Guild Wars 2

I’m not a huge fan of how parts of the map are locked out pending a successful meta, either. And I wish the time once the meta does succeed were longer.

I’ve seen this meta succeed twice in the last few weeks of playing. Others have seen it succeed more than that, but this is my experience.

My real concern is a few months down the road when people have more or less already gotten what they want from the map and are largely no longer doing it.

Black Box.9312:

There is nothing that I have to prove to you.

No one ever suggested that you did.

Black Box.9312:

I see it as trying to be helpful.

I’m sorry, but the statement I originally quoted from you was not even in the same universe as “helpful.”

And “Go somewhere else” is, in fact, a command.

Fernling.1729:

I got to the point where I would sit at a hero point for 20 mins waiting for someone else to come along and help. Asking in map for help almost never seems to help anymore. There were hero points I would skip altogether because I wasn’t able to get any help.

This has been my experience more often than not, too. I got tired of so much waiting around for people to show up that weren’t and asking in map chat for help while being ignored or outright ridiculed, that I went to EOTM in WvW and ground out some Proof of Heroic scrolls.

But this is a very slow process (you need 10 scrolls, i.e. 10 ranks for 1 Maguuma HC), the scrolls finish random HCs and so might award you one that you’re not actually trying to get, and involves playing WvW, something a player may not really want to do. Plus, it’s boring.

But I have managed to get several Maguuma HCs this way. I just wish I didn’t feel as though I need to resort to this in order to progress.

Welcome to the game. Glad you’re having fun. GW2 certainly has a lot of content to offer a new player. Maybe I’ll see ya around.

Black Box.9312:

Go somewhere else, because nobody else here wants to read it.

And yet, people ARE reading it. And replying. Including you.

Funny that.

jacceb.7918:

Good ds maps aren’t hard to get. And you can affect the meta event. If you know what to do, you have to communicate and learn people what to do. This is very important for meta events.

Actually, this isn’t always true. It often depends on how much time you have to commit to it. People facing 1-2 hour play time max can have a very hard time finding a DS map that is even doing the meta, never mind succeeding at it. Many full maps fail this. That’s been my experience more often than not.

Also, as a commander, I can tell you that you can communicate and be very detailed with your explanations on how a meta and its various stages work and still have failure. It’s not as simple as “just communicate and learn people what to do.”

People don’t always do what they’re told. In fact, a good portion of the time, they don’t. Even when they do, things go wrong. People jump ship mid-meta, etc. This and many more variables exist that can quickly sink a promising map, leading to a player being forced to wait around, map hop, and do long events and chains all over again if they’re looking to reach a specific goal.

Klangy.8293:

Turn on my tag and start do prequests. Asking people to taxi people and then we hade full map, and event was done.

That’s terrific for you.

But again, this is not the experience of a lot of people. It usually isn’t this simple for me. Playing HoT involves a lot of waiting around, map hopping that gets old after awhile, repeated attempts to organize, taxi, and succeed at metas that keep failing despite very valiant efforts to succeed, repeated explaining of how a meta works and getting chat suppressed halfway through the explanations, maps that empty out mid-meta because everything doesn’t go perfectly in the first 10 minutes…

I could go on.

And from what I’m reading in the forums and reading and hearing from players in-game, my experience is by no means extraordinary.

At this point, the cost for WvW simply doesn’t balance out with the benefit, so yeah, there’s no reason right now to even buy these bags and do that upgrade.

I’d definitely wait until they add a larger faucet for these and buy them then.

Goldrock.9076

the game is litreally buy to play people will buy it and the casuals will shelve it

Actually, the game is literally free to play.

And plenty of casuals play this game.

In fact, it’s always been more casual than hardcore, so I’m not sure what you’re on about here.

Manasa Devi.7958:

The LFG system is due for an overhaul anyway.

I don’t know if it’s because the list is so clogged with so many different groups or what, but I’m having an increasingly hard time getting people to answer ads for taxiing them into maps attempting metas. People simply aren’t answering them or joining up in the numbers they would earlier on.

