Guild Wars 2

That’s a very good idea. I’ve encountered this problem myself and think coloring the page would be a very good addition to the site.

Riselight.3695:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-2013/
I check this page everyday, and recently a new theme appeared, instead of the classic gw2 theme, there is now a darker theme

Aaah, nice catch.

Ruan Jacobz.1398:

The idea behind the legendary was, if you play the game very well, all over the place and for a long time, you will be able to get a legendary. YOU make it a grind because you are making it a goal instead of letting it happen naturally. That is all sir.

But the problem, and the reason why some players like me have been so heated against legendary weapons is this. When you see a player walking around with a legendary you think:
“Woah, he’s got Frostfang. That must mean he mined his rear end off, killed far too many Ice Elementals (amongst other things), and did HotW a lot, and had some pretty insane luck. Either that or he has a mountain of gold.”

What players are not saying though is:
“Woah, he’s got Frostfang. That must mean he located the Hidden lore of Frost, killed the Frost Reaver, he got to Frostfang and killed it to get the direwolf’s tooth. He collected all ten undying shards in the ice caverns and outlasted the Element of Frost’s challenge. He completed the entire deeper caverns, meaning he did the dire jumps, got the three freezing sickles within the time limit, defeated Gharr’s minions, and outran Gharr to enchant the tooth of Frostfang. Finally, completing the three sickle’s rituals at the end of each HotW expl paths.”

Which of these two sound more epic and befitting a weapon worth calling itself legendary?

Minion of Vey.4398:

This patch seems to be more about mechanic changes and new features, rather than content.

Which is good, game could use that. Doesn’t make for much of an exciting teaser though. It’d be funny to see them try though, like there’s this fully animated 3 minute movie of a guy being disconnected in fractals and then rejoining his group. “WOW FRED IS BACK! AMAZING I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD”

I just want this page updated:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/december-2012/
As you can see, January 2013 is marked as coming soon, and like all the previous updates, this one will have it’s details appearing on this page. There may not be huge content, but this is the place to map out all the upcoming features and mechanics. So I’m not all that worried about a 3 minute movie, rather the list of details that’s coming in the patch.

As for content though, ANet has noted that the Jan updated will lead into the Feb/March changes, so who is to say it’ll have absolutely zero story elements thrown in. For all we know, Jan might be a small foreshadowing of whatever comes after.

I hate how some people think, “well, it’s optional, therefor it has a right to be a mind-numbingly boring grind”. Really, how idiotic is that for a response. So it’s alright by some people’s standards that a piece of entertainment has the right to include tasks that represents the complete opposite of being entertaining.
It’s such a completely idiotic response, I can’t even wrap my head around it.

Some players are afraid that if ANet changes the legendary model to something actually challenging, then they wont feel special anymore. The fact of the matter is, anyone, EVERYONE, can get a legendary item. You just need to go to the same spots each day, farm it for hours on end, then throw in a dash of luck and there you are.

I’m sorry, but some people’s concept of being a legend is pitiful indeed.

Getting a legendary item should involve a huge quest that spans all corners of the Tyria, collecting parts by doing difficult and challenging tasks. Things that can’t be bought and requires skilled play to get. That’s what I’ll call an item worth being called legendary. But right now, we have grinding/farming/mega-bucks weapons.

I wont really call this “The reality of it all”. This thread is more like “My perception of it all”. As for your points.

Story
The first levels were great, I loved exploring the choices I made when I created my character. The orders and racial alliance missions weren’t bad, but I felt a bit disappointed that nothing I did beforehand carried over, and it felt like a story on rails, where I was told my story while my decisions were limited to where the NPCs wanted to steer me.

High level the story was terrible, not SOLID bad, SOLID TERRIBLE. Again, no choices from before played any role. Moreover it turned into Trahearne and friends, and there still wasn’t any deep and lasting decision making. The orders also turned for individualistic organizations with differing strengths and ideals into cannon fodder in Trahearne’s orrian assault. I hated it.

Combat
I wouldn’t call it boring, just limited. There is little diversification amongst skills and traits that actually feel like valid options. I feel traits require a good kick in the rear, ANet should take out the boring stuff and add more excitement.

That said, weapon skills being limited to five is a bit of an odd choice. Why not allow a system where you can modify weapon skills with available skill points? There wont be any need to totally overhaul skills or add in new ones, just options to change the functionality of those we already have.

