Guild Wars 2

Dusty Moon.4382:

Bellizare.5816:

Pretty much the whole April Feature Pack was a colossal waste of time and energy. Really looking forward to the September one.

To you it was – maybe to other’s it wasn’t. Please state your opinion as that, not as a fact.

IN MY OPINION> Pretty much the whole April Feature Pack was a colossal waste of time and energy. Really looking forward to the September one.

R U happy now?

I have not been able to get up any enthusiasm for leveling a new character since the Feature Pack. Got one to 58 and was so bored that I deleted her.

My bank is full of boosters and junk that I’ll never use, and I have much gold and even a couple of thousand jewels that I really don’t need to spend. I had so many transmutation charges that I made special sets of armor and weapons for my key runs, but stopped that since there’s nothing in the chests that I need.

Still pop on one of my 80’s on occasion to do LS, a daily, or just mess around since it’s free.

Pretty much the whole April Feature Pack was a colossal waste of time and energy. Really looking forward to the September one.

So it’s not just me : )

Thought about buying a second digital deluxe account since GW2 is on sale. Then thought about new trait system. Then decided not to buy.

Zok.4956:

Pandaman.4758:

I learned from the first three episode: be ranged. I spent the entire fight being glad I didn’t do the latest episode with my condi thief.

Well I tried this fight melee only. I died a lot. When I was naked I thought is seems I did something wrong, I switched to ranged, looked for a kind of safe spot and finished it naked without dying again. I like this fight and how you have to learn/understand it.

Greetings.

P.S. Has anyone done damage directly to the boss with pure melee?

Yes. GS Guardian. Used Staff on the plants, switched to GS when “Dragon” was vulnerable. I got impatient as the staff damage was taking too long.

I just opened the game on windows 8. Are you trying from the desk top?

Daggos Skelito.2910:

There is a positive side to all this, I have ALOT more gold now! In it’s current state, making alts are a pain so I’m saving alot by not outfitting them and purchasing gems for other stuff.

Soooo….. we can rule out gold sink for this terrible change

Yep, lots of gold and nothing to spend it on.

It’s pretty much the same fight that they have used over and over again in the LS. Kill the junk that “Re-energizes” the “Boss”, do damage in the short time that “Boss” is vulnerable.

It’s more than a little tedious and repetitive. EZ to do if you are patient, but an enormous time sink for very little gain.

Hard to believe that anyone actually found this to be enjoyable.

Yeah, always take ranged into these lame “Boss” fights.

Seriously, not so much difficult as tedious and boring.

Good luck. In the end about all that they can do is turn off email verification.

Zygomaticus.7469:

Pics or no “GF”

Seriously, I helped my wife’s brother’s cousin’s girlfriend’s dog’s groomer’s therapist’s daughter’s teacher’s husband’s friend’s grandma level a Mesmer from 0-80 this morning and we had no problem getting all the traits and also 10,277 gold and a couple of precursors before we knocked off to go hang gliding.

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

Lheimroo.2947:

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

lol just keep leveling , come back to traits when you are 80. Any party wont take you for dung . go for hearths and story, there is no need for traits.

And there you have it. Even a proponent of the system admits that it might be better to ignore it entirely until you’re max level.

And .. it isn’t a failure, somehow, despite saying that?

failure is entire pve in this game it is easy as hell but anyway i dont care I have all traits on my guard my gf has all traits on mesmer , you can keep whining guys how cruel is this world , i dont care . geting traits or leveling is easy when you compare it to other mmos but keep complaining

When I read this stuff I just have to think, “Why did you post in this thread anyway?” And then I wonder why we just couldn’t ignore it.

Post us a pic of your “GF” m8.

Cameirus.8407:

Sebyos.4089:

Been asking it for more than a year now. The trait system was alright before and the only change needed to be great was the separation of traits and trait points.

The way it is now is very tedious and boring when leveling as there is no progression. You barely even get points to customize your character and by the time you get the traits, you are pretty much done developing your character trough skills which means you are left with little to do.

Worse than that, the trait was not very fun before, but Anet managed to take something positive and make it negative. The system went from 6/10 to -4/10 which is a huge change. Finding and unlocking the traits is now a task so dull and unpleasant it makes me doubt I made a good decision when coming back. I’m now leveling with some RL friends and I was enjoying the game until I released the trait system was butchered.

