Guild Wars 2

I made about 60g dumping 2 million karma. I had 75% karma boost at the time. I heard that if you have 95% boost the returns are much higher.

Vol.5241:

The karma/gold rate conversion right now is just not worth it. Yes you get some gold but keep in mind that they could keep on adding new items with karma, let alone when they come out with an expansion.

And while the karma acquisition rate now is pretty good – it still takes time to get a good amount of karma.

I strongly suggest you just let it accumulate. It’s not worth the conversion.

I disagree.

I would wager that Karma is a dead currency. My reasoning is based on the notion that they cannot control how much of it is produced per person. Guild Commendations and Laurels are very tightly controlled. They know how much one person can earn per month. Can’t do that with Karma.

Swagger.1459:

yes and yes. unfortunate how the most important part of the game is given so little attention.

It’s because of the resources they allocate to it. There’s 1 or 2 people working on class balance. Can’t expect much balancing when so little resources are spent on it.

Stop trying to track the NPC’s prior to activating the bounty and your lives will be much simpler and less frustrating.

10 players can comb a map very efficiently. 2 groups of 5 can split the map into 2 parts(east and west or north and south). If both groups party up; they can see each other as blue dots on the map.

Way to derail the thread into pointless drivel.

Some people with a lot of money can get very bored. They probably think Guild Wars 2 is like PAC MAN; trying to get the Gold high score. It’s normal for people to take more risks when they have more capital.

Changing the price of an item from 100 to 500 doesn’t mean the market will accept it. If it doesn’t; the investor gets a nice hair cut.

They’re not going to be able to balance this game with the armor and health disparities.

The difference in health between a Warrior and an Elementalist is 7,500.
The difference in armor between a Warrior and an Elementalist is 300.

How do you balance this?

You give the Elementalist condition removal, mobility and healing to make up for the difference and everyone thinks the Elementalist is overpowered.

Yes, lets implement roles that nobody wants to play. Lets wait in a queue and spam map chat for hours on end to find tanks and healers.

Tanks and Healers. Probably the dumbest system I have ever seen.

The gaming community will decide whether GW2 sPVP is an esport or not.

In the meantime; try to get at least 10 spectators “willing” to watch a game.

Ask a developer why the Warrior deals so much damage compared to other classes and see what kind of answer you’ll get; if you’ll get one at all.

The Mesmer portal is an interesting problem because it’s either you completely remove it or you provide it to other classes.

Some of these events are over in less than a minute. Fire Elemental and Jungle Worm comes to mind.

Are there any plans to redesign these events into 10+ minute epic battles that are worthy of their loot?

Ursan.7846:

Calae.1738:

I have found that The Anomaly provides the best return per skill point. Assuming you have 250 skill points lying around and assuming you purchase the 100 mystic coins and 250 globs of ectoplasm; each skill point will net you about 20 silver.

How are you calculating your purchases of ecto/mystic coins? With sell orders on spidy or buy orders?

Buy orders.

Mystic Coins and Ectoplasms are high volume trades. If you’re patient enough you can get very good deals on them.

It’s lazy and uncreative.

It’s just one person doing one size fits all clothes to save time.

You probably attacked something with very low armor.

Damage done = (weapon damage) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Critters have 0 armor. That’s why the damage is so high when you hit them.

I have found that The Anomaly provides the best return per skill point. Assuming you have 250 skill points lying around and assuming you purchase the 100 mystic coins and 250 globs of ectoplasm; each skill point will net you about 20 silver.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Very well written Symbolic.

Great write-up. Just so you guys know, we’re trying to bring down the cantrip Ele, while also being careful to let other Ele builds work. We don’t want to just take all Ele’s out of play, but we do need to bring a few things down (traits/skills) in efficacy.

Translation:

We don’t know or don’t want to make everything as good as these traits/abilities so instead we’ll reduce them to make them equally terrible as everything else.

The problem is not the build; it’s the weapon. It has no mobility, low single target damage and stationary AoE.

I would make the staff do the following…

Fire – Ground targeted/mobile AoE damage spells.
Air – Single target damage an mobility spells (teleport).
Water – Ground targeted/mobile AoE damage/healing spells.
Earth – Single target damage and control spells (cripple, immobilize, stun, knockdown).

Asilithiel.7928:

204 keys, got my first ticket in the last batch.

165 of those were bought (~315g) , 1 was from claw island, and the other 38 were recycled from the chest drops.

