Guild Wars 2

The Order arcs were done quite well, Sieran and Tybalt made the PS worth doing, the Norn was alright but someone has to be last. Trahearn pretty much ruined the PS imo, they should build statues of the three while banishing Trahearn, he isn’t needed anymore.

SkyShroud.2865:

i believe silverwaste is part of the living story project
the living story project was thought as a method to bring new contents to the game on incremental basis, replacing the need for expansion.
but i think anet change their mind and decided that a expansion with tons of new things is better than incremental patches

Anet tried to be like Valve and HL2, both failed.

Combine the entire PS into a linear instance and make that the NPE, when completed you are at level cap, instead of the current 10 level staggered where each arc only yields you only 2-3 levels..

IndigoSundown.5419:

The thing that gets me is … how can you hate leveling but like playing a character at max level? There’s so little to do at 80 that cannot also be done while leveling. Unless it’s about having a full build with traits — now, that I can understand.

Almost everything you do at 80 you do while leveling, the only difference while leveling you’re dealing with revolving gear, wasted cosmetics, and sub par build. Which is one of the double edges of GW2s, while all content is available it makes leveling redundant.

Ascended mats are already stored in mats storage so making them currency isn’t needed, downfall of those items are that they are easy to get but rarely used. As the above poster said, they really just need a Dragonite sink similar to the Maw.

Bandit crests really needed to be added to currency though, Having almost 5k is a pita to manage.

Donari.5237:

This has been suggested before. The problem is most likely that if the TP has to compare every item it has to your account before it can load, and do that simultaneously for thousands of people searching, it will take forever and a day to load.

If there’s a way around that, hoo boy would I love a skin locked/unlocked filter.

The best bet would be to restrict the filter. So if on a Ele only light would show, and you could only check armor, weapons, back, etc individually, or if its still an issue, then restrict it to per slot filter.

Sariel V.7024:

I’m sure that they could, and it could be a worthwhile addition. But, what exactly do you find so difficult about tracking down a skin?

I doubt it’s difficult but as stated a QoL issue. When looking through the wardrobe it is annoying to have to wiki some stuff since the name =/= item. It also could speed up the process when trying to fill your wardrobe instead of having to search through pages to find stuff you don’t have.

Kind of off-topic, but really having a active but somewhat negative forum, is much better than having a almost dead but mostly positive forum. Having the latter means the game is either for the most part dead, except for die hard fans, or its way overly moderated which means there are probably issues the devs want to completely ignore. The former means people care enough about the game to “constructively” criticize it while still having a healthy base.

The state of Gw2 forums isn’t bad really, its active enough and while negative, isn’t toxic. Moderation could be a bit more lax, but they at least let threads playout before locking..

Rezzet.3614:

however it is not leveling that is boring but the game areas like seriously what i do for fun is go to maps with water and stare at its beauty (anet pls gib us a pretty sandy crystal clear water beach or a hot spring in HoT )

Just so long as you don’t go underwater…Underwater combat is more annoyance then anything. Also there is a hot spring “resort” in Wayfarer Foothills, look for Zelechor Hot Springs Waypoint.

@OP Leveling is boring after the 1st-2nd time regardless, though I put most of the blame on the lackluster character development as you level. Hopefully that will change with the new trait system, but sadly I won’t be able to test since I’ve already maxed out the 5 character slots(with no intention of buying more).

Almost every MMO forums is the same, mostly negative with white knights and trolls. So really its just sorting out the whining from the grandstanding to compare.

This game is a jack of all trades, master of none type game. It has little to no restrictions on types of gameplay regardless of if its sPvP, WvW, Dungeons, but also has little purpose or consequences outside of repetition. Make note there is no real “endgame” outside of a few 80 zones, pretty much anything you can do pre-level cap, you will be doing post level cap, endgame is really cosmetics.

While personally I’ve been having fun with this game, I don’t see how people can play it regularly since release or even for 1+ years. So to me it was worth the cost and is better than most F2Ps, but isn’t anything special tbh, and really doesn’t have much staying power.

Mentioning raids in a game based off of instant gratification, isn’t going to go well.

Metasynaptic.1093:

scientists don’t say it. It’s one of Clark’s laws. Which you’d probably know if you bothered to read anything instead of flailing madly in an argument about a thought exercise.

That’s a ‘fact’.