I don’t PvP so I wont comment on that.

Content wise I cant agree more. ANet need to have more options to get the things in game that are important. Mats, tokens, gear, everything should have more than one way of obtaining it. And content needs to be as diverse as possible across the board. Diverse DEs, dungeons, mini games, and all of them should reward your time spent equally.

Trajan.4953:

This game is awesome, and judging your statements I would suggest you never gave this game a chance to begin with.

Really? You’re not adding anything to the conversation. I love this game to bits, but a person needs to be blind to think it’s perfect. Even the designers say that it can only grow from here. It helps them a lot more if we discuss what we would like them to improve upon, rather than sitting back, telling people to go back to WoW, and claiming this game is perfect as is.

Well, the patch is small in comparison to Feb/March, but there’s still quite a few things coming. According to this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Colin-on-MMOFTW there will be a lot going on. It isn’t a huge patch, but from the already mentioned changes, I’m eager to see what the unmentioned stuff will be.

Each month the monthly event page first gets updated with a teaser, revealing the name, i.e Lost Shores or Wintersday, along with a paragraph of what to expect. About a week thereafter the page is fleshed out with more details and information.

Will we be getting a January teaser, or will the page be updated with full information immediately?

Some really great ideas.

i would like to see them removed, and instead to have a set number of treasure chests, discoverable in different zones every day, different for every person.

This I kinda like though.

The idea of having special chests spawn in the world could be brilliant. They’ll have a higher than average drops rate, and have a chance to give players special items only found in them.
These chests can perhaps respawn in different locations say once a week. It would give players incentives to explore the world and to keep on the look out for the select few chests.

Plus, they can be worked into dailies or even monthlies.

With daily variations coming up, what dailies would you like to see. Here’s some I thought of:

• Kill XX amount of Minotaurs/Imps/Wind Riders (some nice choices since they are quite scattered all over the world)
• Collect XX Globs of Ectoplasms (there are ways to acquire them and would be a healthy injection into the market)
• Craft XX items (though I think this should be implemented when you can choose your dailies)
  There are a lot more, but I’d like to hear what other players can come up with.

Also, during the livestream it was mentioned that among the new achievements, rezzing and rallying are candidates. I don’t know about these two, it feels like it encourages players to “lose” fights more than it encourages them to work together, if you know what I mean by that.

I feel there are better potential for teamwork achievements out there. Some of my ideas:

• Finish XX combos in an ally created field
• Complete XX DEs while grouped
• Do XX mini dungeons
• Defeat a zone boss in a group

Thief
Elementalist
Mesmer

Or as they would be referred to in my native language skop, skiet en donner…
Actually, I don’t think they’re that bad, they just need some tweaks and everything will be alright. I really think with a bit of work and good feedback, ANet can really make the classes as balanced as possible.

cesmode.4257:

Q: Dynamic system in open worlds – how will it evolve – make it more understandable, more rewards

Changes to Orr at end of month – adding some new effects, environment zones, rewards
Continue building lore/story – between content patches we will add in new events, new guild stuff.

Ah yes, saw this a minute ago on Dulfy’s transcript. Did they elaborate at all? Because this doesn’t explain a whole lot.

What does new effects refer to? What does environment zones mean? Rewards sound good, but in what sense, drops or DEs, or what? Building lore and story, does it mean the story missions in the area will be changed or expanded on.
I like the sound of new events though, and guild content in Orr does sound exciting.

Ruprect.7260:

Can you imagine trying to fight Kohler in a PuG after this change LOL.

Kohler is actually not all that hard to deal with. It takes one or two fights to learn his prompts, but once you know the exact timing of his pull, it’s rather easily avoidable.

It’s a very dull fight though. It’s merely a case of smacking a wall of health, timing a dodge, continue hitting, etc. Rinse repeat for a few minutes … a very mindless dull fight.

DancingPenguins.9875:

Do people seriously have trouble with him? His red circles are pretty generous. They won’t one shot glass cannons, they have enough delay that you can walk out of them. The key is to not twitch dodge and strafe out instead.

What I dislike and have encountered a few times is during phase two (unlike one, and I don’t know three, never get a group to do it…), his circles tend to overlap and extend quite a bit in a confined space. Sometimes the circles overlap so much that you can’t clear it with one dodge roll, and the damage is enough to go down.

