Guild Wars 2

This would be awesome.

Malchior.5732:

It’ll be sad if one of the next bosses absolutely demands 10 people (and they all have something mandatory to do) and the raid can’t be bought through.

That would be awesome.

FrostDraco.8306:

So this is a very interesting topic. Quite frankly for me its a mix of saying “well you kinda did this to yourself” even though the action itself is dishonest.

It’s easier to fake things when people are selling the eternal title for gold. It becomes even easier when you can ping things through chat codes. But we are also at a point where people feel like they have to fake in order to get into a raid because quite frankly, what you need to get into even a raid guild is quite absurd.

I’ve had people tell me:

“You are not good enough to raid”
“You don’t know enough about PvE”
“You will never be good enough to raid” (my personal favorite)

And many things like it. And when i applied i always said i had no experience raiding, and was honest on every question asked. I spent 3 weeks looking for a raiding guild and group, especially ones saying that they wanted to teach new raiders, and in the end I didn’t get into a single one because they just weren’t going to take the time to teach me how to raid.

People do not want to make time for new raiders. People do not want to teach new raiders. And quite frankly its at the point where people will fake it because of that. Some feel like they have no other option. You kinda did this to yourself, and while faking it is wrong, you are reaping what you sowed.

Nothing is gonna change, so if you carry on this mentality, you have little to complain about. It isn’t going to help the problem or make it go away. People acting that way has made the problem worse than it used to be if anything. I’m a person that could have been a dedicated raider, but if i don’t know how to raid, then how can i do that? People saying they are willing to teach, and actually aren’t.

For now I’ve given up on raids. I’m quite disgusting with how some people act regarding them. I’ll spend my time in fractals while its still good for me, because the raiding community is a toxic cesspool atm. And this is coming from someone that plays League of Legends, HoN, and DotA, so i know a thing or two about that.

It sucks that you had that experience. There are people out there that will take the time. Our guild runs “Open” raids twice a week. Where anyone is welcome to come and learn. There are no gear requirements or class requirements aside from what we absolutely need to run the encounters(not everyone can have 2k toughness) We have a good mix of veteran and new players. Last week we were able to get 4 people their first VG kill. These are people who legit thought that they would never see the inside of the raid. Never mind actually downing a boss.

To be honest, I don’t see this group ever getting past Gorseval in its current state. But one thing everyone expressed was how much fun it was afterwards. Even a 30+ insight eternal PS war PuG that joined us just for shards said it was a blast.

The key is having people willing to take the time. Those of us that clear weekly in our guild have decided that building our guild community is important to us. So as Raid officers in our guild, we have taken it upon ourselves to try and make sure as many people that want to, can experience this stuff.

That being said I know multiple other guilds that do the same exact thing. So, they are out there. It sounds like they might be the minority, but they are there.

Boom – https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/47qyu9/salvation_pass_coming_march_8/

savacli.8172:

Did we really need such pitiful teaser photos? Honestly, I would have rather waited another month or two to at least get some trailer of sort.

I don’t have the source handy. But I was under the impression we were going to see the next wing released before the next quarterly update. I think it was one of the Friday streams. I will try and find it.

If it is out there. I haven’t seen it. I have seen it asked for many times. If you do find it, please post it up!

Palador.2170:

As to the classes themselves? Why do they need to be balanced in PvE? So some have a harder time than others, so what? As long as they all have advantages to make up for disadvantages in other areas, it doesn’t all have to equate to straight balance.

I agree. The only time I think class balance is really needed in PvE content is group content. Especially harder stuff like raids.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Seriously, though, if the aesthetic appeal of this boss is the #1 complaint about the upcoming raid wing I’ll call it an unbridled success.

This is the internet! It wont be.

runeblade.7514:

We all talk about balance in PvP, but what about PvE?

What direction of balance changes would you make so that there is a high diversity of viable builds.

Talking from a PvE aspect only. Ignoring PvP and WvW(just like Anet, amirite!)