In total, the drops were:
1 fused weapon claim ticket
1 minis 3-pack (set 1)
6 black lion salvage kit
2 total makeover kit
3 self-style hair kit
25 small guild discovery
14 medium guild discovery
12 large guild discovery
50 transmutation crystals (10 stacks of 5)
62 unidentified dyes (19 stacks of 2, 24 stacks of 1)
3 dye packs
85 heavy bag of coins (774.13 silver)
8 black lion mining pick
10 black lion logging axe
6 black lion harvesting sickle
29 bank access express
23 instant repair canisters
19 merchant express
15 revive orbs
30 trading post express
18 armor boosters
15 crafting boosters
16 experience boosters
13 karma boosters
19 killstreak experience boosters
24 magic find boosters
13 pvp glory booster
24 rejuvenation boosters
25 speed boosters
17 strength boosters
2 booster multipacks (karma, magic find, experience)
129 mystery tonics (43 stacks of 3)
38 black lion chest key (used)

That’s about 18,000 gems or 220$ USD for a weapon skin. Odds are about 0.5% according to your sample size.

And from absurd we go to crazy. You just don’t get it. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s evil. That’s ultimately what all of this comes down to. You want something sold in one manner, but the owner of that product is selling it in another, so you leap out to try a public shaming so you can get your own way.

If you actually want to try have a discussion, you’ll have to come up with an argument other than “I don’t like it.” Otherwise you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

Unfortunately some people can’t figure out they’re being screwed until they understand the mechanics of it or someone explains it to them. Figuring out the mechanics behind lottery systems requires understanding in college level mathematics; which most people on this planet do not possess.

Leveling and stat progression is a very old and outdated system. Developers invest so much money in these MMO projects that they’re afraid to take risks by designing new systems.

We get the same old systems because developers are afraid or too incompetent to think of something new.

Unique is meaningless without a description of what it is supposed to be unique to.

Unique to what? To the game? To the character? To the account?

Unique isn’t the only poor tooltip description you’ll find in GW2. There are plenty of confusing and unclear tooltips in traits, items and abilities.

Elementalists have the lowest health and armor in the game.

We spec into fast attunement switching, healing and condition removal while wearing vitality and toughness gear in order to not get destroyed. You nerf the Elementalist and you destroy the only viable spec we have because everyone is specced roughly the same way.

Once that is done the class itself is destroyed.

I have prepared for this day; in case the developers decided to get stupid. I have enough gold saved up to power level any class to 80 in 3 hours and buy an entire set of exotics. 20 pristine relics for 2 ascended rings and 70 laurels for an ascended amulet. Guild commendations are rolling in at 3 per week and saving them up for 2 ascended accessories.

I don’t think you guys understand the very meaning of the words MMORPG.

Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game.

This game should have hundreds of other players connected to a central server or multiple servers. These players should be visible, interact with the world and other players in various ways. Role Playing Game is where most people get confused. It has a very simple definition. It’s a game where the player assumes a role or multiple roles within a one or more narratives.

Character development through talents, abilities and traits is not necessary but; can immerse the player into the narrative very well if done correctly.

The stat progression part that you people keep talking about is not progression. It’s a treadmill. The numbers are getting higher but the ratios are always the same. What’s the difference if you deal 100 damage and your target has 1000 health versus you dealing 100,000 damage and your target has 1,000,000 health? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Getting a +1 of anything is idiotic and shows people’s complete lack of understanding in the most basic arithmetic.

Kakeru.2873:

I swear the majority of people playing GW2 actually don’t like the MMORPG genre at all, and are constantly coming up with ways to push GW2 out of the mmorpg genre and turn it into an Action Adventure Online Game.

First, the roles and dissolved and almost removed to the point where, 9 times out of 10 someone is playing a damage dealing role. “soft” classes that can do everything. Next we remove the need for grouping and social interaction to tackle content, next we remove levels and make this a Action World Simulator Online.

@ the guy who mentioned monster hunter, MH isn’t an rpg of any sort and also there kind of are levels (there are HR ranks) but they don’t effect your character in anyway they just allow you to face harder monsters.

I like how you assume that MMORPG requires leveling, stat increases, gear grinds, healers and tanks.

These design systems are primitive and obsolete. Just like the elevator man and soon paper mail.

1) Bind a key to Hero Dialog.
2) Right click weapon slot for a list of weapons to select.
3) Left click on desired weapon.
4) Press Hero Dialog key to close window.

