Guild Wars 2

NoTrigger.8396:

Blaeys.3102:

Rococo.8347:

I actually feel quite positive about Raids in GW2 if ive understood how they will play out correctly – at the moment there doesn’t seem to be any places in pve where someone into being support/utility with some damage thrown in fits in.

I had a Shadow Priest in WoW and 10 man Raids just seemed to bring out the best in that type of character, it was great to switch between abit of healing cc and pew pew, but here I never felt I could build a character like that could be useful in a 5 man Dungeon, so ive just never done a dungeon ( I know you are expected to be an all rounder with no Trinity but Berserker is sill the Meta). Raid mechanics being more complex could allow for a greater selection of build types in groups.

That said Im not that great a player so my chances of getting into a Raid will probably be nil lol

Hopefully, the truly “difficult” part of raids should come in the form of achievements, hardmodes, etc. The raids themselves should be accessible by people of varying skill levels, with special acknowledgements (achievements primarily) for beating the boss faster, more efficiently, under special circumstances, etc.

Adding 10 player content into the game and then tuning it so that only a small percentage of the community can enjoy it goes against everything this game has come to represent for its many fans.

That isnt to say that the achievements/hardmodes/etc shouldn’t be BRUTALLY hard. They most definitely should be.

idk i think you fail to understand the intention behind the raids. they made them to make players who want challenge and difficulty happy. if you dont like difficulty and challenge there is and will be plenty of other stuff to do.

also they said the content will be the most difficult content in gw2 so i doubt they will split it into easy group content and challenging group content.

I love the idea of difficult content, but the addition of a new game mode (10 player instances) should be something everyone can enjoy. There is no reason that raids should only be there for a tiny percentage of the population.

There are a lot of ways to make something challenging without walling off an entire game mode from other players.

I lead a rather large guild that includes a range of hardcore and casual players. The idea of telling portions of my guild that they will never get to see specific content because they dont make playing/practicing the game their second life makes me ill.

Ideally, no single game mode should feel more important or more rewarding in terms of time/effort spent than any other. Otherwise, you risk making that game mode dominate end game and potentially kill other game modes (which is exactly what you see in other raid-focused games with those types of rewards).

Legendary gear, because of the stat swapping, by definition is superior to all other gear, even if by a minimal degree. For that reason, it should be attainable in different ways to encourage more diverse play style and show that Anet is still dedicated to ALL of its players – unlike other games that focus way too much on raiders at end game.

Rococo.8347:

I actually feel quite positive about Raids in GW2 if ive understood how they will play out correctly – at the moment there doesn’t seem to be any places in pve where someone into being support/utility with some damage thrown in fits in.

I had a Shadow Priest in WoW and 10 man Raids just seemed to bring out the best in that type of character, it was great to switch between abit of healing cc and pew pew, but here I never felt I could build a character like that could be useful in a 5 man Dungeon, so ive just never done a dungeon ( I know you are expected to be an all rounder with no Trinity but Berserker is sill the Meta). Raid mechanics being more complex could allow for a greater selection of build types in groups.

That said Im not that great a player so my chances of getting into a Raid will probably be nil lol

Hopefully, the truly “difficult” part of raids should come in the form of achievements, hardmodes, etc. The raids themselves should be accessible by people of varying skill levels, with special acknowledgements (achievements primarily) for beating the boss faster, more efficiently, under special circumstances, etc.

Adding 10 player content into the game and then tuning it so that only a small percentage of the community can enjoy it goes against everything this game has come to represent for its many fans.

That isnt to say that the achievements/hardmodes/etc shouldn’t be BRUTALLY hard. They most definitely should be.

Gaile Gray.6029:

There are plenty of other awesome rewards and we’ll be talking about those in the future.

The best gear in the game (which is what Legendary is considered, of course) cannot come from a single game mode. That is one of the issues people left other raid-focused games to get away from.

Unique is okay, as long as other game modes also have unique gear. Gear that is superior, in ANY way (and the ability to change stats on the fly definitely makes it superior), is not okay and makes a specific game mode feel more important than all the others.

I like the idea of raiding, but it cannot be the only place to get legendary armor and still fit with the ideals Colin spoke of during his presentation (taking the drama found in other games out of raiding). It just can’t.