I doubt Clarke’s Third Law is the right representation of the comparison between realistic tech and fantasy magic. He is also right, but the Law has to do with perspective not literal limitations. If you showed someone in Tyria a cell phone or any of our current modern tech, they would perceive it as magic as well.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

BrooksP.4318:

It is a shame that they made races homogeneous due to balancing reasons, instead of allowing diversity. Not sure if that fault is from a dev standpoint or a player’s mindset.

What diversity is there in all power classes play Norn, all condi classes play slyvari, all tanks play charr, etc. And if you tried to go “off type”, an Asuran power character, you’d get booted out of a dungeon party or a GvG guild, more so then you get the “zerk exp only” in the LFG already.

What they did is a much better option to not have your cosmetic look (or the first chapter of your story) effect game play in the slightest (why do you think 99% of the racial skills are all rubbish).

Diversity in regards to the races outside of just cosmetics, not professions they choose. As I stated the min-max ideology, which you referenced too, is the fault of players mindset. Not to mention the fact that GW2 profession system is designed to be a jack of all trades, where individual stats aren’t just useful in a singular profession or build.

E: To be clear, I’m not saying making them equal was a bad choice, its actually a understandable choice from a MMOs standpoint. That doesn’t mean I actually care for it, or really the state of RPGs that creates this “every race is equal” and “race is only about looks” mindset.

It is a shame that they made races homogeneous due to balancing reasons, instead of allowing diversity. Not sure if that fault is from a dev standpoint or a player’s mindset.

lordkrall.7241:

I have studied Norse mythology quite extensively, and I have yet to come up to a single situation where the praying to spirit animals happen. Which is basically what most of the Norn society is built around.

Oh, so we don’t count Sylvari as human, despite them being much closer to humans than Norn, but Norn are totally human?

Asura have no connection to rats/mice (you are probably thinking about Skritts, which are basically big talking rats).

“Praying” is a Christian view on faith, where as Norse was much more diverse. Animals where not considered gods, they where considered same as them, beasts born of nature. They would call on animal spirits to aid them, or use them in remembrance of the dead. Shamanism for example was the blend of the earth, man, and beast and that a Shaman could connect in the spirit world, since the belief was that all spirits where connected.

Sylvari are born of a tree, unleashed by a dragon, have a skin composed of bark, and only resemble the humanoid figure. So there is almost no connection there outside of looks which is far more unique when comparing Humans/Sylvari then Humans/Norn.

Skritt are evolved rats, Asura are evolved mice. While not in the literal sense, they seem to be modeled after them, and their cities are like mazes.

E: In regards to the comparison of Native Americans and Norse, the two are quite similar from a baseline perspective in regards to the connection between ones self and nature.

lordkrall.7241:

I would say that one of the major aspects of the Norn is not even remotely based on Norse lore but rather native american.

Are we going to go on claiming that Sylvari is just green humans as well then? Or Asura being very smart, tiny humans?

If your talking about shifting into animals, then that is also based off of Norse Lore, just in a literal sense. For example some Viking fighters(known as Berserkers) would go into a self induced “high” to emulate the strength of a bear.

Sylvari is what you are arguing about with Norn, they have a similar physical appearance as Human, but are totally different. Asura are just evolved mice, so no. Norns are just tall nordic based humans, or a cross breed between Kodan and Human.

Edit: Nvm misread,

lordkrall.7241:

Genlog.4983:

yes you can see Norns as vikings
the cold areas and there hunters

Oh, I agree that the are inspired by the vikings.
But that doesn’t mean they are humans.
They might look a bit like humans, but that doesn’t make them humans.

Not just inspired, but almost every aspect is based off of Nordic or Viking Lore, even their names. Sounds like Norns are just lazy story writing, copy and paste Nordic Lore, call them Norn, and say they are a non-human with unknown origins… They might aswell just had Kodan as Norn and never made Norns.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Deedrick.4372:

I have yet to see any one qualified to fill the op’s request….

the ones i posted qualify. like you I have not seen any others who come close.

Qualify to be a stripper maybe, but prettiest will always be subjective. Beldin and MFoy are the top so far imo.

Humans are more intelligent and are better organized so my bet would be on them. Though if it came down to a war of attrition then Norn would do better,

Plus aren’t Norns just Nordic based Humans anyways.

You need to click the unused slot when you try to add it. It will default highlight the first slot(which is taken by the Sigil of Str), just click the one below it.

Nike.2631:

hmmz.4186:

you mean post a pic with least clothing

Hopefully it doesn’t have to devolve to that.