IMO – Balance is like a scale with damage on one side and survive-ability on the other. The more damage you can deal, the squishier you need to be. The more stout you are, the lower your damage should be. To throw a third aspect to that would be utility somewhere in the middle. A class who’s damage is mediocre but provides a vital party buff.

I think PvE balance is a hard concept because of the lack of a true trinity in this game. Which I would kill for, but that is just my opinion, I know many people hate it. It is very hard to balance all these classes that can fill so many roles in so many ways.

I think they biggest thing that holds true PvE balance back is how dependent on not breaking PvP it is. You could EASILY adjust the damage to classes up(with the right spec and gear) to meet tempest, which would make them more desirable in raids and dungeons. However that might screw PvP. You could make warriors or guardians the go to heavy armor tank for dungeons and raids. However, it would screw up PvP.

I also think that open world PvE in core tyria is so easy that balance is pointless. Do whatever you want. Dungeons and Raids. Those are things made for a trinity.

TL;DR – I don’t think you can truly “balance” PvE without separating it from PvP.

savacli.8172:

I just went on the wiki and pulled up all the dialogue and entries for Spirit Vale to read through it.

I….I need to lie down now.

Some speculation and spoilers. But here you go.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/45a4ve/spoilers_most_everything_we_know_about_spirit/

Beorn Raukar.4328:

savacli.8172:

Adding lore would be a huge plus. Right now we got some chick named Sabetha that kidnapped a couple Pact members and we gotta go through some magical foresty temple thing to rescue them. Did Sabetha just pay Vale Guardian to stand at the gate or something?

There is lore, you just got to pay attention. Flavor dialog and the journals are your friend. It is clear that Sabetha is not running the operation, she herself says as much I feel we will hear much more on the further wings.

I am really curious about what Knuckles had to say.

Sabetha the Saboteur: Knuckles, take care of them!
“Knuckles”: Stop it!
“Knuckles”: I can take you to it! I can lead you to–
Sabetha the Saboteur: Bite your tongue!

The lore is there. It isn’t as in your face as I would prefer. But there are tidbits.

Rising Dusk.2408:

BloodyNine.7504:

But raid content, difficult content, should feel grand and intimidating. A sleepy sloth, no matter how hard it smashes my head into jelly still just feels silly.

You have literally no idea what the boss does. It may start asleep and ramp up to a very exciting and very compelling boss fight, and it may make a lot of sense in the context of the fight and what ANet was trying to achieve with the mechanics. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we have undead gorilla bosses in-game, we can have sloth-based monsters too.

That is true. I don’t know. I am sure the thing wakes up and destroys us all. I am sure the mechanics will likely be fun and in the end I will have a good time. Maybe the thing over the course of the fight mutates into something truly terrifying. That would be great. Though if it remains a sloth with beady red eyes. Even if it crushes us, it still feels like fluff. To me at least.

To your last point. I would rather fight 10 sloths than one gorilla. Those things will F you up. They are 500 lbs of muscle that would shred you like tissue paper if they were so inclined. Walking through the jungle and I hear a noise behind me. I would much rather see a sloth than a gorilla. So to use that comparison doesn’t track for me. A gorilla is an intimidating creature.

I listened to what they had to say. Didn’t disagree with any of it. Worth 5 minutes of your time if you don’t normally listen to MOP

TPMN.1483:

And you would honestly pay for 4 maps?

For me to buy another GW2 expansion at $50. It would need to be minimum of 3 to 4 times the content.

For the next expansion, I need 15+ maps, new dungeons, another raid and all of these things available on day one. Otherwise I would likely just not purchase it an move to another game. That is if it is $50. If it is less then I would take that into account.

Paul Ella.2037:

My Slothasor experiences so far.

OK so we all know the plan. I mean what could possibly go wrong? Charge!!!!!
(grinding, rending noise)
Well, yes now you think it through it’s pretty obvious that could happen!
(burning, gurgling, sobbing sounds)
I’ll be honest, I didn’t see that coming!
(exploding, wheezing, soft whimpering noises)
I want my mommy

Seriously though, I think you will enjoy the challenge.