As long as raids are only a very (VERY) small piece of the ongoing content development (which seems to be the case) and aren’t allowed to take over end game the way they have in other MMOs, it should be fine. If guilds are expected to raid 4-5 nights a week in order to master the content, then I do see an issue (I don’t think that will be the case, however).

Personally, I’m excited for this content, even though it does have the potential to cause new drama in the game – even though my guild has a plan to deal with that already.

A lot will depend on how the actual encounters are designed in terms of accessibility.

The biggest issue is the same I have with the Chronomancer and the Tempest – the berserker isnt an alternative to playing the core specialization, warrior, it is a replacement for it.

While some of the specializations offer a “new way to play,” several of the new ones, warrior included, simply offer the old way of playing with significant new advantages.

Having access to both traditional burst and primal burst skills means the only real benefit of playing the warrior over the berserker is SLIGHTLY (very slight) better flexibility in the trait lines – at the cost of losing alot of active abilities.

At this point, they might as well give reapers access to both death shroud and reapers shroud and give dragonhunters access to all six active virtues.

I like what I’ve seen so far, but there seems to be a disconnect between how the various specializations are being designed. Some offer alternative ways to play while some just beef up the existing way to play. They need to decide which direction they want to go – and whether or not elite specializations are meant to be power-additive or comparable in strength to core professions.

maddoctor.2738:

That Torch Flames of War skill is how the Tempest Overload Fire should’ve been… a moving fire field you can combo with AND it explodes after some time. I bet unlike the Overload Fire this won’t lock all your skills and dodge and won’t be a useless channel.

It sounds unique enough (and awesome) I haven’t even seen it in action yet but I’m excited for the Berserker. One issue I have with it is the name, I mean we already have a stat set called Berserker, calling an Elite spec Berserker (while the weapon for it is a condition weapon no less) feels a bit weird and out of place.

Maybe they should’ve called the elite spec Rampager?

There is a Rampager’s armor set as well, which, interestingly, may work well the the Berserker elite spec given the new condition abilities.

I agree with the OP 100 percent on this.

Like many, I want more challenging content in all areas of the game (a lot) – but I want it so that I feel challenged and have fun doing the content, not so I can obtain something that others cannot.

Differentiated gear tiers (of any kind) is a relic from other MMOs. GW2 takes that drama out of the game and puts the focus solely on what it should be on – the content and personal satisfaction that comes from beating that content.

These changes look like a step in the right direction, but I still see a fundamental flaw (imo) with the Chronomancer specialization – it will, most likely, still feel like you are playing a Mesmer.

I think a single change would fix that and make us feel like we were masters of time (chronomancer), rather than masters of illusion (mesmer) -

Continuum shift should not require 3 illusions to maximize effectiveness. Either give it a straight six second duration or compromise and give it a 4.5 second duration, with each illusion shattered adding 0.5 seconds.

In addition to changing the theme of the profession, the reason this needs to happen is the fragile nature of illusions when AOEs are present (clones die too fast) or when fighting large groups of low health mobs (clones despawn too fast).

The Chronomancer should be about mastering time – not juggling illusions (which is what the mesmer should be about). As it stands, in actual fights, our new profession ability (f5) will be way to unreliable and ineffective.

And, for purely selfish reasons, I would like to see the float back in the gravity well in some form – it’s just too much fun.

Thank you to Anet for the opportunity. In addition to playing extensively on the new map, I managed to take almost every new profession/specialization into fractals, dungeons and PvP. My guild also spent several hours in our custom pvp arena taking over different playstyles and generally goofing off with the new mechanics.

Based on these play sessions, below is my feedback to Anet, along with grades and recommendations These are just my personal thoughts and opinions. I realize others will feel differently.

Verdant Brink
Day vs Night Cycle: D

• It really did just feel like standard dynamic events, with escort quests in both and a heavier focus on protection events during the day.
• Recommendation: Nighttime events should include large boss battles based on the events from the day before and how long the groups are holding checkpoints. As an example, if a map has been particularly successful, a wyvern (or better yet, a more unique boss) should attack the supply posts to retake them.

World Events A- (Vine), C (Wyvern)
(when they were working – both events froze much more often than they progressed)

• Recommendation: The vine event, when it didn’t bug, seemed well tuned and worked well. The Wyvern, however, was extremely anticlimactic. The boss is tuned way too easy right now and should be fixed. Of course, the bugs should be the biggest priority – it was virtually impossible to test these events (only really got to do them all the way through once).