Oh but that’s what it will become.. Though to aid in your quest, here’s my Ele, usually have top hat on, but for this purpose its hidden.

Altair.8402:

Staff ele is already the highest DPS build in game on most “large champ and boss mobs”.

If you put five hit locations on a boss, staff eles will do 5x as much damage since everything is aoe.

(As a staff ele I’m not opposed to this idea)

Unless AE damaged is changed to be divided among targets.

Pretty much don’t use skins until 80, and use outfits for leveling.

The scorched earth method with nukes would kill us before it kills them. The blast may damage it or destroy part of it, but the nuclear fallout would kill us. This would also be dependent on how radiation effects Mordermoth.

Since the OPs topic has ran its course, time to continue to go off topic.

BrotherBelial.3094:

With out levels, there would be alot of empty maps. Levels are there to keep players on other maps. Otherwise what’s the point in having other maps, other city’s? Its all part of the design to keep you playing. At any point during leveling, did you think to your self “I’m almost to my next level, I’ll play for 5 more minutes to get that done”? I know I have. And ended up playing a little.longer than that.because j ended up doing an event chain or what ever. That’s the whole point. Might not work for everyone, but for everyone one it dose, the more populated the game is.the more people play, the more people play the more of a chance there is that they’ll buy gems.

Maps would need to be reworked to compensate, but really map usage isn’t just by leveling characters, if you ever look you will see that most in lower level maps are actually just downscaled. It may also actually increase map usage since there is no defined level, where people will feel they progressed passed it. Switching the NPE to PS and then having each zone function like SW, where its a individual story and a overall buildup/downfall style storyline would be best. It gives some purpose to older maps and could be modified with LS or Expansions releases to keep things fresh without having to worry about how it affects leveling.

I can understand the idea of time vested into leveling, but with a game like GW2 that has pretty much every way to speed up leveling, means that investment isn’t really important. It just seems to me that leveling is more of a hindrance than anything else, considering the lack of endgame, means you will be going back and redoing “leveled” zones regardless.

It just seems odd that Anet isn’t a fan of linear progression, yet the game is still based off of it, just without the main aspect of linear progression, which is endgame.

Ascended is really more expensive then the benefits it gives, especially when you compare the cost/stat difference between Rare and Exotic. The only reason people get it outside of fractals is simply because they can, either because they have no other goals or just to have BiS. Looks was another argument for ascended, but imo the skins for ascended(primarily weapons) looks rushed and look like filler skins, not really unique.

I think ascended should be boosted stat wise, or do similar to legendary where you can swap stat sets. To appease those who will cry balance, you can have the WvW armor scaling over scale ascended to negate the boost. So ascended would only have in impact on PVE.

I also don’t mind the idea of level scaling for alt use but really the cost vs reward for ascended does need something.

People play female charrs…. Lies.

Draknar.5748:

Totally. What I don’t think is fair is that I have to start at level 1 and am forced to level to 80. I mean, it just isn’t fair that someone who has played the game for longer gets to be a higher level than I am and have more stats and traits. I should be able to make a character that starts out at level 80..

While I know this was a jest(and off-topic), but I do actually think GW2 would do better without levels and that leveling is actually redundant. Most content you do in PVE@80 is scaled and usually not even in level 80 zones, both WvW and sPvP are scaled, and dungeons are scaled with a minimum level. So you have a leveling system, but everything scales, which makes levels meaningless.

I don’t think the idea behind expansions+LS+gemstore is that terrible of an idea, at least from a business standpoint. However it doesn’t seem like Anet was prepared or set in a way to time it properly. It seems like their original model wasn’t working so they are rushing out HoT which seems to be too little too late. From what they’ve released so far a HoT style expansion should have came out a year or two ago. Now granted I haven’t really followed GW2 development or business strategy so unsure if intended or not, nor do I know how good/large their dev team is.

However doing expansions longterm, with LS as midterm, and gem store to fill the gaps isn’t a bad business model if they can keep it up. The only problem is the cost for the expansions/LS and the rate of development.

Releasing $30-$40 expansions each year will drive more players away then retain, it would have to be every 2-3 years. Depending on scale of the expansion. Living Story would have to be rolled into later expansions to avoid massive “catch up” costs for new players, and their cosmetic system needs to be more encouraging to use.

Though this is all speculation, hindsight, and personal opinion.

Rebound.3409:

I don’t mind traditional grinding but i absolutely hate being timegated. It feels like the most cheap method of keeping a player in your game…it’s actually kinda pathetic.