Well ya, of course. The mechanics of the fight are going to be completely independent of the visuals. You could make an almost impossible fight in which the boss is a pink my little pony that shoots rainbows and kittens(real ones, not swear words) at you. Along with a choir chanting hang in there in the background with some ukulele.

That doesn’t mean you should. That would be funny and all. But that is what it is, a funny joke. Maybe I do take this too serious. But raid content, difficult content, should feel grand and intimidating. A sleepy sloth, no matter how hard it smashes my head into jelly still just feels silly. I don’t want silly. Not in raids. I want intense, intimidating, crap your pants inducing encounters with creatures from my nightmares.

I play on full potato. So you all look the same to me.

Coulter.2315:

Skill clicking with a mouse is inefficient, slower, draws your eye from the action and leads to sloppy play (thats before you even take into account ground targetting).

The side buttons on my Scimitar stopped working a couple weeks ago. I feel lost.

Chris McSwag.4683:

That being said, I don’t pug raids.

I wish I didn’t have to. But our full guild group isn’t past Gorse. However, the 5 of us within that group who clear can usually grab 5 pugs and make much better progress. Though if we don’t get sab down early in the week, we usually have to get it individually due to scheduling.

We are building toward a full guild group clearing. But it is proving to be a slow process. A lot of people that refuse to adapt to what is needed. Or maybe just not that interested and we end up teaching someone different every week. There are many reasons and it never is the same one from week to week.

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

well guess that is what we get when we spam eternal only in lfg

luckily never ran into any when i was pugging raid

Which is funny. I don’t have eternal. And I usually put myself up in LFG. Simple advertisement. “LFR (boss) Full ascended (class)” I usually only have to wait 10 or 15 before I get an invite. Most people just ask if I have done the fight before. I say yes and then we go. I have not had a single bad experience in a PuG yet. Granted they haven’t always been the smoothest run but never any of the toxic behavior people seem to think is so common. Maybe I have been lucky? I have noticed I am running into a lot of the same groups. I have ended up into the same guild run twice a week apart.

I was in a Sab PuG the other day organized by this druid. He had eternal. Well we get the full group and we start asking him how he wants stuff organized and he wont really tell us. So we start figuring it out on our own. He then starts telling us that we only need one person for canons. To my knowledge, you need at least 2. Unless there is some strategy I am not aware of. He insisted that it could be done with only one person.

We finally get the group fully set and ready to pull. He then said he was hung over and probably didn’t have it in him. We asked if he would just give it a couple tries since it had taken us about 30 minutes to get a mostly random PuG together. We do, he had NO idea what he is doing. Flak is everywhere on the group. We are asking him on TS to go out. He doesn’t. Next run, same thing. This guy didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He left the group after that run. It took a little bit but we ended up beating Sabetha after a couple personnel changes and about an hour. Not bad for a random PuG where 3 or 4 had never killed or only killed once.

savacli.8172:

Insights can be chat coded, Eternal title and gear can be bought. So none of that stuff really qualifies your skill. With raid pugging it’s trial by fire. Guy says he can do it and has decent gear (weapons and trinkets suffice)? Throw him on Green or Cannon duty and see if he wipes at the first attempt.

The pug groups I’ve had most success with are those that judge you based on your performance on the field rather than blast you with 20 q’s before you even enter the instance.

This right here. We grabbed four pugs for a Gorse kill the other night. One came in and started pinging his gear. We told him not to worry about it. All we cared is that they had some experience on the fight. We got him down in one go. Sabetha ended up a different story since 4 people had never seen the fight and 1 had only seen it once.

Did it last night. Took about 30 minutes to get to the top. Made the dive on my first try. Whereas my guild mate had been getting ported to the top and had been trying to make the dive for about 2 hours.

TPMN.1483:

I Think it is a good idea right now.. as most individuals have about 30-40 legendary insights.