Adventures: D-

• They were almost NEVER available (and it was impossible to tell what opened them up) and were extremely simplistic. We are used to minigames from Anet looking like Sanctum Sprint or Kegbrawl.
• Recommendations: Adventures need to be open all the time and they need to look more like archery contests, sporting contests or obstacle courses (like the past minigames) rather than whack a mole (what we saw on this map).

Professions

Revenant: A- (PVE), B (PVP)

• Revenant is looking good and seems fun to play. Only issue is that, in PvP at least, it seems like the demon stance is pretty much required (because of the crazy uptime on resistance). I know its early to make this assessment, but it is something to keep an eye on.

Reaper: A (PVE), C- (PVP)

• The reaper actually felt the most polished to me – at least in PVE. In PvP, it suffered from slow attack times, something that just won’t work in the damage spikefest PvP has become recently.

Chronomancer: C (PVE), C- (PVP)

• I spent most of my time on the Chronomancer. While it seemed to be competitive in both PVE and PVE, it suffered from a major issue, imo. It didn’t feel like a new profession. Playing it still feels like you are playing a Mesmer, just with a few tiny tweaks.
• Recommendation: My recommendation to fix this issue is pretty simple. The f5 shatter shouldn’t be dependent upon the number of illusions active. It should always last 6 seconds, even if you have no illusions out. Illusions should be an afterthought for the chronomancer – which would set it apart from the Mesmer a little more.

Tempest: B (PVE), D (PVP)

• Tempest felt polished, but it suffered from a major issue in PVP. It is just WAY too easy to interrupt attunement overloads (this happened a little in PvE as well).
• Recommendation: The tempest should get a break bar when overloading attunements. It would go a long way to make them actually viable in all game types without breaking the game.

Dragon Hunter: C (PVE), D (PVP)

• The dragon hunter seemed interesting, but the way traps work in the game now just feels extremely clunky.
• Recommendation: Traps should remain on the ground for a period of time even after the first mob or player triggers them. The big issue with traps, imo, occurs when the first enemy in a line triggers the trap and runs it out before any others have a chance to enter it.

Other
Masteries: B

• I loved the mastery system, but I didn’t love the fact that the only mastery points available were both reliant upon the glider. The gliding track should be just one way to advance – but it shouldn’t be the primary focus of the system.

New Map Reward Program: A+

• I actually got to see this in action after beating the vine and the wyvern in Verdant Brink (the one and only time the events didn’t bug). This seems like a great way to deal with the randomness of crafting mats.

That is it for now. I do realize this was just a beta so things arent meant to be perfect. The bugs (specifically the events that got stuck or lost mechanics – eg, the grub buckets not working and the pale reavers refusing to attack the vine tenders) should be the highest priority before the next beta – so we have a better chance to test various elements.

It seems like most of the major quest chains on the map are bugged – at least this one and the grub collection quest.

It is hard to tell regarding others. Progressing through the map/advancing quests/etc seems very confusing. The map has potential, but it is impossible to provide feedback in the current iteration.

Try and look at this from a developer/game health perspective. Once the expansion drops, the base game will have very little value to ANYONE. Existing players shouldnt want people to only buy the base game because it will mean fewer people to play with in the new zones. New players obviously want the entire game to gain access to the new systems in place.

Continuing to sell the base game without HOT makes no sense to anyone. The logical solution is to bundle it all together into one sales package – which is exactly what they are doing.

New players aren’t being cheated out of anything. Existing players definitely aren’t being cheated out of anything.

People need to let this argument go. Anet is doing what is best for the health of the game – for both new and existing players. Stop going out of the way to feel offended by something that simply isnt offensive (in fact, its the opposite).

From the fractal blog -

“… we view fractals as our infinitely expandable, endgame version of 5-man dungeon content …”

This implies that they will most likely stay away from new dungeons and, instead, focus on introducing new fractals into the game.

While they didnt say they were introducing new fractals with the HOT launch, it seems logical they would do so (but, like many, I would like at least a tacit confirmation of this). They obviously aren’t abandoning fractals in any way.

As with the blog post about guild missions, it is exciting, but I think it is missing one extremely important (probably the most important) element -

Will there actually be new fractal islands (maps) launching with Heart of Thorns?
(I have the same question about guild missions)

I love the idea of the new system, but the real excitement comes from the idea of new content more than just new ways to do the old content.