Or maybe they’re just tired of ads for metas they believe will fail anyway or they’ve seen too many groups claiming “organized map” only to enter and find out how far from the truth that was. shrugs I dunno, but it’s getting to be discouraging.

Leap.4869:

Yes, I’m salty and no you can’t have my stuff.

This one made me laugh.

I find the maps confusing, too. Especially when I stand right on a POI or Vista and there’s no up or down arrow to indicate which direction it is, and it’s clearly not on my level.

It would be nice if these items were actually worth something.

So far, guild halls don’t seem to be making much of a dent.

Notsoperky.2348:

Personally I’d like to see some other ways of obtaining it

A lot of players would. This game used to pride itself on having multiple ways of reaching the same goal, but I’m not sure they still adhere to this philosophy.

However, it’s possible they’ll add another way to get legendary armor in the future. Via crafting, for instance.

I do think multiple paths to the same goal that considers multiple playstyles is a good thing overall.

I don’t think it’s ever going to happen.

And considering the low number of waypoints in new areas as opposed to previous ones, they clearly want everyone slogging through the maps.

I hope it’s a bug. It makes no sense. Auto-looting is even more useful in WvW where you’re fighting other players and it can get hectic and very often you can be killed in a zerg before getting your loot.

In PvE, nothing ever really prevents me from picking up my loot.

Klangy.8293:

Well signs The only thing you get from 100% complete is stuff for legendary. I think if u call yourself casual u will not get legendary anyway. It’s total of 40HP and u need 25 for elite. And it’s not like u running around solo either. And the small events pre meta is easy solable.

I’m a casual player and I have a legendary. A lot of casual players have legendaries.

Klangy.8293:

Only IF u want 100% u need to take all HP. But signs u are casual u dont need it.

A lot of casual players do map completions. It has nothing to do with “needing” something at all.

Well, that sucks.

Maps shouldn’t be closing on any group that is successfully completing a meta.

Makes zero sense.

In all the MMOs I’ve played, the raids end up being pugged. In the beginning? Not so much. But later? Yeah, definitely.

It’s not a matter of if but when.

Notsoperky.2348:

Major problem with the last map is the 2 hours it takes to get the meta done.

Yeah, and I’ve spent 2 hours trying to do the same thing in TD many times. A lot of waiting around, coordination, explanations, and it almost always fails.

VB and AB aren’t quite so bad for time as the last two, but there’s still failure in both of those more often than not on the maps I’ve been in.

Gaaroth.2567:

I’m 1 month in, basically al masteries unlocked and never felt the grind.

Also: can i haz ur stuff plz?

Everyone’s experience is different.

And no, you can’t have anything because he’s already given it all to me.

I admit the copper node isn’t terribly useful, but some of them are like the sprocket node. That one has been profitable for me.

Kraggy.4169:

Pre-HOT group-or-die content was optional, none of it was needed except for the final Story instance, in HOT you can’t play the Story without requiring groups because everything is gated by Masteries you need groups to earn.

OPTIONAL group content is fine, gating core Story and other content by it is not when the base game didn’t do it.

The masteries gating the storyline is especially difficult for people attempting to go through it with friends/guildies. We have to keep stopping, find time to grind out the mastery needed, and then coordinate getting back together again once everyone has gotten the mastery.

Very annoying and cumbersome.

Kraggy.4169:

Celtic Lady.3729:

I’ve always believed this game should have an in-game voice chat the way LOTRO does. It would make everything much more convenient and simpler since everyone uses different outside voice chat systems.

I’m tired of always having to download yet another system because the group I’m in doesn’t have any of the ones I’ve already got downloaded.

Should have been in the game at launch to facilitate all their big group events and metas.

Don’t know what LoTRO servers you played on but I never saw anyone using it in the years when voice chat mattered, everyone used TS or Vent or maybe Mumble, not least because Turbine’s voice chat was pretty basic and un-configurable.