I can change weapons out of combat in less than 3 seconds.

Instead of Endure Pain, invest more into Defense to get Shield Master. 3 seconds of Blocking on a 24 second cooldown is hard to beat. Take Signet of Stamina for faster endurance regeneration (more dodges) and remove all conditions on a 36 second cooldown.

That WvW build has some serious issues against conditions and damage avoidance. Luckly your mobility is fine with the main hand sword.

KazNaka.4718:

^ false. You learn much faster with a glass cannon build because you are forced to dodge, move around in order to live. With knight’s gear I can tank everything and become too lazy to dodge. Why dodge when I can just stand there and take the hit?

Now, what’s another good motivator to dodge and live? Sigils that give you stacks (bloodlust, perception, etc). I wear full berserker’s and bloodlust sigil, and on a good day I can manage to keep all 25 stacks all the way to the end of the dungeon (meaning I never went to downed state).

I don’t agree with this.

You should be dodging regardless of how much armor and health you have. In fractals 30+ a warrior cannot dodge very often and if you’re running around with full berserker you’re going to have a very hard time.

I agree.

Traditional MMO’s have leveling which make previous content obsolete. Players consume the content in a fraction of the time it took the developers to build it. In addition; once players consume it there is no reason o ever go back. All those assets are completed wasted.

Leveling systems are a complete waste of resources and probably one of the most inefficient design philosophies in existence.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcRzcc0zMMwCGmMRhGm0ax0xmzsaosb

Use Hammer for DPS and crowd control.
Use Axe and Shield for Adrenaline regeneration and blocking.

Augment your weaknesses with Signet of Stamina for more frequent dodges and condition removal. Balanced Stance has the mandatory stun breaker and very useful Stability boon. Bull’s Charge for mobility and gap closing.

This build regenerates adrenaline so fast that you’ll be able to use your tier 3 fully charged F1 skills faster than the cooldown resets. Slap Superior Sigil of Battle on your weapons for 4 stacks of Might of weapon switching. Pop your Signet of Rage elite for 5 stacks of Might and Fury; 25 stacks of Bloodlust; 13 stacks of Might self buffed and you’re a wrecking ball.

Pffft yeah… you telling me you couldn’t figure out what the poster above me posted? Come on guy; this is elementary.

I wish there was 1 zone; just once zone where there are nothing but veterans and champions. Fireballs falling from the sky, lava pits and quick sand traps that swallow you whole. NPC’s stalking you in stealth and ambush you when you least expect it.

Make the world threatening and make the player feel like they’re being hunted.

Daecollo.9578:

Calae.1738:

Tetra Bug.7134:

With Unsuspecting Foe you have guaranteed ~10K+ burst from Earthshaker + autos. I run 20/15/20/0/15 for WvW.

Not just that.

Try Earthshaker, Staggering Blow, Fierce Blow combo. Insta kill.

Nope, way too slow. Sorry.

No one does spvp dude. There’s like 12 people who play that.

In WvW you have an abundance of noobs with glass cannon builds and no stun breakers.

Tetra Bug.7134:

With Unsuspecting Foe you have guaranteed ~10K+ burst from Earthshaker + autos. I run 20/15/20/0/15 for WvW.

Not just that.

Try Earthshaker, Staggering Blow, Fierce Blow combo. Insta kill.

Hammer is insane with the Hammer trait. It has a stun, aoe knockback, knock down, 7 second aoe cripple and 8 second weakness.

It’s such a poor way to run a store. I can see other development studios making much better use of their store and I’ll be supporting them; not arenanet.

Astral Projections.7320:

OmniPotentes.4817:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Calae.1738:

Why is it that they design a system that makes the customer roll dice for a chance to get what they want? The store keeps our money even if we don’t get what we want.

And that is the point. This way, 1. they get to keep your money no matter what, and 2. they don’t flood the economy with valuable luxury goods.

2 for the price of 1, how can ArenaNet lose?!

To put it simply, it makes sense for ArenaNet to have this because it works so much to their favor. I am not saying that I like it from a customer’s perspective, but it is obvious to me why they would choose this route.

The problem with this route is that it only works for a short period of time. People catch on and move along.

The problem is, that it continues to work. Each and every time. Each time they have had these gamble boxes, there are multiple threads with people posting that they opened 100 or more boxes. Outraged people everywhere!!! People claiming they will never do this again. But obviously ANet is making a lot of money from this and as the saying goes, Money talks. As long as people buy large numbers of keys each time, it’s to the companies’ benefit. The customer can be as outraged as they want afterwards but ANet has the money to prove that the system is “working as intended”.