I missed the second part of the livestream, and apparently they spoke about changes coming to Orr. Since there isn’t a recording of the second part (thanks for being useless, twitch), can anyone tell me what they talked about?

There’s a recording of the first part of the discussion here:
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/357921586
But I can’t find a recording for part 2… :/

Will there be a transcript?

Colin touched upon DEs in his blog, and that they’ve “barely scratched the surface”. What really caught my interest was:

To complement this concept of regular world events with strong stories and themes, we also need to build on and strengthen our existing open world and its persistent content. The more persistent events we can provide in a specific area, the less often each of the events in that area needs to occur, which in turn adds to the sense of an ever-evolving open world.

I’m a little unsure what this means. Did he mean to say that a single event will persist a longer stretch of time, meaning events will need to restart less? Or did he mean that there will be a greater concentration of events in one area, like say five overlapping events, meaning you’ll see a single event less because the game will be constantly cycling through the five.

I hope it’s the later, because it will give the world a more lively feel. When you’re in a zone you’ll see more differences in the events going on at the same time and give a more “realistic” feel.

This makes me wonder where events are heading in the future, since ANet is merely scratching the surface.

I hope achievements (not necessarily dailies, mind you) go the direction of Zaishen missions. Where every time you log into the game you have the option of a certain specific set of tasks. Each day you will go to specific areas and complete these tasks, then you’re rewarded in kind. There can even be a “Zaishen” achievement rank associated with it, whereby you unlock more items to buy the higher your “Zaishen” achievement points are.

@Chaster Sharpshooter and kiba
Alright, I’m not calling karma items useless at all, you seem a bit outraged by what I said. After reviewing what I said, I feel I’ve misspoken, so let me try again.

I was hoping that there would be word on more meaningful variety injected into the karma system. I’ve taken into account the exotic armor set, the cultural and Seraph rare weapons, the gathering tools and the consumables, and I know you need obsidian shards to craft.

The reason I felt Karma is being left out is that there is this entire resource that you can get all over the game, it’s almost a core part of gameplay, and yet there is no mention of more options being added to it.

Instead of exotic items having one skin, why not add more, perhaps have each temple display a unique skin. And on top of that allow us to buy sigils and runes.
Design weapons and armor for the different regions, i.e. Ascalonian, Krytan, etc. and let us buy them with karma. While Orr merchants sell rare (or exotic) Orrian weapons.
Let karma vendors sell some food consumables that you can’t get anywhere else, like a consumable that has a chance to cast a random boon on you whenever you attack, or another that inflicts a condition on a foe whenever you take damage, or one that heals you when your health is low. How about selling gathering tools that have 200 uses.

I didn’t intend to say that karma is useless and there needs to be something added to give your karma meaning. What I am saying, however, is that there is always room for more variety, and I’m pretty sure neither of you are against the idea of having more options.

Nilm.2984:

I have a feeling this is going to be tied into the system they are working on for other ways of getting legendary items.

This I really wont mind. Karma has a lot of possibilities and due to the fact that you can get it just about anywhere doing just about anything, it really is the all round resource, and I hope ANet adds more options to it.

There are two things I’d really like to see.

1. A bit more customization in weapon skills.
Perhaps there can be a trait line that solely change the functionality of your weapon skills. Perhaps they can implement a separate system, which will allow you to spend skill points to buy some extra weapon skills, or even change the way a certain skill works.

2. Some more diversity among the profession.
Each profession has it’s own trademark mechanic, be it adrenaline or stealing. But I feel there should be more that backbone to the professions that make them stand out in parties for being strong on their own right.
Such as the guardian possessing aegis, I think more professions should have a function that only they can fulfill in a group. So instead of worrying about the trinity, people will start focusing on each profession’s strength and that something extra they add to combat.

Yes, I loved the old login. I have no idea why they took it away. Maybe they can bring it back in some way, but instead of making it a ‘login’ screen, they can turn it into a menu screen. With options like “New Character”, “Character Select”, “Game Options”, and “Cinematics”.
I’d personally love a way to view that last one, the game has such great cinematic scenes.

I would really like to hear a response on this. At present karma feels a bit lacking and underused.

I am completely in love with the achievement progression system mentioned in Colin’s blog today. The path the achievement system is going in sounds really rewarding, it will really help bring life into the game.