As for the OP’s suggestion, if you REALLY are experienced with voice you’d know it’s a TWO WAY DIALOGUE, where people are given instructions and CAN ASK QUESTIONS OR DISCUSS THINGS.

What you’re asking for is a one-way monologue of commands. No thanks!

I’ve been playing LOTRO for 7 years and I almost never see anyone using anything else. The in-game chat is very widely used and always has been.

Goldrock.9076:

O god i hope they purge alot of these posts ive never seen such negativity in my 3 years of gw2 its getting crazy i dont know if its because of the free game now or that the WoW community been making the leap over of its either of the two leave ya nagging at the door and enjoy the game withot paying monthly. Good god.

This forum is no more negative now than it was at launch. Get a clue: game forums have negativity. If it bothers you, I’m sure there are other things you could be doing with your time.

Besides, nearly every post I’ve read from you is just as whiny and negative as any other I’ve seen from the people you complain about.

And what the hell do you have against punctuation?

Terrific. We can just Spvp for the bags and won’t need to buy any of Hiro’s.

And those of us that don’t need the bags ourselves can sell them and undercut him. lol

Goldrock.9076:

if people dont find it fun i havnt a clue why they bother to stick around except to waste their time ranting

Because it’s not a black-and-white issue. This is overly simplistic. It’s not always love or always hate. Very often for players of MMOs, it’s a frequently changing kaleidoscope of satisfaction and disappointments, adjustments and feedback.

And negative feedback can be just as valuable as positive. That has often been the case here.

Albinosmurfs.2148:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Albinosmurfs.2148:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Elden Arnaas.4870:

GW2 is a very different game from GW1. You might want to start with a free to play account and see what you think.

Good advice. GW and GW2 are really very different. I personally don’t feel like the gem store is a problem for gameplay here, so I don’t feel microtransacted to death or anything. In fact, I like GW2’s approach to an in-game store a lot better than I do many other games’.

Original guild wars I meant vanilla guild wars 2 when it was released before the xpack

Oh, okay. lol Sorry. Thought you meant the other game. HoT is different from the original maps in Central Tyria. They’re more challenging in that the mobs are harder and the events are pretty large-scale on each map. They take a number of people to complete and get full rewards, and most of the time I don’t see this happening.

HoT added a raid, if you like raids, you can check that out. The classes all have new elite specializations, in other words, a new way to play each one. There’s a new class – Revenant.

Like I said, the store never really bothered me and it still doesn’t since HoT.

OK I might try it. The only thing that really bothered me with the store was they gave very limited character slots like 5 or something I think and they made you pay to play on other servers from what I remember

Yeah, I think it’s still 5 slots unless you buy the deluxe or ultimate version of HoT which comes with another slot.

You still have to pay to transfer to another world with gems unless you delete all your characters. Then it’s free to transfer the account.

Swift.1930:

Exactly. And some. It’s quite absurd, not to mention it staggers my loyalty somewhat.

Mine, too. The Fractal reward nerf especially irritated me in this regard. I get that there’s a mastery for it, but come on. The mastery should have improved on the rewards as they were.

It’s like a car dealership “sale.” Where they jack up the price of the car and then put it “on sale” so that in the end, you’re just paying the same price you would have before the sale. Only in reverse.

azizul.8469:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Where is this flax seed farm? lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPjbXtt7xMw

Ah, wow! Thank you for posting this.

Just never can have too many flax seeds.

Albinosmurfs.2148:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Elden Arnaas.4870:

GW2 is a very different game from GW1. You might want to start with a free to play account and see what you think.

Good advice. GW and GW2 are really very different. I personally don’t feel like the gem store is a problem for gameplay here, so I don’t feel microtransacted to death or anything. In fact, I like GW2’s approach to an in-game store a lot better than I do many other games’.

Original guild wars I meant vanilla guild wars 2 when it was released before the xpack

Oh, okay. lol Sorry. Thought you meant the other game. HoT is different from the original maps in Central Tyria. They’re more challenging in that the mobs are harder and the events are pretty large-scale on each map. They take a number of people to complete and get full rewards, and most of the time I don’t see this happening.