Believe it’s more a market control aspect, being able to mass produce Damask would tank the price. However it is true that it would be a cheap and inefficient way to keep players playing, if that was its intent.

Aranvar le Voyageur.7521:

These arguments are valids, you are just too stubborn to even consider its.
…the lack of counter arguments is the perfect expression of it..
You are simply not willing to discuss because you are too entitled, too sure to be right to take criticism ><
“Good” is not “optimised”…
then I will argument like you all, statement, not arguments:

No.
…ascended is “perfect”, because its have the highest amounts of stats, not exotic, wich have btween 5% and 10% less.
A player geared in ascended vs another player in exotic have a clear advantage, no one could deny it honnestly. The playerin ascended gear is more likely suposed to know better the game and its mechanics than a player in exotic because he have spent more time to farm content to complete its crafting…oh wait…
Why is it unconceivable to have a game, a revolutionnary mmo wich not compare their players on there ability to farm mindlesssly the same content to get a superior gear, than on their personnal skill ? seriously ?

You are using the entitlement argument wrong, since you are asking for equality based off of lack of work compared to those who put the effort into it. You want top gear to be easy to get which is pretty much how entitlements work.

The argument of advantage is only apparent SLIGHTLY in WvW, where gear tiers are scaled. So the 5% “advantage” you get from ascended isn’t going to make or break a fight, RNG, latency, fat fingers will have more of an impact then ascended vs exotic armor.

It isn’t inconceivable for a game to not be based on repetitive grind, however GW2 is not one of those..

Fenrir.3609:

BrooksP.4318:

Because its a storyline mode, kind of defeats the purpose if the story is out of place.

It wouldn’t be out of place though, you can do it in the “right order”. Just wait till you hit 80 before soloing them.

The dungeon story goes along the same path as the personal story, while separate in influence it still plays along the same path. So assuming you do the PS as you level, waiting till the end to do the dungeons will still seem out of place.

Fenrir.3609:

I’m not entirely sure why that matters. Just go back at level cap and solo them.

Because its a storyline mode, kind of defeats the purpose if the story is out of place.

Malediktus.9250:

They are already soloable, just takes some effort instead of steamrolling.

Dungeons progress as you level. So while you can solo some of them at 80 w/exotics but not at the time the dungeon was designed for. I doubt a level 40 can solo CM Story.

CookieMonster.5869:

Ok I’ll stop being new now and turn myself into a veteran GW2 player. /face palm.
The thing is I don’t have the gold to pay upfront like that. You lose like 100g+ by going that route.

If you want gear equality when it comes to PVP play sPVP. When it comes to WvW, the difference is minor enough that it isn’t required, nor does it give much of an advantage. Trinkets have a much higher effect difference then armor. Dungeons and Open-World PVE isn’t balanced off of ascended and isn’t required in almost any run. Fractals it is needed for agony resist, not really for the stats.

Outside of fractals where does ascended become a requirement?

Devata.6589:

BrooksP.4318:

So they are on the decline from an overall standpoint, and broke ahead a little probably due to HoT hype and the recent GW2 fire sale.

You sound so negative, but you can also use this information to make some conclusions bases on this.

So what can you conclude from it? Expansions are able to break the decline.

Expansions will only continue to cause peaks, and depending on how well or how long those peaks last can be risky, not to mention how well it can sustain the fall. With HoT looking somewhat lackluster in scale and depending on price point, might set up future expansions to fail.

The negativity is mostly just confirmation of an assumption, because it somewhat shows that the current business model isn’t as sustainable as some think.

So they are on the decline from an overall standpoint, and broke ahead a little probably due to HoT hype and the recent GW2 fire sale.

Kousetsu.1627:

We just need more options during character creation, stance and body proportions come to mind.

This. Reason I deleted my charr was because of the posture, giving a option at creation would be best solution.

This all depends on how modern tech would be used by Mordremoth thrall. Any advancement in tech could be theoretically be used against the us, due to Mordremoth ability to control.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Did you actually watch the live stream? The community, at that time, was asking for some sort of information about what was going on, we had ~3-4 weeks of light “fluff” pieces and recaps. Anet answered our pleas and showed us a lot of stuff that was rough around the edges and still has a lot of work to do.