One of the things I like about this new system is it is (hopefully) going to be very easy for them to add new elite specializations.

A few ideas for future elite specs:

Mesmer -> Oneiromancer (dream mage)
New class mechanic: Phantasms are replaced with phantasmal nightmares (phantasmal beasts with new abilities). F5 shatter causes fear.

New Utilities: Stances (call them trances instead) – the Oneiromancer enters dream like trances that further buff active phantasms

New Weapon: TBD

Necromancer -> Demonlord
New class mechanic: Hellshroud (ranged AOE focus); F2 empowers Hellshroud, making it deplete three times as fast while adding burning to all attacks (or whatever feels balanced)

New utilities: six new demonic minions

New Weapon: off hand torch

Guardian -> Zealot
New class mechanic: F1: Passive – periodic light shield (retal), Active – create pulsing torment field on ground around player; F2: Passive – draw one condition from a nearby ally every 15 seconds in combat, Active: convert one condition on up to five nearby players into might, F3: Passive: send one condition to an enemy every 15 seconds in combat, Active: 5 players gain X seconds of resistance

New utility skills: Corruptions (player must take damage to cast powerful spells)

New weapon: Dagger

What you seem to be asking for is player housing – which we have already, even though it could be (and should be) improved upon.

There has to be a minimal size for a guild (5 or 8 seems like a good number to me) or else what is the point of a guild to begin with.

For future events, I would consider limiting them to a weekend rather than a full week. It seemed that people in my guild enjoyed it for a few nights – as there were a lot of golem v golem (and some skilled groups kiting and burning down golem teams) the first few days, but the novelty wore off and it devolved into a karma train after that.

Please keep looking at ways to throw fun little things into the game, but – to appease the fatalists and keep these events from taking over an entire match – limit them to a weekend or a few days in the week at most.

Bumping.

We have a strong activity schedule now and a clear plan for getting most from the pending expansion.

Come join us as we look for new ways to have fun – no matter how ridiculous some may find them – in GW2.

In game, the maps are staying pretty full – moreso than usual it seems – and people seem to be having fun.

As I said earlier, its dangerous to use these forums to gauge actual community interest/involvement in something like this. Even forgetting that the forums are only a small representation of the game, its important to realize that a small negative element here browbeats anyone who disagrees with their perception – to the point where many choose to remain silent simply to avoid the inevitable attack. Makes for very one sided conversations.

So this is how providing feedback on the forums will be – anyone who says they enjoy it even a little will be labeled “bad” or a “pve player” – or insulted in some other way.

That is a common political tool for controlling the outcome of a conversation – make the conversation so toxic that anyone disagreeing will simply stay away. That kind of pervasive negativity pretty much invalidates the forums (for this topic anyway) as an effective way for developers to gather feedback, imo.

I hope they dont take the feedback of people who have played it for all of 10-15 minute too seriously. There will always be people who are resistant to change and refuse to give things even the smallest of chances before going on the attack.

Let’s let the week play out and, if it proves to not be fun, make suggestions on how it could be made so. Saying “it’s horrible” or “it’s pve” (which it definitely isnt unless the golems start controlling themselves) this early isnt really constructive feedback. Its complaining to be complaining.

I vote for Poobadoo as the underwater legend we channel – complete with some kind of licking utility skill set.

They do that and don’t really care what the weapon is.

ChoChoBo.6503:

The more and more I think about this event, the more and more it gives off pay2win vibes.

Rich servers who can afford massive amounts of golems are just gonna rekt everyone.

Anet knows that there’s no gold to be made in WvW so WvWer’s are gonna have to shell out a bit for gem2gold4golems (g2g4g) is this what they think about when they see gVg threads?. Very smart event on Anet’s side of things.

You can buy golem blueprints with badges of honor as well. WvWers will be just fine – if not better off – than those buying with gold.

People are really resistant to trying anything new at all. I say give it a chance. It’s a temporary event that really doesnt hurt anything.

They are testing something out to see how it is received and whether or not it will be fun.

Stop yelling that the sky is falling and try something for a few days. We really don’t know how it will actually play out.

I’ve pre-ordered. I’m happy I pre-ordered. I am spending the money regardless of how much content will be in the expansion just to keep up with my friends and my guild.

