Guild Wars 2

Wolfey.3407:

For the players with a mental disability in regards to the Ranger Long bow.
…..

Ranger:
- Signet of Stone – Cool down is too long to waste on one rapid fire. Its better to dodge/evade, and use this in an emergency, like if he knocks you down or immobilizes you then uses Rapid Fire.
- Protect me – Same as signet of Stone, why would you waste this on one skill with an 8 second cool down?
- Any CC skill – wasting a cc skill on a longer cooldown to shutdown 1 skill on a shorter cool down is always a bad idea. These are better used for closing the gap, escaping, or interrupting the player when they try to use a healing skill.
- Wolf Fear also, using Drakehound or Spider immobilize then running to the side to close the gap does wonderful things.
- Hope your pet does a knock down at the right time if able – Hope isn’t a counter.
[get rid of that vuln stacks]
- Whirling Defense Make him switch weapons.
- Path of Scars While this counts as ‘any cc skill’….Pull him close and make him switch weapons. Space this and whirling defense apart so you at least have one off cool down.
- Dodge/Evade/block – 4 of our weapons have an evade, One has a block, and we have a lot of access to vigor. Use it!

Added stuff for you, and added a critique to the other stuff. Most of what you are saying you think works, will actually hurt you if the fights lasts longer than 8-10 seconds.

LughLongArm.5460:

sums up the post patch ranger discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXsE5TMN1-M
whats more there is to add?

The guy’s commentary is telling you the same thing that you should have known since day one when it comes to fighting ranged (no matter who it is), so there’s plenty more to add. The WvW portion that’s showing Rangers , none of them had food, and only one of them has guard stacks. This guys video is showing that he’s great…., against new/inexperienced/cheapskate players. Also, the video is cut, not raw, so just like those millions of montage videos, we have no idea if this guys is actually good against rangers or not. Those last fights in the PvP portion were good, but that’s it.

Anything else I missed?

I want to use my own Math’s now! I’m only doing this to be fair to everyone for a second, and it concerns signets that increase damage.

Signet of the Hunt.
+50% damage on next attack. 30 second cooldown.
0.5×1 = 0.5
0.5/30 = 0.0167
0.5/24 = .0208

Assassin’s Signet
+15% damage for next 5 attacks.
0.15×5 = 0.75
0.75/ 45 = 0.0167
0.75/36 = 0.0208

That 0.0167 number is showing the skill’s effectiveness (total damage increase across x attacks) weighed against recharge time, and it shows that the damage increase is the same for both signets. The second number(0.0208) is with the reduced cool down trait.

Those 2 signets are balanced against each other and are equal (unless you add our pet, in which case, our effectiveness weighted against the recharge time is 0.0333/0.0416, making it a much better skill).

Now lets get to signet of the hunt. The problem with Signet of the Wild is that not only is it a 25% increase in all attacks for 8 seconds, but it also gives stability and a 50% increase in movement speed.

Being reasonable here, lets say you use a rapid fire and 5 long range shots. That’s 15 attacks total in 7.5 seconds.
0.25×15 = 3.75
3.75/60 = 0.0625
3.75/48 = 0.0781

This Signet’s damage increase is 3.74~3.75 times more effective than either Signet of the Hunt or Assassin’s Signet. There is no way in this formula to add in the effectiveness of the other two effects (8s of stability and 50% increased movement speed), so we’ll leave it at that. Also note that this is just the Ranger, we aren’t even including the damage increase from the pet.

The fact is, just the damage increase alone makes this signet almost 4 times more effective than other damage increasing signets, and therefore, is out of balance.

There is a very good chance that something gives in the next feature pack or the one after that (since that seems to be when we get balance patches….(Too slow)). Things will change, whether its a change in how Rapid Fire works, or a change in how Signet of the Wild works.

Enjoy the fun for now, and Solandri, use as much math as you want to prove we aren’t overpowered. Things will change (eventually given anet’s speed at balancing the game, but it will change)

I said during and before the Ranger CDI that buffing Rapid Fire Damage and making our Signets baseline would possibly make us overpowered.

I still say it’s overpowered….until you consider that at least three other professions have easy/easier access to more damage if built for it, and you consider how easy it is to kill multiple rangers at once if you pop a simple reflect, and you consider the complete lack of survival when you run a build like this.

The Balance could benefit from having a (1/2 second or less) windup time so people know its coming. Other than that. I’ve had no problem countering it! (then again, I’ve been trolling the hell out of everyone and everything with a trap build and the new trapper runes, and haven’t really noticed an increase in Killer Rangers)

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

the guy in the video didn’t Train from a young age ether, that could be shaved down to like 3.5secs.

What is it with people always saying that people are better at something if they are trained from a young age?

One of the best Archers in the World that broke several world records between 2008-2011 never even picked up a bow until 2006. That’s two years to get better than everyone else, including the ones who have been shooting bows since childhood.