HoT added a raid, if you like raids, you can check that out. The classes all have new elite specializations, in other words, a new way to play each one. There’s a new class – Revenant.

Like I said, the store never really bothered me and it still doesn’t since HoT.

Where is this flax seed farm? lol

Elden Arnaas.4870:

GW2 is a very different game from GW1. You might want to start with a free to play account and see what you think.

Good advice. GW and GW2 are really very different. I personally don’t feel like the gem store is a problem for gameplay here, so I don’t feel microtransacted to death or anything. In fact, I like GW2’s approach to an in-game store a lot better than I do many other games’.

Well, Guild Wars can be a bit misleading, as the name refers to events in the game’s lore and history. It wasn’t named Guild Wars because the game specializes in GvG content.

I have no problem if they had a place where guilds could get together and compete or fight or whatever. WvW is the closest thing to it we have now.

I don’t know if they have plans to add true GvG content or not.

Gene Archer.8560:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Gene Archer.8560:

They filled that void by locking away things that small guilds already had worked for and you KNOW it.

In my opinion, it’s really never okay to take away what someone or a group has already spent time earning. It would have been possible to simply give guilds what they had before and let them work toward the new things. There still would have been plenty to do and it wouldn’t exactly have been game-breaking.

At this point, I’m convinced it’s a symptom of a larger problem. For all that ANet has added in 3 years, look at all the things they’ve also taken away, or re-done for the millionth iteration, and in so re-doing, still take something away or re-start the unlock process that people have already worked on.

I’ve never seen this at such a scale from any other MMO. This is the kind of stuff that I expect from an EA backed game.

Yeah, this is the first MMO I’ve played where they’ve employed the strategy of taking AWAY content in order to incentivize expansion purchases. Every other game I play, the promise of new content alone is enough to encourage people to buy their x-pacs.

They may not add to the previous content, but they leave it alone and allow new players and alts to enjoy it as is or they make it easier and faster to progress through. They certainly don’t take away rewards, etc. in order to entice purchases. It’s just not necessary.

Malediktus.9250:

I also wonder why the verdant brink map gives tons of free keys for the map specific chests, but auric basin and tangled depth almost never give any.

This is a very good question. Instead of giving many as drops, you buy them with currency. For whatever reason, VB doesn’t work like this. No idea why.

Gene Archer.8560:

They filled that void by locking away things that small guilds already had worked for and you KNOW it.

In my opinion, it’s really never okay to take away what someone or a group has already spent time earning. It would have been possible to simply give guilds what they had before and let them work toward the new things. There still would have been plenty to do and it wouldn’t exactly have been game-breaking.

Small roaming guilds in WvW have been hit especially hard. They lost a lot of benefits they had pre-HoT and the cost of materials/work to grind them out has made it difficult for guilds to get these recipes and buffs they once had back.

Rytlock seemed much more personable in the Personal Story. He seems unnecessarily condescending and rude now.

Not sure why they decided to change his personality.

Yeah, it’s hard to pick just one favorite.

I play my Engineer, Warrior, and Necromancer the most, so I guess those are my favorites.

But I have all the professions and regularly play them all. I like each one for a different reason.

Kanto.1659:

I believe the megaserver is to blame. We had the problem of empty servers before, megaserver came. Now we still have empty maps and it makes no sense. Why do -I get a prompt to leave my empty map and I’m shuffled into another empty map? I’d understand if I got the prompt and BAM! Full map! Ton of people running around!

Sometimes it feels like there are an actual 50-60 people playing GW2.

The mega server was supposed to make the maps fuller. What it feels like in HoT is that there’s 8 empty copies of a map for every 1 or 2 full one. I get shuffled regularly from one empty map to another and, yeah, I wonder…why? I could have stayed on the empty map I was in four maps ago. No difference.

morrolan.9608:

I don’t think they can fix it, I agree this was an absurd change though. Guilds should not have lost the upgrades they had EARNED before and there should not be a stupidly long PvE grind for WvW upgrades. Its almost beyond belief that they thought this was reasonable.