Fix it now.

I’m pretty much considering the game ends at 30 now. Been levelling a couple of alts, but once a character hits 30, I stop. When I run out of professions, which is soon, I dont see any point in continuing.

50 levels of grind, and work to unlock abilities to play my character as it should be played? F that.

Heh, I leveled a test toon all the way to 58 before I threw in the towel due to extreme boredom.

On the plus side, they nerfed PvE so much that I can pretty much solo all the lower tier content using just the junk that drops.

So, no need to spend gold or jewels. What a great business model.

Guhracie.3419:

Bellizare.5816:

Vayne.8563:

Illysharia.7286:

TheFamster.7806:

its more like buy gems then convert them to gold to unlock them for better and faster experience.

Bingo. That’s why the system was designed, and why it’s not being changed..and why Colin isn’t piping in to say anything. This is what happens when your monetizer comes from Nexon.

That would almost make sense if they didn’t use skill points as a way to gate it. Because no matter how much you spend, you’re not buying skill points. You still have to play.

So your theory doesn’t really hold together.

Well, obviously you are not aware that you can get skill points by buying BL chests and keys.

Guessing that after an appropriate interval, you will be able to buy them directly for jewels.

I’m all for bashing on this system, but this is some tin foil hat level conspiracy theorizing. Using the fact that you have the chance to get skill scrolls from black lion chests as evidence that this system is designed to milk people for money is really weak. If anything, they’re losing money on extra character slots that people might otherwise buy. Nobody seriously buys keys in the hopes of getting a skill point out of them. That’s just absurd.

And buying keys for any reason is absurd.

Guhracie.3419:

Bellizare.5816:

Vayne.8563:

Illysharia.7286:

TheFamster.7806:

its more like buy gems then convert them to gold to unlock them for better and faster experience.

Bingo. That’s why the system was designed, and why it’s not being changed..and why Colin isn’t piping in to say anything. This is what happens when your monetizer comes from Nexon.

That would almost make sense if they didn’t use skill points as a way to gate it. Because no matter how much you spend, you’re not buying skill points. You still have to play.

So your theory doesn’t really hold together.

Well, obviously you are not aware that you can get skill points by buying BL chests and keys.

Guessing that after an appropriate interval, you will be able to buy them directly for jewels.

I’m all for bashing on this system, but this is some tin foil hat level conspiracy theorizing. Using the fact that you have the chance to get skill scrolls from black lion chests as evidence that this system is designed to milk people for money is really weak. If anything, they’re losing money on extra character slots that people might otherwise buy. Nobody seriously buys keys in the hopes of getting a skill point out of them. That’s just absurd.

Lol, agreed. To call this a conspiracy gives way too much credit to the people that made one of the most idiotic business decisions in the history of internet gaming. As a matter of fact it is a mistake of Mythic proportions.

Vayne.8563:

Illysharia.7286:

TheFamster.7806:

its more like buy gems then convert them to gold to unlock them for better and faster experience.

Bingo. That’s why the system was designed, and why it’s not being changed..and why Colin isn’t piping in to say anything. This is what happens when your monetizer comes from Nexon.

That would almost make sense if they didn’t use skill points as a way to gate it. Because no matter how much you spend, you’re not buying skill points. You still have to play.

So your theory doesn’t really hold together.

Well, obviously you are not aware that you can get skill points by buying BL chests and keys.

Guessing that after an appropriate interval, you will be able to buy them directly for jewels.

Ashen.2907:

Bellizare.5816:

Ashen.2907:

Bellizare.5816:

Ashen.2907:

I think it is completely reasonable for a developer who has spent millions of dollars producing a game to encourage players to experience as much of that expensive content as possible

You make it sound like he spent his own money. I know that I spent my own money to buy the game.

I am referring to Anet as the developer of GW2.

Oops. But in any event, we are the consumers, and have paid it back several times over. And encourage indicates that there is some reward. The only reward here is something that was taken away from us in the first place.

So if you like the way it works, good for you. We will see in a year or so how it all plays out. I have 80’s that I logged in, ran the LS in a few hours and ended up with a bunch more gold that I don’t need to spend. How does this help the game?

Apparently I need to expand on my previous post.