However, when I finished reading the blog, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that there was no mention made of any new karma rewards. This issue has been brought up on the forums and there’s a definite lack of meaningful items to buy with one’s accumulating karma.

When will karma receive some much needed love?

DaedalusDragon.3754:

You may not like the negativity of the nature of a complaint but they are ten times more useful than anybody saying “love you Anet, keep up the good work”. And this part will sound childish, but, the reason a lot of people have been so negative and not shown respect is because they haven’t been shown any either. Someone has to step up first and I highly doubt it’s going to be the community lol.

There’s a point between blind naivete, i.e. the “love you Anet, you can do no wrong” crowd, and the rage mongers, i.e. the “you suck ANet, you’ve destroyed everything you touch, thanks for a crappy game” crowd. Neither of these crowds make the game any better, and I believe the point in between is where every person who frequent the forums should be.

I personally love GW2. However, I’ve brought up so many dissatisfied points in these forums that I may be considered a whiner. That’s definitely not what I am though, for I believe that if you form criticism in a way where you point out what it is that you dislike and then formulate how you’d solve it, then you give the designers an exact idea of what your issue actually is. Blind rage and sucking up will do this game no good. We need more sound minded, rational individuals who hold thorough discussions about the game’s issues.

I will agree, there are a few things that ANet should have spoken up about, and it has annoyed some people. I think the problem is the severe lashing out that’s happened in the past. ANet have made a few missteps (ascended exclusivity through fractals, as an example) and the critical (instead of constructive response) caused them to be weary. A certain level of distrust have formed on both sides. This will need to heal, and I think ANet feel the need to take baby steps to see how they inform the player base on what is going on, so as to avoid needless aggravation. Transparency is key. But ANet can’t quite spew every little detail that happens behind the scenes, it’ll be anarchy. They still need to find the perfect spot where they supply exactly what we need at the right moment.

However, if you consider the AMAs, the PvP podcast, the developer response on forums, and blogs every now and again, ANet is definitely not trying to be offish towards us. In fact, it feels to me like they’re still in that process to find the best method to break news, and respond to player input.

I will put it this way, the game has some severe lacks. There are areas that feel unpolished, there are bugs that drag the game down, and there are parts that feel unfinished.

Now let me shine my positive light on that by making two points.

1. The foundation this game has going for it is strong, very strong, so solid that this game can potential grow larger and a lot more fun than any MMO currently out there. And it’s supported by my second point:

2. The team behind the game. They are some of the most dedicated individuals I’ve seen, and it’s clear how passionate they are to get this game to the heights it deserves to be.

Now, to accomplish said goal, they’re going to need us as a guiding light. If we make our voice strong on what we want in the game, they will listen. And that’s how I feel about this whole matter.

ColinJohanson.2394:

There will be a blog post in around week or so that summarizes the high level plan for the first 6 months of 2013 for Gw2.

Then each of the individual releases for January, February, etc. will have their own release pages on our website, as well as blog posts describing specific important new features where appropriate.

Brilliant, short and sweet. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks, Colin.

Will there be a January focused blog to detail the changes coming? Or will the incoming blog summarizing the plans for the first half of 2013 effectively cover everything that’s happening in Jan?

kendokken.3257:

It’s set that way on purpose. To entice people to buy gems. Just like EVERYTHING else in this game

You can buy more slot spaces on your screen with gems? O_o
I must have missed that one…

Anyhow, OP has a solid point. I also hope ANet revamps the start up screen, it feels a bit bland and lacking. Could it be too much to ask that they bring back the beta start up in some way or form and incorporate that into a new selection screen.

Rukia.4802:

Izzy said they don’t want to add more pvp modes because wahhh they are too hard to add content to so I doubt anything more than one mode would be in the game.

Let me explain it a bit better.

Guild Red gathers their members in the guild hall, then “marks” the guild as ready for an invasion, while placing something like 100g up for grabs. Guild blue accepts the challenge and then every member of Blue receives the option to invade Red.

The battle will unfold in Red’s guild hall, where members of Blue can invade any time, so long as the invasion goes on. Blue needs to kill all of Red’s members present in the guild hall, including NPCs. If someone dies, that player won’t be allowed to join in the invasion or defense until ran its course. Anyone who joins the game while an invasion is going on, or wants to finish a DE or something first can do so, and join in at any time.