As long as they make more money doing this than they would make selling the skins directly, they will continue selling thru RNG. It appears they are making more money selling thru RNG, so we will continue to see gamble boxes.

It will work assuming they continue to have a fresh supply of fools joining the game. The veterans have already understood the scam and moved on.

Tifa Lockheart Ex.9614:

After having read different sections of the forum. I’ve come to realize that players have a lot of issue (including my self) with how certain things are being run in game. The answer to all your problem is simple people. “Option -> Log off game”. Go spend time with your friends and family. I do it daily after logging on to see if any guildies online then log off if nothing happening

Yes of coarse. That’s exactly what a teenager and Disney adult would do. Run away from problems and issues.

You see, real adults, mature adults have a responsibility to care about things. They discuss problems and find solutions no matter how difficult it is.

Warrior has insane burst damage. Play with a hammer and axe/shield. Get the trait in Arms that gives you +50% crit chance when foe is stunned.

Shield bash (1 second stun) + full adrenaline Eviserate = 6k+
Hammer full adrenaline Earthshaker (2 second stun) + 3 hit auto attack = 10k+

Warriors can be wrecking balls.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Blackmoon.6837:

A good story will make you care. A better story will make you question your own mindset and truly test your emotions.

Not exactly…

A good story will merely keep you invested for a time, and allow you to relax without questioning it. It’s pure entertainment, a relaxing experience you can let go of stress over and allow your mind to slow down and just process subconscious bits and pieces which otherwise clog your thoughts all day.

A great story will not only do all the above, but lead you to actively consider aspects of the fiction which were not in evidence . . . to reason and build your own thoughts around where the story ended or began, to inspire your creativity. You don’t merely relax and watch, you feel like it’s real and start to wonder about details you normally would leave alone.

Emotional connection, or intellectual challenge, or assaulting preconceptions are not always a part of a great story, however. You don’t need them to be a great story, and it can fool people into thinking a “good” story or less is actually a great story.

Simple things amuse simple minds.

You can make a child laugh by doing funny faces. Conversely certain adults can be quite entertained by the most childish things.

Goose.5196:

I agree 100%. I feel like they made this game so light-hearted and jokey to appeal to kids.

It’s not just kids; it’s also Disney adults.

Poplolita.2638:

Kravick.4906:

Poplolita.2638:

RebelYell.7132:

Poplolita.2638:

Sound like a burn out. Slow down and relax.

Real the OP more closely. The RNG is what’s forcing him to play more. If it was fixed, he may well be able to “slow down”, as you so tactfully put it.

I did. It’s a burn out, and he should relax and slow down, eventually he’ll get what he so dearly want. RNG doesn’t force anyone to play more.

Yeah actually, it kinda does. If you’re looking for a specific skin and it never drops, you’ll need to continue doing it until it does. RNG in video games is notoriously bad for this sort of thing as well because there is no such thing as true RNG with computers.

This is why I’m telling him to relax and slow down.

Telling him to relax and slow down is like telling an alcoholic to drink less alcohol. The solution for him is to stop cold turkey. If you study variable ratio reward schedules in psychology you would learn that the subject (if predisposed to psychological addictions) is very likely to keep repeating the same task until the reward is received.

I’d like a zone harder than Orr. All mobs are Veterans minimum. Lots of Champions. No waypoints. Even the zone wants to kill you. Burning lava, fireballs dropping from the sky quicksand traps that swallow you whole.

I want NPC’s to tie me up and slowly roast me on a camp fire then have an argument over which piece of my body they’re going to eat first.

I dunno about you, but when I go to Vegas, I don’t go there looking to know the odds of everything. It’s a very strange mindset to me.

Strange mindset?

Statistics is college level mathematics my friend.

nekitten234:

Calae.1738:

Mature content = blood, nudity, terror, coarse language, violence, politics, economics, moral controversy and scientific material.