Haha, no. I am sure there are a lot of people that do. Though I think you are drastically overestimating the amount of players, as a percentage of total players, that are even raiding. Never mind the % of those that are clearing weekly. I would guess, and just a RANDOM guess, that less than 5% of the game population even raids weekly. And I am sure there is only a fraction of that who clear weekly.

My number came from no where in particular. I just have heard what other MMO’s have to raid populations in the past. Also looking at our guild and the % of members that raid. Most have never even stepped foot in there and have no interest. Also the fact that we have been cycling through the same PuGs weekly at random. That tells me the overall pool of people is not as large as you think.

Edit: I am very likely underplaying it as much as you are overplaying. But I think it would be fair to say that MOST GW2 players do not have 30-40 insights. I would also say that MOST players that are raiding semi-regularly do not have that as well. I would guess the majority of players are sitting around 15-25, with the majority on the 15 side.

TPMN.1483:

I would be highly disappointed if they used mag shards for legendary armour as you may not have killed any boss’s..

The numbers below look about right for me:

The legendary back piece requiring 250 FoTM journal books (each book requires 25 pages – max 3/day). You’ve not seen anything like a grind yet.. It will require 2083 days (minimum): About 6 years. It will also require: 250 balls of dark matter, 250 balls of light matter, 250 fractal essence drops (new item only drops from level 75-100 end chests gated behind rng). This way you can be rewarded for your loyalty and dedication to the game.

Don’t even get me started on the legendary armour for one piece:… You’ll need 250 legendary insights, 250 deldrimoor steel/250 elonioan leather/250 bolts of damask. It’s a perfect recipe – then the MF gives you a random piece : 1in 5 chance it will be head, shoulder, chest, leggings or feet. This should keep you playing the game for the next 5 years minimum to get a full set providing the forge gives you on of each type each time.

We have not seen grind yet…but I can think the above would be a really good idea and ensure people play for years to come.

You forgot the /s… I think?

@RisingDusk

That is what I had been assuming as well. It would make sense that it would be similar to current legendary collections

We have a couple guild members that have over 15k AP who have never stepped foot in fractals. AP is in no way a judge of experience or skill.

Rising Dusk.2408:

BloodyNine.7504:

Very well a possibility. Or, when you open that chest. You start 6 new collections! All with 3 or 4 levels! Should I stop giving them ideas?

It has already been confirmed that you will build the legendary armor as a set, not piece-by-piece.

That is cool at least. Though I still expect a three or four tier collection. The one we have now only being the first. Unless it has been confirmed to be otherwise?

Dinosaurs.8674:

BloodyNine.7504:

Ya I figured the same. Can you imagine if it is 1k per armor piece. I can totally see that happening. You figure if you can cap 100 per wing per week, which is just a guess. That would be 20 weeks of caps to complete the armor. That will buy time to make the next raid!

While I also wouldn’t be surprised if some magnetite-purchase-only item was required for the legendary armor, I’m like 95% sure that a dev has said that the armor will be crafted as a set, not one piece at a time. This is also why the description for the Chest of Experimental Armor, which you get from the first legendary armor collection, has the description “Double-click to choose a set of ascended armor”. So at least you won’t have to buy it one piece at a time lol.

Very well a possibility. Or, when you open that chest. You start 6 new collections! All with 3 or 4 levels! Should I stop giving them ideas?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

BloodyNine.7504:

I have NO idea. Which is why I have not spent a single one. I can just see it now. You end up needing 5000 shards to complete the legendary armor collection.

This is what i’ve been figuring since the start. There is no way that they don’t add a 1k+ cost item for the legendary armor set collection after the final wing is released.

Ya I figured the same. Can you imagine if it is 1k per armor piece. I can totally see that happening. You figure if you can cap 100 per wing per week, which is just a guess. That would be 20 weeks of caps to complete the armor. That will buy time to make the next raid!

I have NO idea. Which is why I have not spent a single one. I can just see it now. You end up needing 5000 shards to complete the legendary armor collection.