If Blue clears all of the Red members present in the guild hall, Blue will receive the 100g. If Red successfully defends their guild hall, they will receive 100g from Blue. Anyone who participated will receive some karma, while the winning team receives double and survivors receive triple.

That was sort of the idea. There are no matched numbers or anything like that, and the loser stands to actually lose something. It’s more chaos than an organized sPvP match-up.

Rukia.4802:

So, a deathmatch type GvG?

I’m not clear if you know that a form of GvG already exists from GW1

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_vs_guild

I’m well aware of that, which is why I called it an interesting twist to GvG.

I do know that GW2 can have more than one way to GvG, don’t you? They can definitely bring back the previous modes, but I thought this might make a fun addition to those ones.

I know this is a long way off, but I thought of an interesting twist to GvG.

When the game finally implements guild halls, there can be a mode for guilds to issue a challenge, where a challenging guild can then invade their guild hall. The two sides can then battle it out, and the last guild with members left standing will receive a prize according to an incentive set at the start, say gold (or maybe even items), along with something extra for survivors and the victorious guild.

This could be an interesting way for guilds to settle rivalries, or just compete in fun and interesting match-ups. There can perhaps even be a GvGvG match-up.

Sirakou.8170:

I don’t understand anything of what’s being said, except for “League of Legends” and “system”. I don’t see how any type of system could correctly transfer from a “MOBA” to an RPG. They’re two different genres, with two different playstyles. That’s like trying to add FPS elements to a platformer.

Actually, I think a MOBA style sPvP map might not be too bad. I think Anet could definitely make something like that work.

As for dueling, I really hope ANet wont just plonk it into the normal game, it wont fit alongside normal PvE. If they do add dueling, then they need to do it right. There should be a sort of arena in the mists where two players can duke it out, and that would even fit nicely with the OP’s request for an elo system.

Kromica.2831:

I personally can’t justify spending $40-$60 on the 12-20 hours that most sp games are these days, better things to buy.

You really, really need to have a look at some of the SP games out there. There are quite a few games that can last you more than 25 hours, even into the hundreds. Plus, these games have great gameplay and can really get you invested in the colorful world the designers created. Here’s my pick list:
Skyrim, X-Com Enemy Unknown, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3

The best part about being a GW2 fan is not having a a sub fee holding you down, and the constant updates pulling you back in. Without a monthly fee you don’t feel obligated to stay with the game.
You don’t need to play GW2, you get to play GW2.

NetherDiver.6079:

Not to mention that huge content patches are coming within the next 1 or 2 months which will further add “profit”. So yeah, I also challenge you to review this game in the next two months, it’ll be a much better game then.

Well, it’s not only the next two months, they’re planning on adding content each and every month. Now how’s that for a investment.

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

That depends.
In 2 months the new updates will be out and maybe your opinion might be a tad different.

I’m sure by now many of you’ve seen that if you right click on your dungeon tokens, and even badges of honor, a greyed out option to Deposit Collectable appears on the menu. So, if it’s in the game, then it must mean there’s a collectable tab coming soon, doesn’t it? Or is this an odd coding error? If it was intended, then why’s it on the right click menu before the feature’s been implemented?

P.S. If I can ask two favors though:
1. Please add more than one stack in the token collectable tab. Vendors and recipes require more than a single 250 stack of these items, so only being able to have one stack of 250 in collectables and there rest still in your bank wont completely solve the whole space problem.
2. Allow vendors to view your tokens straight from your collectables, that way you will see exactly how many you have and what you still need without having to run back and forth between bank and the vendor.

Random is good and all, but I agree. A single pack should definitely not give you two of the same kind.

Decrypter.1785:

Heres what im hoping for :

Guild halls
More guild perks + weekly guild quests pvp/pve
More weapon skill choices + elite weapon skills
Guild v Guild pvp
New exotic crafting recipes
TP preview feature
TP more detailed search options
Better loot scaling (Noway should Dungeon loot be better than zone Event loot )
New karma rewards
New Faction rewards ( Earned through doing Faction quests ) Vigil,Orders,Priory
W v W rewards and scoring improved
sPVP new game mechanics
Achievements , More titles And rewards for completing and ranking up

Your post is filled with awesome-sauce:
Guild halls, more guild perks, guild events, and GvG are what this game needs, cause right now, guilds feel a little left behind and under appreciated.
Weapon skills or customization would really do character options some good, and I’m hoping it’s something ANet is considering.
TP preview, yes please.
Loot scaling would be great, as the open world feels a major step behind dungeons.
Karma rewards would be brilliant, because the only worthwhile thing to spend karma on is to get exotic gear.
Faction rewards, would be a treat, maybe implement a faction token system that can function a bit like Zhaisen dailies worked in GW.
WvW is almost not worth mentioning, cause I’m sure we’ll be seeing them in February
More achievements and variety, yes please!