They still have to:

Artwork for all of the traits
Artwork for the UI of each of the core specializations
Artwork for the UI of each of the branch of skills
Take any feedback they deem appropriate that we’ve given
Apply all the changes they’ve mentioned for our weapon/utility/heal/elite skills
Balance the heck out of the numbers
Test everything to make sure it’s not broken
And do that for each of the 8 professions.
Then change all skill points to hero points
Decide the set in stone number for HP to max everything
Remove skill points from our Hero Panel
Have us loose all skills and gain the correct amount of HP
Gain the correct amount of the new unnamed wallet Mystic Forge currency
Expand the wallet so it can fit the new item (and I assume they’ll also add other currencies at this time, geodes and bandit crests please! and place holders for anything new with HoT)
Decide if they want to change how any number is calculated, for example precision is going up to 1000, do they just want to increase the baseline crit chance of all players, or will they redo the formula so even with 1k precision we still just have a 4% crit chance.
Figure out if they want to do anything with condi duration and boon duration that is being removed from trait lines.
And I’m sure I’m missing stuff….

I really hope they are much further indev then what you assume or what they have shown. What you listed would imply that they really don’t have much at all done, outside of concept and outline. If so and with specializations being one of the core aspects of HoT, it would mean A LONG time before it is released. Considering how long HoT has been talked about being indev.

Daywolf.2630:

Prototypemind.4026:

This game doesn’t support a very good wardrobe system, unfortunately.

Seems really awesome to me…
Maybe I’m just untainted by modern games as I mostly prefer the more oldschool mmo’s. Walking 5 miles through the pixelated snow, let me tell ya…
Then not getting back to your corpses in time and your “wardrobe” decays and is lost forever! O.O
And you lost… SKILLPOINTS!!!
hehe
Then you enter a town and guards whack you dead, and everyone loots your new wardrobe, the one you just spent 3HRS killing and looting sewer rats for.
5 miles!!!

Older games had more purpose behind them, where games where focused more on the long term as well as character development. Where as GW2 is neither.

The failure of the wardrobe system, is a game that is designed around cosmetics, is actually discouraging cosmetic changes. I would highly doubt many use charges prior to level cap, more so I would guess that only the minority of players actually use charges on a regular basis.

I still wish you could use 6 charges to create an “outfit” from skins, then have it only require 1 charge to equip said “outfit”. Personally I would use more charges in the long run because I would actually use them when leveling alts or make different setups.

To expand on ideas, I still don’t think just adding “special loot” solves anything in regards to making dungeons worth repeating.

However from a PVE/Content perspective, I would change the entire Dungeon/Fractal system. Regular dungeons would stay the same, dungeon paths would be created the same way as fractals are and both the “Fractal Dungeon Paths” and regular fractal paths would be merged into Dungeons.

I would then convert the fractal system into a RNG style dungeon. Where maps would be random, spawns, bosses, and events would be random within that map. It would then scale in difficulty and type of mobs.

Currently both Dungeons and Fractals are too static, regardless of what you do they will become repetitive and “useless” to run. Simply adding “special items” or trying to push out new dungeons doesn’t solve the static nature, and the cycle will continue.

When I first came back to GW2 I thought Fractals would be more of a autogen dungeon that levels, which doesn’t appear so. While not perfect it would create some diversity in dungeon running, instead of the current system.

I included confirmed HoT, which even if rumored for thief it still puts it below. Admittedly I did misread Daggers on the 5th and included offhand.

The OP is talking about giving Guardians Rifles instead of longbow(which is another 2 now 3), which would indicate he was talking about confirmed HoT.

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

Which reminds me and scares me at the same time: How much left until Anet implements a Fractal PvP Reward Track with a free skin at the end?

That would be beyond lame.

I didn’t like the change, I felt dungeons skins should have stayed unique, but admittedly liked it when getting Koda skins…

Karisho.3058:

My problem with dungeons is, that there is no reason anymore to run them except for gold. Why would it be unnecessary to add something like the special dropps in fractals to dungeons?

It creates redundancy. The same issue you are running into now will only happen once you get all the “special drops”. So the whole reason to run dungeons is Storyline, Skins, and Gold, if you want “something more” then you move on to fractals. Which again is the same thing just with a scale and “special rewards”.

E: Now to create a middle ground. It wouldn’t be a terrible idea to take dungeon paths and add them into the fractal system.

Karisho.3058:

I’m fine with fractals, but I was talking about the dungeons.

Fractals is what you are describing, and dungeons already have skins associated with each one. Granted the skins aren’t exclusive anymore due to PVP tracks, but still probably quicker.

Fractals?

I was hoping they would expand tomes with the specializations, but got Dragonhunter, which I don’t get at all.