Roxanne.6140:

BloodyNine.7504:

In our guild we have noticed a definite drop in active player roles. We have also spoken with leaders of some other larger guilds. They have also noticed the same. People that previously would play a lot are just not logging in anymore. They are still around in TS, playing other games. I am sure they will come back for LS3. But as soon as that is done they will dwindle again I am sure.

I understand that this game does not have tiered gear progression. They don’t want your stuff to become obsolete. But, as a game dev, if you are going to do that you need to release more content, faster. People want either new stuff or to progress. Sure you can grind out a legendary and it might be fun for the first one. But it doesn’t make you any stronger, faster, better. It is just shiny. Anet really needs to up the production speed on new content otherwise the slow hemorrhage will continue imo

Tiered gear is gated gear and gated content, gated gear means grind. Grind causes people from f2p mmos to leave games as well. I enjoy this game because it is not f2p mmo styled.

I agree, I am not advocating tiered gear. What I was saying is that players want to progress. Whether that is into new content or with new gear. The devs need to provide that. If you don’t have both, then you need to do the one you are doing faster. So since there is no increase in gear past ascended in this game. As a result new content has to come out faster. Otherwise the game gets stale for a lot of people. Sure there are many that will still play. Most even. But for many players, shiny and new is fun, exciting and the main reason they play. Whether that is gear or content.

In our guild we have noticed a definite drop in active player roles. We have also spoken with leaders of some other larger guilds. They have also noticed the same. People that previously would play a lot are just not logging in anymore. They are still around in TS, playing other games. I am sure they will come back for LS3. But as soon as that is done they will dwindle again I am sure.

I understand that this game does not have tiered gear progression. They don’t want your stuff to become obsolete. But, as a game dev, if you are going to do that you need to release more content, faster. People want either new stuff or to progress. Sure you can grind out a legendary and it might be fun for the first one. But it doesn’t make you any stronger, faster, better. It is just shiny. Anet really needs to up the production speed on new content otherwise the slow hemorrhage will continue imo

Oxidia.8103:

basiclly you have more chance of getting a finished legendary weapon drop then this potion.

This was a couple weeks ago. I have been playing the game for a few months now. I am doing fractals with a couple guild mates. We finish the low mid and high dailies and are just chatting about drops after opening our chests.

I tell him them I didn’t get anything good. No ascended chest, though I did see this exotic item, endless fractal tonic. I dismissed it in my head as just another little potion, no big deal. So a couple minutes later I mention, “Well I did get one other thing, something called an endless fractal tonic” Silence….. “Are you kittening with me?” I respond no, what is it? “Are you kittenING with me!?”

Either way, I had NO idea what I had just gotten. These guys have been playing since launch and have never seen one. I got it out of the 50+ daily box

I have one of each infused, just in case. Salvage the rest. Normal ones are vendor trash

Da Vinci Glider

Mortifer.2946:

BloodyNine, I don’t know if that is dunny or sad.

We found it to be both!

Sayrir.4609:

I think it was bugged earlier when I was checking for dungeon runs(everything showed up empty), thanks for the tip.

Lol, not bugged. The dungeon running is gone man. Barely anyone does it anymore. LFG will always be empty for it.

As for your mastery stuff. You need to taxi into organized maps. You can’t just trust you will be put into a decent map.

Mortifer.2946:

I will tell you what other people keep repeating to me:
Raids are supposed to be cleared only by the best players. If you can’t do it, you are just not good enough and you should play fractals instead. Also, any tools like improved lfg, easy mode, or practise mode would completely negate what raids are about.

….with their comments about “bucket of tears” I think the raid dev team shares this ideology with them.

One thing I found funny is that I don’t think the raid team is as connected with their content as you think.