I’ll also add:
The scavenger hunt would be a great addition during the Jan/Feb/March update period, as well as some legendary diversity, as in more ways to building a legendary than just the options in game now.
A dye saver, where you can save one set of armor colors so you can switch between your current and saved sets as you like.

Perhaps instead of having small icons piling up under the target’s health bar, why not have boons appear at the left side of the target display and the conditions appear to the right of the target display, next to the head icon? That way their size can be double what it is now and still leave the screen uncluttered.

tigirius.9014:

JaironKalach.4938:

tigirius.9014:

LOL I was hoping for fishing too! complete with props we can plop down and a slew of new recipes and the ability to fish up gear like rings and back items.

I’m just picturing it in my head… 2 months from now, the forums filled with posts about the Jan 29 release that broke the manifesto and introduced new horrors of grind… That’s right, the fishing grind… ;-)

That would be hilarious. I personally wouldn’t mind the fishing grind LOL It’s much more relaxing then being 1 shot over and over again by a boss that’s much too powerful for the level of the fractal you’re in and having to rez and run rez and run over and over again. Oh and Fishing would be open world I’m sure. hehe

Imagine if fishing becomes one of the ways to obtain ascended gear!! XD It will become one of the hottest new activities in Tyria.

Seriously though, it would be great if you could get mats from fishing that you can craft good gear with, which can also be obtained from in other areas of the game. I think it would be great if you are strongly rewarded no matter what you do, be it WvW, dungeons, world kills, or even something as seemingly mundane as fishing.

Colin, since the blog that will outline the prospects for 2013 are still weeks away, can we at the very least get a teaser between now and then to hold us over. Maybe say on this page:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/december-2012/
Please, I’ll grovel if I have to. Please, please, come on, you know you want to.

gkrit.9416:

This suggests that the devs still want professions to play out in a particular way.
So in the end, you wouldn’t choose to tank but instead do what an elementalist does best… Cast spells and not the the focus of enemy attacks.

Forget the trinity, the trinity is pure crap. Why would anyone want their preferred profession to be boxed into a specific playstyle, just to fir into a model.

Why not make each profession unique and have them all add something specific to the party. If you have a guardian, he should be the guardian in the party, not the tank, and if you have an engineer, he should be the engineer, not the healer. The trinity limits your class, have each profession bring a special mechanic that adds to the party.

I would rather have ANet define each profession, flesh them out more so they can each have something unique to accomplish in a party dynamic, rather than having them box GW2 into an old playstyle, just because it seems there are no other options.

Zogyark.4597:

kangaroo I agree with your OP, I used to be scared of orr too, specially on my first 80 but now… Now I just pwn those noobs undead.

People just need to L2P

Orr is hell, welcome to hell.

Orr is hell? Nah, more like, Orr is a leisurely day at the spa, which involves some annoying acupuncture.

Actually, there’s been a lot discussed in the thread since the OP, so maybe you need to L2R before dropping an L2P on the topic.

kangaroo.8753:

“No, that’s the champion you see fighting above Orr. If you’ll look at the shape of Zhaitan’s wings and it’s muddleheaded visage, you’ll see the dragon in the sky is not him but one of his champions.” OK sorry my mistake^^

I agree on most you write, not with all….I just don’t sit back and say, "yeah, well, that’s the way it is” , i want them to improve it… at least i don’t find it NOW as an horrible experience mostly describe it, i like it, then if they make it better it’s ok for me.

Not to point you out specifically, but some players seem to feel that way. I’m glad you also want the game to improve. I love GW2, it’s a brilliant game, and I feel it will only grow so much better from here on.