But, I also agree that they have done a pretty poor job telling us what will be in this expansion and if I was a new customer, I would be a little wary. It’s time for them to reveal everything at a high level (remaining specialization names/themes, what they mean by difficult group content, will there be new dungeons/fractals/guild missions, number/size of new maps, etc).

They can still keep excitement high with ongoing deep-dive blogs – but with the pre-orders underway, it’s time to finish the “back of the box” reveal.

Two new pet families/categories, both jungle themed – simian (monkey, gorilla) and reptilian (dinos and wyverns).

Im in sort of the same boat, as are many in my guild. We still play an insane number of hours, buy virtual knicknacks on the TP and sit in teamspeak talking about things like mesmer builds for hours, but there is a definite lull in excitement levels right now.

Part of it is Anet’s fault for staggering their information the way they have. While it may seem like a good way to keep interest high, I think it is having the opposite effect. What is happening is that people have come to expect major announcements every week or even every other week.

This is causing Anet to sit on information and trickle it out in ways that often disappoint players. When you’re expecting something big and the weekly announcement ends up being mediocre, it is like letting the air out of a balloon.

A better strategy, imo, would be to tell us everything they have to tell us at once – a big announcement that includes the names and general themes of every specialization, exactly what they mean by difficult group content, the names of the maps were getting and any other surprises (fractals, guild missions, etc).

Then – follow that up with a series of in-depth blogs similar to those weve seen for the specific specializations. This sets expectations and raises excitement (and, just as importantly, squashes rumors) – while still giving people a reason to keep coming back to the website (the in depth blogs).

They wouldn’t lose attention by taking this route – in fact, they would probably see more people paying attention in the long run.

TLDR – they need to stop the slow trickle of news and excite us with a big reveal – followed by a steady flow of indepth analyses.

I hate to say it, but I think dungeons as we know them are a thing of the past in GW2.

I suspect they will focus their efforts on fractals, which seem to be easier to implement and design.

I like fractals, but I would find them more enjoyable if groups could actually vote on which they got (with some restrictions based on tier and difficulty) rather than have to deal with the randomness (meaning you never have a clear idea how long a fractal will last).

As for roles/fight complexity, there are very clear roles and functions players can fill in dungeons/fractals. The issue right now is, the a lack of truly challenging fights means most players ignore those potential roles and just try to bulldoze their way through most fights (usually successfully).

I have high hopes for complex fights in HOT, but I would enjoy some clarification from the devs regarding how we will get those fights.

If they do choose to go the instanced raid path, which now seems feasible with the way they describe how guilds will be starting some mission types (unique instances), I hope they take a much different path than those found in other MMOs.

Specifically, I would like to see large scale organized encounters that mesh seamlessly with the dynamic events in the open world. Instead of a shambling raid that takes many hours to complete, let the dynamic events in a zone serve the role that trash mobs do in other games.

When certain events are done, a flag appears that allows organized groups (guilds first and foremost) to enter an instance and fight a single raid boss. Once that is done, the group comes out of the instance and fights their way (in the open world) to the next flag, where they do the same.

Most raiders in other games hate fighting through 45 minutes of trash mobs to take on the boss fights (which is what raiding should be about). Anet has the chance and systems in place to alleviate that pain – letting raiders focus on the thing they most enjoy – the actual boss fights – while using the open world to implement interesting champion and trash mob fights.

Given the potential size of the guild halls coming with HOT and the potential for things like walls, I’m hoping their will be room for members to erect at least rudimentary housing of some sort in open areas of the guildhall map – little buildings they can decorate as they see fit.

Beyond that, they really should do more with our current home instances. It feels like a real lost opportunity there.

Contact information in the post above has been updated.

We are still interested in recruiting new members. We have a very active and friendly community with a strong structure and plan for the future.

Lauren Kamieniecki.6245:

We had a bug on this when it was all specs, looks like Engineer is special today.

I’ll get it looked at.

Lauren, if it helps, this is not a new bug with the engineer. If you try to carry the sword in the Flame Temple Tombs mini dungeon (Diessa) into the water on an engineer, you lose it. I remember this happening as far back as a year ago. We reported at the time, but realize this was (at that time) a very obscure bug.

Surely it has something to do with swapping from kits entering water – to ensure engis dont take kits underwater that dont belong there.

While youre at it, make sure you also do something for those of who do enjoy guild missions and want something other than the ones weve done over and over (and over and over) for the past few years. It is time for new ones already.