(edit: added bold)

Bold part sounds much more like teenage – (very) young adult dream movie/show/game …

One by one:

• blood: yeah, right — people really want to look at “real” blood and gore (trust me, it’s not even remotely fun seeing it IRL)
• nudity: (“Internet is for pr0n, …”) — nudity just because of sake of nudity is everything else than mature
• terror/violence: playing games should be fun or I missed something — try it IRL and someone will teach you new real meaning of that … fast
• coarse language: kitten, kitten, bulkitten, oh kitten, … my kitten, wow kitten … WOW I’m 100% mature 1337 guy (and I’m the one who can be very explicit when talking)
• politics/economics: oh gawd no, never, ever — we have enough of those “types” IRL to have another batch in game (well in game we maybe can kill get rid of them … hmm that’s not that bad idea)
• moral controversy: ?? (very, very broad), we hate them because they are <insert difference here> or “yeah, I can act as real #$%^@# in game w00t!”
• scientific material: huh? Hard science? You want to travel 12hr to get to next place, be killed in one hit as humans are not that fire-proof, perma death, spend weeks or more to get enough material to make that leet sword, spend tons of time working to get finances in order to buy something … erm … RL (still) have better gfx and all of that in it. (and I’m long time fan of the hard SF)

To be clear, I don’t mind having things from the list in game (except politics #$#%) but it should be in because it’s FUN not just to call it “mature/adult”.

Why anything from above is called “mature” escapes me completely. And I do love dark/no win scenarios, but done right (sadly, very rare), not just created to get that (whatever) title.

BTW can anyone name one title who has above things which is not swarmed with “not very mature people” (deliberately omitted age as that is not real measure for it)?

The list above are adult subjects.

Teenagers should not be allowed to be exposed to some of theses subjects because their brains haven’t fully developed. A brain that isn’t fully developed can be confused or experience psychological trauma. Our society has deemed it prudent to shelter developing brains from certain types of material.

Politics, economics, moral controversy and scientific material are important subjects. Even teenagers can benefit from these. These subjects shape the world we live in. Not understanding them or being afraid of them provides little hope for making a better world.

It’s unfortunate.

I wanted to take Guild Wars 2 seriously and be immersed in a world where things mattered. Teddy bear back packs, ginger bread swords and 8bit super Mario worlds feel so out of place and disjointed that it looks like they have developers making content for Guild Wars 2 who have never seen Guild Wars 2.

Nike.2631:

I have to wonder if people would be so quick to say “I’d buy it if it were on sale” if the gem asking price were say 7,500 gems per ticket? Because that’s proably a bit BELOW the average amount ANet is making on these.

7,500 gems for a weapon skin is absurd and the developers would be flamed on the forums. The moderators wouldn’t be able to keep up with deleting posts.

Making it random and not posting the drop chance tends to work better. Especially on people who don’t understand statistics. Remember, the game is rated T for teen.

How many teenagers do you know are studying statistics?

Casual = Person that plays the game in the same way they use a TV or a radio. They turn it on to get what they want from it. From my experience casual players are unsocial and care very little about game mechanics.

Hardcore = Person that makes guides; video tutorials; speadsheets with data analysis; vocal on the forums about game mechanics by providing feedback on experiences. Hardcore players are the people that build the foundation of communities. In PVP they’re athletes that people practically worship and watch their videos to learn. In PVE they’re the ones that have the leadership roles since they generally have more experience and knowledge of the game.

Hawkian.6580:

Calae.1738:

Teenagers want economics and politics? Adults want teddy bear backpacks and ginger bread swords?

Anyone can like or dislike anything; maturity isn’t tied to age like armor level requirements.

Regardless, no one wants economics. I’ll give you politics since intrigue and cold wars between factions are ripe for serious MMO story content, but no one wants to hear about the way the Krytan Federal Reserve has been lowering rates lately or the plummeting real estate values in Beetletun. -_-

Yea but that could cause a rebellion and potentially a civil war if diplomatic measures fail.

Then again; we can always look in another castle if the princess is there.

Aeonblade.8709:

Calae.1738:

Mature content = blood, nudity, terror, coarse language, violence, politics, economics, moral controversy and scientific material.

I’m not trying to insult people who like Disney stuff. The psychological techniques used by Disney are well known to be effective. They’re very good at what they do.

Most of what you listed for mature content is just stuff teenagers want and adults don’t care about. The hole grows ever deeper.

Game is just fine, and will be for many years.

Teenagers want economics and politics? Adults want teddy bear backpacks and ginger bread swords?

Mature content = blood, nudity, terror, coarse language, violence, politics, economics, moral controversy and scientific material.

I’m not trying to insult people who like Disney stuff. The psychological techniques used by Disney are well known to be effective. They’re very good at what they do.