I just wish more people would give suggestions on how and where they want the game to improve. How would ANet know if we don’t tell them where we feel the game needs improvements. I really don’t hate the game when I say what I dislike about Orr, I don’t really hate Orr either, but I do feel it’s the one place (Suncove aside) that can use the most improvement, and I think this can be the most mind-blowing zone in the entire game. We just need to tell them what we’d like to achieve that.

kangaroo.8753:

“You can see the fighting above Malchor and that isn’t him, he is in Arah. You can see from the dragon fighting in the sky that it’s one of his champions, the same design as Tequatl, whom you fight in Sparkfly Fen.”

…. the story is all about the pact that encounter so many difficulty along all storyline, they are in evident inferiority during all the game, i bet they don’t want to controll orr, but to get close much possibile to zhaitarn, to kill it. Risen are thousand of millions, in my opinion they should get half tyria to defeat them all…event that moron of trehearne which is the supreme commander, is not a commander and discover the night before that in morning he should kill a dragon xdxdxd pact forces seems to me a bit undernumbered, and less powerful than forces, their attack and improve is little, they can only do what in orr they do. Remember one thing, we play mmo togheter..

No, that’s the champion you see fighting above Orr. If you’ll look at the shape of Zhaitan’s wings and it’s muddleheaded visage, you’ll see the dragon in the sky is not him but one of his champions.

Alright, you also shouldn’t mix story and open world in this instance.
The story missions are focus along the lines of you breaking Zhaitan’s hold, such as attacking the Eye to stunt his observation over Orr and killing the mouth so he can consume less magic to regain his power. The context of the story (i.e. small skirmishes to lessen the hold of Zhaitan) and the open world (i.e. clashes between the two armies) coexist with one another. What you’re achieving during the personal story happens along the sidelines, while the larger battle across Orr coincide with those events.

Same as when you attack Zhaitan, it’s not the entire army taking on him. No, the armies of Tyria and the risen are still fighting across Orr, while you and a small band of heroes make a push into Arah in an attempt to take Zhaitan down in his lair. And forget Trahearne, he’s the worst part of the story, and many will agree with me on that.

Like you said, we play an MMO together. That is why I’d like Orr to reach it’s full potential. There is so much they could still do with it, so much opportunity. If the enemies weren’t just there to stunt single players, but make actual events more challenging, and if events gave good rewards, then that would grant players some incentive to participate in these events. If enemies were more than furnishings in the orrian country side, but rather challenging veteran scout parties with worthwhile loot, then players would certainly team up to take these groups down.

But as it stands, players find it an annoyance because single players struggle crossing the countryside. As I stated, more meaningful events, more meaningful challenges and more meaningful rewards will make Orr a worthwhile experience.

Cerbeius.7129:

You mean the new Lighthouse? It was already there during Wintersday.

Didn’t even notice the new lighthouse until now. Must say, the new one looks a lot better and I love the fact that the old one will always remain as a reminder of the karka invasion.

Coldtart.4785:

Putrifier cc lasts 2 seconds and they cc themselves for the same duration, spectral guards use an actual unmodified player skill to cc, what mob exactly has such insane cc that player skills only offer a ‘sliver’ of the cc time?

Well, Purifier’s Pull and Spectral Guard’s stun, and on top of that…
Risen Drake -> Knock Back
Tar Elemental -> Immobilizes
Risen Corrupter -> Chills
Risen Bull -> Knock Back
Risen Farmer -> Stuns
Risen Spider -> Pulls
Earth Elemental -> Cripples
Risen Subjugator -> Fears
Risen Fisher -> Stuns
Risen Acolyte -> Immobilizes
Risen Pirate -> Cripples
Risen Villager -> Immobilizes
Risen Despoiler -> Blinds, Dazes and Stuns
Risen Raptor -> Dazes wounded foes
Risen Wizard -> Blinds
Risen Giant -> Knock Down
Risen Bruiser -> Blinds
Risen Sea Trutle -> Knock Back
Risen Ravager -> Cripples
Risen Quaggan -> Stuns
Orrian Spectral Juggernaut Bow -> Cripples, Immobilizes
Orrian Spectral Juggernaut Hammer -> Knock Down
Just to place it into perspective.

What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is, this is terrible design. They just smacked CC on almost everything and somehow thought that’s fine, it’ll be a good challenge, but it’s bloody lazy. If we just sit back and say, “yeah, well, that’s the way it is” then we condone this as alright, and ANet will continue doing this in future content.