It’s good to see they recognize these issues. Hopefully some real changes make it in this week. Things like Silverwastes, world bosses and even dungeon mobs are ridiculous in terms of how fast they die right now. I know that some of these things were never really challenging (another long term issue to fix), but dying too fast means many either don’t get credit or cant get to them in time (and they are really not fun this way).

Lustre Of Havoc.9173:

What this address says to me:

Veteran players have to pay full price for an expansion every time.
New players will always have the cheapest deals.

Thanks, ANet. Been with you for over 10 years and gave you money for the in-game stuff you release now and then. Instead of rewarding us, you just laugh at us and make us pay more. I can feel the love. I don’t need any more character slots. If I wanted more, I can just buy one with in-game money.

The alternative is a system that generates more people running around who can only participate in a portion of the game – something that divides the population and makes the game less fun for those doing end game content (where we always need more people to play with – eg healthy population).

It may seem weird – especially if you start trying to draw strange analogies to non virtual products (as Ive seen some try to do the past few days) – but if you look at it from the big picture perspective of what is best for the health of the game (something we all should care about), it really does make a lot of sense.

This really was the best course of action they could take and kudos to Anet for getting this out today. It really needed to be addressed sooner rather than later so we can get back to talking about fun stuff again (yay Guild Halls).

It is nice to see this today. Im sure there will still be a minority who have issue with something , but this was the core concern most had and I think their compromise addresses it nicely.

Here’s hoping that there have been some constructive conversations at Anet/NCSoft the past few days and they are ready to do something to stem the negativity today – or at latest, by mid week.

It seems that the vast majority of people agree that $50 is probably a fair price, but that the pre order program was communicated and executed very poorly. We are used to Anet treating customers very well – better than most other MMOs treat their customers. This really felt like a step in the opposite direction.

Again, hopefully, we will see something this week, even if it is as simple as adding the equivalent of a free character slot to all pre order accounts (which I think is a must-happen at this point).

To clarify, I’ve already bought my copy of HOT, but many of my guildees and friends have not – saying they are waiting to see if Anet does “the right thing.” This makes this topic very important to me as, without my guildees and friends, the game will not be as much fun for me.

I think this is still fixable, but ArenaNet needs to make a decision soon.

In my opinion, most people would be willing to get past this if they did two things -

1. They need to include a character slot or the equivalent with the base package. The most logical action would be to simply give 800 gems to anyone buying (or who has bought) the expansion.

2. They need to provide a realistic description of what is included in HOT, including how much territory is being unlocked, a description of what they mean by challenging group content and whether or not certain features (fractals, guild missions, etc) will be expanded upon in the expansion.

Those are both very simple – and understandable requests.

I’ve already purchased the expansion myself, but more and more of my guildees and friends are saying they are holding off until they see at least one of the two items above. These are people that are important to me and, without them, I could see my personal investment in the game diminishing.

What they are selling is very simple – Heart of Thorns and whatever the person buying needs in order to play Heart of Thorns. That differs based on whether or not you own the base game.

They just did a horrible job explaining that.

ArenaNet makes an amazing game. They are very good at that job.

What they really don’t do well is market their game effectively. Look at the horrid live action trailer when the game launched or some of the miscommunication they have made since.

$50 is a fair price for the expansion, imo. It is on par with what other MMOs charge and again, knowing that Anet makes a great game, I fully expect way more value than what I actually just spent (and I bought the $100 package).

But the way the sale was presented was poorly executed, and we are seeing the fallout here on the forums. They should have made it very clear that what they are selling is the expansion – with a simple aside (probably best at the bottom of the page) that stated that new players would be receiving the core game as part of their purchase.

There would have still been complaints from the regular forum complainers, but – if they had simply put the expansion stuff above the “get core game” stuff, the perception that they care about existing players more would have come through.

I know that seems facile, but the reality is perception – and the management of that perception – is important.

Anet has now dug a little bit of kitten on the marketing front and they need to make some kind of gesture to show existing players they still value their business. If I were them, I would offer every current active player 800 free gems (the price of a character slot) if they log on between now and the launch of the expansion. It’s a minimal gesture, but it would go a long way.

I can’t wait to play HOT, but this was a marketing misstep on a day that should have been all about excitement and the content (especially given the info about guild halls coming out at the exact same time).

Contemporary Heroes (http://contemporaryheroes.shivtr.com) is once again actively recruiting new members. We are a very active PVX guild based primarily on the Henge of Denravi server (although we are open to members from any server for PVE and PVP).