It’s like they wanted to kill WvW along with their dungeons.

MashMash.1645:

What’s the RNG involved in this method?

One example: There are drops from mobs that are needed for collections that are not guaranteed to drop upon killing the mob.

Chaba.5410:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Ayrilana.1396:

Did you account for all the WvW ones that are now actually obtainable?

Why are they actually obtainable? Did they lower the numbers? If so, I missed this. Good news, of course. I just didn’t think it would happen.

Yes, numbers were lowered!

Great! Took ’em long enough. lol

I don’t even know what they were thinking to have even used those numbers in the beginning. SMH

Black Box.9312:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Meticulously planning when you set aside time to play games because of things that happen in those games makes you a freak. Your boss probably knows that, seeing how he is someone’s boss.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Saying to your friends/significant other/family that you’re not going to be able to go out with them or enjoy a given activity or spend time with them in RL because you need to be on a game at a specific time in order to achieve XYZ goal…that kind of planning around a game…

Yeah, I think that’s a problem.

But everyone has their own priorities, I guess…

I don’t think a single meta-event in HoT occurs less frequently than once every two hours. If you can’t plan around that, then I think you might have bigger problems than working with a video game timetable.

I’m not talking about HoT or even GW2 specifically. I’m talking in general.

Harper.4173:

And then they do this Raids entrance in VB thing. It’s just incredibly odd and seems a bit amateur-ish to be honest.

It seems more about rushing and cutting corners to me.

Otherwise, why wouldn’t you simply design a raid lobby people can go into so that they’re not sitting on a map with events specifically designed to scale to the number of people in the map?

Someone in another thread indicated that the devs just didn’t realize there would be a problem, but I have a hard time believing that one. Really? Such a basic consequence and they couldn’t see it coming when players walking into the map saw the set-up and immediately knew it would be a problem? That’s kind of insulting to the devs’ intelligence, right?

They’re professionals. It’s their job to know how one thing will affect another in their game overall. Will they miss stuff? Yeah, sure, but this one is kind of obvious, so I have a hard time believing they didn’t realize there would be a problem.

Black Box.9312:

Manasa Devi.7958:

I don’t plan the time I spend playing games. I’m not a freak.

Budgeting time makes you a freak. Got it. I think I’ll let my boss know.

Saying to your friends/significant other/family that you’re not going to be able to go out with them or enjoy a given activity or spend time with them in RL because you need to be on a game at a specific time in order to achieve XYZ goal…that kind of planning around a game…

Yeah, I think that’s a problem.

But everyone has their own priorities, I guess…

reapex.8546:

Yes, a lot of the map population issues is people driven.

The people issues with maps were here before HoT and they continue to this day.

Yeah, but the difference is HoT map design exacerbates what is in Core Tyria a minor problem. Reward structures, event design, and scaling work very differently in the HoT maps than they do in Bloodtide Coast.

For instance, map completion items in Bloodtide Coast don’t require a significant group of people or frankly, any people, to be on the same map as me for me to progress my goals. It doesn’t require me being in the correct day/night cycle. The individual events scale better for soloing if I need to do so.

Obtena.7952:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Obtena.7952:

the whole game is structured around raids/events that are on a schedule.

Nonsense. Pure, unadulterated nonsense. Do you even play? I can’t imagine you do after stating such nonsense.

Of course it’s nonsense … all the examples and evidence you have provided in your terse response prove it! I mean, I must be crazy … I must have meant there are no scheduled raids or events. yeah, that’s it … it’s a complete free for all. The timers running on Dulfy for world bosses and all the completely periodic and predictably timed events that happen ingame are just figments of my imagination. /sarcasm

To be fair, the world bosses are only a fraction of the content in core Tyria. The vast majority of content can be done without an eye to any schedule and most map events happen often enough that scheduling is simply not necessary.