One of the members of my guild got into a raid a couple weeks ago with one of the lead raid developers. Guy had an Anet tag and everything. He was the worst player in the raid. He got swatted out of the air on Gorse multiple times flying back to the platform. His response “wow, that is annoying, how long has it been doing that?” The guy was constantly being downed. It was obvious to everyone in group that he had little to no experience actually doing the raid. This was one of the guys in charge of developing this stuff!

savacli.8172:

The only oddity I’ve experience with VG is his 180 turn as he’s about to summon the blue spots on the ground. Otherwise he’s sticking to the tank linearly from my experience.

He is supposed to turn 180 to cast the blue teleports.

Our tank has noticed that the closer to the center of the circle. The more likely he is to do weird movements. So what we noticed last night is that when our tank went to move him into the next 1/3 of the floor. Rather than VG following him, it would move along the border between two zones for a bit, then follow the tank in.

We have also noticed some weird bugs with blue teleportation circles. Usually at the beginning of the fight. We had one run where he didn’t cast the teleport for the first 30 seconds or so of the fight. He would turn around like he was going to cast them. But never actually did.

I absolutely agree. First of all the games are not fun, they are tedious. I have done most of them and have gotten silver on most of them, gold on a couple.

First of all, I have never ever ever ever come away from an adventure and though, that was fun. Nor have I gotten a feeling of satisfaction. I have relief that I will never have to do that again. They are boring, horrible content.

Because if you are sitting there grinding away as a mushroom or shooting tendrils, going for that perfect run. You are not making any gold. You are not earning any xp(unless you complete it, I usually reset if I made a mistake to save time). You are not earning any loot. You are not practicing you character, getting better at combat.

I will counter my own feelings and say that there are plenty of people that find them fun and enjoyable. That is great. They should award AP, some loot, xp, even some gold! But putting masteries behind them is asinine.

Edit, If I wanted to play little mini games. I would go play my Wii U.

I actually joined a PUG yesterday that ws 56-67-77 No tree stacking. It was nice to just kill it normally….until…

At about 5% hp Mossman feared a couple of us into the water. This caused him to regen to full HP and he was stuck in his beast mode the whole time. So that was interesting.

But ya. I just don’t stack on the tree anymore. If I die because I am the only one not on the tree then they can just 4 man it.

Harper.4173:

So if I give you a sequence of 20 – and you’re let’s say 5 seconds slower than I calculate you should be – I’ll kick you.

I am going to need to see the exact math on these calculations!

I guess I would just like to see a system that was the more time you had to invest the less gold. And then the inverse as well. It is to the point somewhat. Though the cost is still extremely high IMO.

For now, I just forget that legendary weapons exist.

Harper.4173:

That’s your part of the experience. The other part is noticing who doesn’t take high damage (indicator of tanky gear) and kicking them when they least expect it.

I have no problem with filtering pugs if that is how you want to play it. But man, you sure have thought of a lot of ways to do it! I just imagine the vetting process.

First I link my insights. Not good enough. I need to split them into stacks, Okay passed that. Link some gear. Then show my eternal. Then we pull and I take too little damage. To GW2 efficiency. Only to realize they are wearing tank gear! Kick.

Meanwhile the other 8 people in the group are mashing their heads into the wall waiting to play.

I think that would be cool. It would be nice to be able to obtain one without having to spend ridiculous amounts of gold. Just lots of hard work. But I don’t know if it will ever happen.

We went in last night and messed around just to compare numbers. Same players, same gear, same comp as the previous night. The verdict from our burn warriors is that the damage was reduced 30-40%

This brings it in line with other condi classes. We are actually going to go back to bringing engi’s more than likely. Also it is looking like condi reaper is going to be awesome in the right circumstances.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Ryn.6459:

They always go from to OP to nothingness. So orher easy changes were possible regarding burnzerkers… nownthey are useless

How are they useless now? The Scorched Earth change makes it sound like the dps will now be reasonable instead of stupid strong.

I would agree. It seems to me like they brought the damage in line with other condi classes. They were too strong before. I know it was nice to have but it was obviously too much.

I must be one of the only ones that actually doesn’t like that skin. Not sure what the hubbub is all about.

Harper.4173:

ping raid Mini, Ping raid ascended drop

sobs