We have people playing at most times of the day, but most of our members are in North America, so evenings in those zones are typically when we do the most.

Our mantra is “NO DRAMA.” We are here to play and have fun with friends. We don’t care if you are the best of the best, if you never play XYZ aspect of the game, or how often you log on. If you want a place to have fun and cut up a little – and make some really good friends in the process – you will like it in CH.

As far as guild rules/guidelines, its pretty simple. We do not tolerate (serious) elitism, petty squabbling, name calling, belittling or any other form of serious drama in the guild whatsoever (to be clear, we do allow those things if it is clear they are part of people just having fun – we aren’t draconian overlords monitoring everything people say). Anyone doing so soon finds themselves looking for a new guild.

Anyone interested – please whisper me (Blaeys.3102) or anyone with the (CH) guild tag in the game. We will make sure you get an invitation.

The guild is based around the members – not specific game activities. As members express interest in different aspects of Guild Wars 2, we try to adapt and make sure they get the experience they desire. Guild leadership is not based around a single player – but rather around three “leadership councils” (one for PvE, one for PvP and one for WvW) that try to cover several different playstyles.

Guild Activities:

Most of the week, we leave the schedule open for individual and small group play (with ad hoc large group activities such as WvW, Living Story and Orrian Temple runs thrown in).

At the same time, we have three events that are scheduled every week (none of which are mandatory for members to attend):

• Guild Mission Night (Monday nights at 8:30 eastern). We do all guild missions. They usually take about 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Attendance has been holding steady at between 30 and 40 participants each mission. We do not take ourselves very seriously during these missions, so be prepared for singing in teamspeak (never a good idea to let us know it’s your birthday ), stories about exploding armadillos, etc.
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• Guild sPvP Tournament Night (every Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. eastern). Format is open, but we usually do a 3-5 team 3v3 deathmatch mini tournament on our custom pvp map – followed by something just for fun. We dont take this event very seriously either – its mainly about hunting down and killing each other mercilessly over and over. We also have some members very serious about improving their skill – and building strong teams – for the semi-competitive PvP scene.
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• Guild WvW: Organized guild runs on Wednesdays at 8:15 p.m. eastern and Fridays at reset.

Addtionally, it is very easy to find people for 5 party groups for dungeons, fractals, etc at almost any time of the day in the guild. We have a fairly active playerbase that enjoys doing things together. If you express interest in a particular activity, we do our best to make sure you get the chance to do that activity. This sometimes means rotating people in and out of dungeon/fractal groups. It is important to us that no one gets left behind. People who commit to the guild will find the guild committed to them.

Guidelines for Members.

We want players to be able to play the way they want to play. To ensure that happens, we have a few guidelines:

• No drama in guild chat or Teamspeak – ever.

• When you are repping CH, you have to behave like an adult, both with other members and with people outside of the guild.

• Multiple guild repping is allowed, but we are looking for members interested in being an active member of our community (meaning please rep when you can).

General Guild Information:

We have a channel on the HoD Teamspeak, a 100+ member Ventrilo and an active Web site () – as well as a fully stocked and researched guild bank.

Guild boosters – we run +5 supply, + karma and +magic find at all times, with other boosters running based on need (e.g. crafting critical success when new crafting levels come out, reduced waypoint costs, etc when needed).

Our members include people from all walks of life and of all ages. Ages (that I know of) range from 14 to 62 – and we have many families that play together in the guild.

If you are interested in joining, whisper me (Blaeys.3102) or any other member in game. You will not see us spamming chat looking for new members. We prefer to recruit in ways that allow us to better communicate who we are and what people get from the guild when they join.

Next beta event, consider giving people with custom arenas access to the map for testing within guilds or controlled groups. It would let us really put the map through the paces.

Also – during the last beta event – once people had gotten used to the format (later into the evening) – many matches simply became a PVE race down respective lanes. Basically the winner was determined by who could get to and kill the enemy lord first rather than any sustained actual player vs player activity (small potential for some as people were getting mist essence). The generally accepted “strategy” was for all players to stay clumped in their lanes and rush the enemy NPCs to clear for the doorbreakers. If either team deviated from that strategy, it usually didn’t end well.

Has anything been done to discourage or change that approach since the last beta? I also worry that removing a set of guards will make this an even more accepted strategy.

