get a lot of good ideas on this idea. Zaishen is just be a placeholder title to build on the idea though, as I have no idea if they even exist these days.

Whenever I see the patch date, to me that means the date you’ll get to experience the patch. Let’s use the current one in question as an example, the 28th. That date to me means that when I wake up on the 28th and enter the game, that would be the date I’d first get to enjoy the patch. I’m starting to think the current scheme of things is more aligned towards releasing the patch at the end of the date used.

How do you understand the patch release dates, and what are your personal thoughts on how this matter might be handled? What would you change, if you’d like to see anything different at all?

P.S. Please don’t turn this into a back and forth exchange between the “you are pampered babies” and the “we demand satisfaction” crowds. I’m merely conveying my understanding on the entire issue and want to create an environment for a healthy discussion of views.

Garambola.2461:

I would love to know just enough to decide whether I should do my daily today or wait.

The daily is somewhat of a cornerstone for my playing. Every day some character gets assigned to do either all of it or the difficult part of finding fifteen specimens. They are awaiting new, different challenges eagerly.

My guess is wait.
It makes sense that the patch will only be implemented when they reset the dailies. It wouldn’t make sense for the daily objectives to suddenly change while you’re halfway through them.

Tken.1986:

The patch will be at exactly 11:59 pm, 1/28 Monday don’t worry.

So, Tuesday then to the middle and eastern parts of the world.