I was agreeing with Majic’s commentary, and direct quote from Colin, on the benefits of encouraging players to try out different things in game. Encouraging people to try WvW is a good thing. A very good thing in my opinion because it has the potential to increase the replay value of the game immensely for a given individual.

Mandating killing a specific boss, or completing a specific zone, etc is not encouraging players to try different aspects of the game for the simple reason that, for example, finishing one particular zone is not really, from a game-play perspective, trying anything different.

The trait acquisition changes have not had an immediate impact on me because I prefer to play a single main character in an MMO. The change will have a long term impact on me because I generally do play around a bit with alts over time to get a better understanding of the mechanics of each given class, from the inside, for PvP and PvE group play. In the long term the change is likely to make my exploration of the entirety of the game experience less enjoyable.

My apologies for not posting at greater length previously. I felt that most of what I had to say had been said many times over.

Thanks for expanding. I also tend to play in your style. I have two 80’s, essentially the main and alt. I really loved rolling up temp alts to try other careers-races-builds. I’ve deleted so many 60-80’s.

But, I did spend on them, and bought jewels. Now I have little reason to buy, and so much gold that when I see something cool on the TP, I just convert for the jewels.

I still love the game. Now I roll alts and burn them at around 30, because it just starts to feel so grindy at that point for me.

Ashen.2907:

Bellizare.5816:

Ashen.2907:

I think it is completely reasonable for a developer who has spent millions of dollars producing a game to encourage players to experience as much of that expensive content as possible

You make it sound like he spent his own money. I know that I spent my own money to buy the game.

I am referring to Anet as the developer of GW2.

Oops. But in any event, we are the consumers, and have paid it back several times over. And encourage indicates that there is some reward. The only reward here is something that was taken away from us in the first place.

So if you like the way it works, good for you. We will see in a year or so how it all plays out. I have 80’s that I logged in, ran the LS in a few hours and ended up with a bunch more gold that I don’t need to spend. How does this help the game?

Majic.4801:

Pushing And Shoving

I would hate to be responsible for putting word into Colin’s mouth, because I have a great deal of respect for him and don’t think it would be fair for him to be pilloried because of some paraphrasing on my part.

When I said “I know Colin has indicated a desire to push players out of their comfort zones to get them to try other aspects of the game”, I was referring in a general way to my impressions after reading a quote of his regarding world completion achievement requirements, as well as some of his other comments in various interviews and videos.

For the example I had in mind, here’s a very small excerpt regarding the fact that world completion requires entering WvW from Q&A with Colin Johanson, Part IV:

World complete is an interesting one. We’ve seen from our data metrics, because it’s on world complete, there’s a bunch of people that play WvW. Because it takes them there to actually get to do it and they end up having so much fun that stay. I’ve talked to countless people who’ve said, “I only went there for that, and I ended up running around and I got so addicted to it that I can’t stop playing it.”

Folks can infer what they want from that, and I took it to mean basically what I said, but I really wouldn’t want to misrepresent his position on something like this.

I don’t think Colin is trying to force players to do things they don’t like, but rather to encourage them to try things they might like.

Maybe that’s too academic a distinction, but given any doubt, I think he deserves the benefit of it.

Alt Halt

My previous post counseling patience may have given the impression I’m okay with the current trait regime, but I would like to clarify that I am not.

Since coming off a roughly six-month hiatus, I have created three new alts (I’m an altaholic and proud of it) that are approaching the need to purchase their first traits.

Because I don’t think the current trait unlock requirements or purchase alternatives are properly balanced, I have suspended further progress of these characters until significant changes are made. Basically, I don’t want to put a lot of time, skill points or money into a system I don’t think is sustainable.

Thus if anyone was wondering, I consider this issue a game-stopper for my new alts, and can only begin to imagine what sort of effects it must be having on new players or the long-term health of the game if allowed to continue indefinitely.

I don’t think we are likely to see major changes soon, but I do think major changes will be necessary, and — aside from the voluminous negative feedback here and elsewhere — I’m pretty sure ArenaNet’s data metrics will show it.

Thanks for the clarification.

Also, the rest of your post about alts is almost exactly what I would have posted if I was able to write as well as you. Thanks for that as well.

Ashen.2907:

I think it is completely reasonable for a developer who has spent millions of dollars producing a game to encourage players to experience as much of that expensive content as possible

You make it sound like he spent his own money. I know that I spent my own money to buy the game.