I have a different theory.

Since there is no weapon or armor shown – and this doesnt look like a current playable race -

I think this image is a teaser for the “difficult content” blog they have been talking about, especially given the accompanying quote.

One of my guild members (Sunny Muse on Henge of Denravi) made this to promote WvW within our guild and I thought it was worth sharing -

Kail.4386:

Thanks to all who answered my question about swapping between elite weapon sets and the regular weapons. Now I’m excited about this. It really opens up a lot of new possibilities.

Though to call it an elite spec is a bit suspect if it’s just another weapon set and a few more skills. I wonder if it will be more powerful than the other sets?

I think the idea behind calling it an “elite spec” has more to do with not having access to it until you are max level (level 80). Eventually, we will have multiple of these elite specs that we can switch between by swapping the trait line.

As far as being more powerful than the base class (Necro in this case), they have said elite specs arent intended to replace them – simply offer a different playstyle. I do see some challenge doing that in reality – it will require some serious math and balancing. I doubt it will ever be perfect, but I do think they will try and make as many playstyles as viable as possible.

dietzero.3514:

Kail.4386:

Can someone explain to me how the elite specs work? Is it basically just another weapon set or does it take over your character? I like the new elites if I can swap it out for another weapon set but not so much if it takes over all the character abilities.

For example, can I use GS and still swap to staff if I choose the elite spec? Thanks.

You are not locked into a weapon, you just have an additional one you can use. As for utilities and the elite skill…I have no idea. You might be locked into those.

You’re not required to use the utilities or the elite either. The Dragonhunter and Chronomancer videos showed a dev using more traditional skills alongside new ones. It simply opens up new options.

There are only two things I can see that you are locked into. The first is you have to use one of your trait line slots for the specialization traitline. The second is the change to your Function key skills (in this case, the changes to the deathshroud abilities).

Only negative I can see with this is that my Mesmer and my Necro are my two favorite toons. How the hell am I supposed to decide which to play in HOT first now?

They are doing a great job so far on the specializations. You can still see the base class in the design, but the changes should be enough to create unique playstyles with different themes.

As a side note, I can’t wait to see the character looks people come up with for this.

And Zudet, it sounds like more than just new particle effects – the DS abilities themselves are changing to be melee focused – with the one example looking very much like an AOE. As far as the greatsword being the only AOE ability, keep in mind that shouts will be mostly AOE attacks (and we will still have wells and staff marks).

I think the issue is that the Guardian – and the description they have given for the new specialization – feels like it should be inspired by St. George or maybe Beowulf – eg, someone fighting the dragons to protect civilization. The term Dragonhunter, on the other hand, feels more like a tracker or ranger-focused role – someone hunting dragons for profit.

I know many would have issue with this name as well, but I would have gone with the more descriptive and simple “Dragonslayer.”

The blog post was really light on the details. We heard a little about two of the 5 bow attacks, we didn’t learn anything about the elite, they were very vague about the passives on the virtues, the only trap we learned about was the heal and we only know that one of the traits will cause one of the virtues to do damage.

We know next to nothing about this specialization. It is way too early to compare it to the hunter or write it off as a failure.

(on the other hand, Anet really should have done a better job with the reveal to avoid this kind of apathy)

Im no developer (not even close), but here is the direction I would go with the druids -

Obviously, all staff abilities would all be heavily nature magic themed. I would like to see the current Mordrem abilities serve as inspirations. In addition to the underground root missile we’ve already seen, maybe add the pheromone/bee ability from the mordrem troll, a spinning health leech (ala the Mordrem Leeching Thrasher) and a charging knockback (the Teragriff).

For the new utilities, I would like to see nature magic based Cantrips – magic spells that call up on the ground, the trees and the water to either protect the party or inhibit the enemy.

And, finally, the F5 ability should imbue the druid with the spirit of whichever pet is active at the time (not a transformation, but maybe some minor graphical effects). In addition to gaining boons specific to the pet (protection with bears, swiftness with birds, fury with cats, etc), the F5 would become a powerful attack (with appropriate cooldown) – again differing based on the pet active at the time (howl for wolf, maul for bear, peck/blind for bird, etc).

Not completely fleshed out – but that is the direction I would take ingame mechanics to give the Ranger Elite the “Druid” feel.

However, as fun as it is to speculate, I suspect Anet already has much better ideas than mine.