I’m willing to give ANet a lot more credit than that. I know if they’ll sit down, place some thought into it, then they can give the orrian enemies some more meaningful abilities that make you think as you fight them, and actually require some skills and tactic changes depending on what enemies you face. Packing stability and charging through does not make for meaningful, tactical combat.

@kangaroo.8753
Now, there should be a presence of actual risen scouting (if you now understand what I mean by that) in between these camps. And this should be done by small groups of veterans or single champions. They will act as strong, challenging fights, from a story point because they are Zhaitans eyes, but from a gameplay aspect because they’ll drop good loot.

To accomplish actual, meaningful combat, the enemies need an overhaul of their abilities, less CC more challenge. I’ll rephrase something I posted elsewhere:

What it should be like is that each and every enemy unit should have different strengths and tactics when you fight them, and that is what will then make them dangerous, they’re own unique abilities, not the fact that they could stun and jump you.

Let me give an example, one enemy can have a strong range attack when you stand still, while another enemy might have escalating bleed stacks when you stay in melee too long as well as a charge ability, and another enemy can do ricochet shots that become dangerous when groups of players stand too close together. So, if you fight a group of these, basically you’ll need to keep moving, you’ll need to keep an eye on the melee guys who powerup their charge and also not stick too close in a group.

And then you have the veterans and champion who’ll have more abilities and trickier mechanics, almost like mini boss fights.

Like I said, Orr should be about constant events where you battle to help make the push, where you take and keep camps while they make an advance. It shouldn’t be about constant maul of the landscape because enemies everywhere are there just for the purpose of rooting you and keeping you constantly fighting, no.
It’s like ANet missed the point and tried to make evoke dangers in the wrong places. The draw of Orr should be the battles around encampments where constant battles and rewards against tough enemies remain the strong focus. Players should feel invested in the Pact making a push deeper into Orr, not stunting players who avoid these to travel the lands.

kangaroo.8753:

True, i want zhaitarn makes his move during night and get all tyria, then he win and kill us all. Guy you got the point in military strategy, but the game is studied upon us, and it’s a game that must be played. Plus we are not in guerrilla, that’s their territory also….i mean, consider the flow of time, the land is big, is almost like risen are there in every place , because in those place they “rise up”, from someone who die there…zhaitarn is fighting in the sky (you can see him during play in cursed shore) meanwhile pact forces try desperately to take the step to go near him, and risen that are near those try to take them back, and they did it because we are not help pact defend it…that’s why contested waypoint is… Don’t get what you suggest. Imho for me is a fair compromise in what it should be and what a game has to be…

You can see the fighting above Malchor and that isn’t him, he is in Arah. You can see from the dragon fighting in the sky that it’s one of his champions, the same design as Tequatl, whom you fight in Sparkfly Fen.

According to the lore, Zhaitan doesn’t fight his battles personally he remains in Arah. The reason he can do so is because he can see everything from the perspective of his risen. This means he should have a complete tactical point of view of everything happening on every location where he has risen stationed. He is supposed to have an exact picture of Orr, and even beyond.

But you’re saying he needs to act stupid, or else he’ll kill us? Is that supposed to excuse the bad design of the Orr invasion? You said it yourself, this is their territory, so from a logical standpoint, Zhaitan will use expendable, fast troops, such as risen animals like the eagle. They can give him complete awareness of Orr. This will allow his other risen (the ones just standing around, your so-called scouts) to actually join the battle. What it sounds like you’re saying is, “we don’t stand a chance, so make him look stupid so we have a chance…” It’s the designers job to make us believe that Zhaitan is insanely powerful and that we — the good guys — are making a valiant push into his stronghold.

As for the Pact offensive. What offensive? They man camps and a few risen batter away at them during a few DEs. What I suggest is more, better organized DEs where risen battle to take the camps. Between these attempts the Pact should send out supplies to camps deeper inside orrian territories. If the supplies get to the next camp, then they can better defend against them. This makes the “advance” a lot more critical. As you can see, if one camp is lost, then it’ll starve the next camp and it will be weakened, and that will starve the next camp, and the next. Basically, players will need to make a conscious effort to fend Pact camps and supply caravans to ‘hold Orr’. Hope you understand what I mean now. There should be less risen where nothing is going on, and more battles happening around encampments and along the roads.

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