‘Colin has indicated a desire to push players.’ – all that needs to be said.

’When your game systems are designed to achieve the prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you run the risk of sacrificing quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.

But what if your business model isn’t based on a subscription? What if your content-design motivations aren’t driven by the need to create mechanics that keep people playing as long as possible? When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun?’

I guess he changed his mind.

“I know Colin has indicated a desire to push players out of their comfort zones to get them to try other aspects of the game”

Cut 4 brevity.

Colin is pushing me out of the game, and hopefully pushing himself into the comforting unemployment zone.

What an idiotic idea to think that you can actually herd cats in any meaningful way.

Ascimator.6735:

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

why should we settle for something that is not as good as we had before. Ya ever heard the saying if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it. That was one part of the game that was fine and did not need fixing. So why should we settle for something less than we had before.

Oh, you wouldn’t believe how often things like that happen in every sphere of life. Slightly better than demanding more and more until your natural human greed can’t be satisfied.
As I’ve said, I don’t see how the SP/silver cost for a newbie is so insurmountable, unless they are completely unable of planning ahead and mapping out a general way they want to play their character. And most of the people I see complaining (I really want to use a harsher word because it fits better, but I’ve been warned once already) are on their 2nd-5th chars, have enough gold (do you REALLY need every single trait?), have access to leveling/SP tomes and are generally more experienced, allowing them to plan ahead better and buy only the traits they know are good.
It also would not really be repelling for a newbie to discover they can’t unlock this one major trait yet. Most likely they will either scrounge up 2sp and how much silver again it was or will be patient. Unless, of course, some heartbroken lvl 80 walks up to them and whispers “pssst, quit this game, you don’t deserve the world to be SO CRUEL”. You are only complaining because it’s been easier for you before.
Besides, if you want to test different builds, there’s this shiny mode called sPvP where you can tinker with every trait without any effort and test them out on dummies and NPCs.
tl:dr: the new change does not really harm neither newbies nor veterans, the only reason of 29 pages here is because people have accepted the mentality of “ANET WHY DONT YOU LISTEN TO US!?” instead of adapting.

This is what happens when you feed trolls. They keep coming back for more.

Germany > England

(In the world cup this year)

Thank you very much.

Actually I don’t think that I got them all

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/Weird-lag/first#post4177626
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Game-lagging-on-Dry-Top-map/first#post4177627
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/unbearable-server-lag-in-Dry-Top/first#post4177595
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/This-lag-is-unreal
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Unplayable-Lag-3
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/I-ve-had-nothing-but-trouble-in-Dry-Top
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/What-kind-of-sick-joke-is-this/first#post4177630
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/Dry-Top-unplayable/first#post4177619

It seems like a lame attempt to make the fight more challenging, when in actuality it is just more time consuming.

Arantheal.7396:

No lags on my end.
Europe here, so I’m not even sitting in a convenient spot for a stable connection to the servers.
Therefore the lags can not be server-sided, else everybody would experience them.

Disconnects also can happen when a system hardly underperforms with the heavy load (say, too many objects or player on the screen), takes a couple of seconds to initially load all textures and therefore looses synchronization with the server since it does not respond properly to the network anymore.
To fix these issues minimize your graphical settings, close any application that eats gpu- or cpu-time in the background, and make sure that your bandwidth is not being eaten up by programs like your browser, steam and/or a download-manager.

If that still does not fix your problem I’d recommend a hardware-upgrade.
Again, this is not a server-side lag, else the map wouldn’t be filled to map-cap with people having a stable connection and performance on it.

Wow, thx for the advice.

Well, if you get on the wrong map, it seems that everyone on that map is lagging.

I guess that “No Comment” is the response.

Probably they all took the weekend off.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Bellizare.5816:

Well, my altaholism is cured. Now that I just play my 80’s, I am accumulating hordes of gold that I don’t need to spend. I definitely don’t need to buy any jewels.

So how does this help them make a profit exactly?

This. Though less with making gold and more doing PvP and world completion. I wanted to buy a new character slot to make a guardian, but every time I think about doing it I get put off by the trait system.

Heh, the gold comes from salvaging etc all the stuff I don’t really need.

BTW, that new map is a great place for all sorts of drops. Also I broke down and traded some gold for gems to buy the ninja outfit (Looks great on my Asura). Barely dented my hoard though.

Well, my altaholism is cured. Now that I just play my 80’s, I am accumulating hordes of gold that I don’t need to spend. I definitely don’t need to buy any jewels.

So how does this help them make a profit exactly?

Is there some place to do this short of going back to Brisbane Wildlands? (or using instant repair can)

Wanderer.3248:

It’s kind of a maze and one of the paths that goes up from below looks like a dead end isn’t. Once you get up there, there is more room and a view.

Yeah, I get lost looking for the bank there on occasion.

You will probably not enjoy leveling a new character unless you are a masochist due to the new and “Improved” trait system.

Oh no! My guardian is Asura!

Vayne.8563:

Bellizare.5816:

Well, it’s obvious that you are supposed to buy jewels, convert to gold and buy the traits. The evidence is pretty darn clear.

Coming soon to the gem store: Skill point scrolls.

Or run like 10 dungeons?

/conspiracy theory

Well, if you seriously don’t think that ANET “conspires” to generate income……

Seriously, it’s a business. The no monthly fee model is only sustainable if there are lots of new accounts, or current accounts invest $$$$ in the gem store.

I doubt that they plan to utilize any profits from China to subsidize NA and Europe.

Anyway, leveling one toon in this new system is unbearably tedious. I’ve done it once with resources that a new player will not have access to. I really can’t imagine doing it over again.

Well, it’s obvious that you are supposed to buy jewels, convert to gold and buy the traits. The evidence is pretty darn clear.

Coming soon to the gem store: Skill point scrolls.

Thanks to the patch, I was able to kick my GW2 habit. Watching the World Cup and camping on the coast taking up my free time now.

Personally, the only need I would have for buying jewels would be if I were to level a new toon. I have three open slots, but just can’t deal with the new trait system.

So now I just log in one of my 80’s occasionally. I bet I’m not the only one.

When it’s all over, I think this trait change will prove to be the game killer.

Your name sez it all.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Bellizare.5816:

JustTrogdor.7892:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

What do you consider “something of value” to be?

What ever the blade shards can be traded for is worth more than they were before right? Before the update blade shards take up bank space/ bag slots and had no value. After the update, trade them in for things that have at least some value. No matter how minimal you think the trade value was the fact remains that trading them has more value than they had, which was just taking up space.

While absolutely true, I think that most people thought something of value = something valuable.

I was a bit more pessimistic and just deleted the darn things.

Well if people thought a thing that dropped liked crazy during the LA events would be tradable for yellows, T6 mats or what not, then LOL. The fact is they have some value now if you trade them. For the last month or so they didn’t have value at all.

Xackly

GuzziHero.2467:

I… am confused. Never played it. I used to play WH40K in the early 90s

Well Warhammer Online ended up being just a huge pvp or rvr thing. Actually much fun, but omg what a grind to get to God status.

Anyway, Guardian is like KOTBS on steroids at high levels. I run Staff then switch to Great Sword. Sometimes I swap out and run sword and focus and either of the 2 handers.

The Mesmer is kinda cool’ but don’t start a new toon if you can avoid. The new traits system is the worst thing that I have ever seen in a mmo, except for the Warp Forged chest quest in WHO.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

What do you consider “something of value” to be?

What ever the blade shards can be traded for is worth more than they were before right? Before the update blade shards take up bank space/ bag slots and had no value. After the update, trade them in for things that have at least some value. No matter how minimal you think the trade value was the fact remains that trading them has more value than they had, which was just taking up space.

While absolutely true, I think that most people thought something of value = something valuable.

I was a bit more pessimistic and just deleted the darn things.

Witch Hunter, stealthy coward of pvp in Warhammer Online.

Hey, who was your WH? You seem familiar like.

So glad that I deleted all of mine.

Well, they must be doing something right. Gw2 forums has the most righteous fanboiz that I have ever encountered.

Anyway the whole point is that they are not selling so many new accounts these days, despite the half price sales. If they don’t want to start laying off staff right away (that will come later) then they need to economize (server mergers), and also generate some income (gem store).

That’s what I always figured would happen in the end because of the no monthly fee model. I would not be surprised if we don’t see some sort of ftp stuff in one or more of the starter zones soon.