Kilger.5490:

hmmm got them, the speed isnt 100% (in spite of the tool tip), its exactly the same as swiftness

Bugged I hope.

The effect is a shortened version of the effect you get from the Engineer skill, which has the same limitation :::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Super_Speed

And even in combat, your speed is set to out of combat run speed with swiftness applied, even if you have crippled and chill on you.

I think we all would have been much better off if they put all this added New player experience in some sort of tutorial instance, like the opening instance for each race, instead of locking things up out of reach and stretching it out over half of your 1-80 levels.

FrouFrou.4958:

What’s the cooldown on the 6 rune bonus for the stealth?

there is no cooldown

Chill Villain.9068:

Chrispy.5641:

I’m not even using the improved Longbow yet. I’m playing with the new Runes of the Trapper, and with that run speed and stealth, its filling many buckets of tears right now!

(Speaking of run speed, I never noticed that Signet of the Wild gives us +50% movement speed for 8 seconds along with the extra damage and stability)

Eventually players will learn to counter it and the crying will end, but for now….screw that! we got two years of being worst class to catch up on!

How are those trapper runes? I wanted to run a SB/Axe+Torch trapping set and ran with undead runes. Would you recommend the new runes over Undead?

I’m starting to lean more towards the idea that its better to get a rune set that has a useful effect than just a straight condition damage increase. Krait runes might be more useful now because of the shortened cool down for Entangle.

As for Trapper runes, the 3 effects give you 10% increased condition duration, 3 seconds of non-stacking Super speed every time you use a trap skill, and 3 seconds of stacking stealth every time you use a trap skill.

You can use it to jump in and out of fights quickly, and its is really easy to escape almost any situation because the Super Speed buff overrides any boon or condition on you (except immobilize), and automatically sets your movement speed to about the equivalent of out of combat run speed with swiftness, even in combat. So, even if your loaded down with Cripple and Chill, you can use your traps and just forget those conditions ever existed for a few seconds.

There are some negatives though. You run normal speed (conditions and all) when strafing and running backwards. The increased movement speed is only when moving forward and dodging in any direction. There is also about a half second delay from when you use the trap to when the rune effects activate. If you trait Trapper’s Expertise, there is an even longer delay because the effect doesn’t activate until the trap is on the ground.

At the rate that balance patches comes out, I’d say next march/april at the minimum for a Rapid Fire nerf, and even then Anet doesn’t like nerfing stuff that they already buffed…so, maybe never?

My honest opinion :::

Pros
- uh……. We finally got balance changes….yay?
- New Runes and Sigils

Cons
- Almost everything in this update is a Quality of Life Improvement.
- Quality of life doesn’t exactly scream “Hey, come back and play me!”

My Opinion
It wasn’t the wardrobe changes that got me playing the game again. It wasn’t the changes to mini’s and finishers, and it wasn’t the collectible achievements. It definitely wasn’t the low level changes (which while I understand its for the new players that think Guild Wars 2 is too complex, it’s making me consider never leveling an alt)

It was the new stuff that expanded the ways I can play the game. That is the one thing that I, as a veteran player, is interested in. Even with very little new stuff added to the game (Three new rune sets and a few new sigils), I immediately went to crafting, and working builds around them. The Runes of the Trapper are, kind of, awesome with a Ranger. Even though all our utilities are wasted on traps and takes away almost all our survival, it doesn’t matter, since we get a decent spike in survival and movement speed thanks to the runes of the Trapper. It literally changed the way I played my Rabid Trap Build, and offered me another option to play instead of the same old, tired builds that I’ve been using since literally day one of the game’s release.

That’s what these feature packs, content packs, living world releases need more of. Its not the Game improvements. While game improvements(like the mini/finisher changes and new player experience changes) are awesome, they aren’t awesome if its all that’s worked on at the expense of content(living world), which also isn’t awesome if that’s all that’s worked on at the expense of gameplay additions (like new runes or new skills, etc.).

Anet, you need to find a good, happy medium between all this stuff. Its great that you are attracting new players by making many much needed improvements to the earlier parts of the game. Now you need to get your collective heads out of whatever focus group you are running these tests on, and start making gameplay addition that keep your loyal Veteran Players coming back for more!

I would give this Feature pack a 0/10 because I don’t collect mini’s, I don’t collect finishers, I don’t collect skins, and the new player improvements actually make me want to not level an alt at all….

Instead, I give it a 7/10 for the Rune/Sigil additions and 3 month overdue balance changes, which I still don’t think should ever be advertised as a ‘feature’ in any feature pack since balance is one of the most essential things an MMO could have. Its a requirement, not a feature. (and yeah, I’m weighing the actual gameplay stuff way more heavily than that quality of life improvements)

I’m not even using the improved Longbow yet. I’m playing with the new Runes of the Trapper, and with that run speed and stealth, its filling many buckets of tears right now!

(Speaking of run speed, I never noticed that Signet of the Wild gives us +50% movement speed for 8 seconds along with the extra damage and stability)

Eventually players will learn to counter it and the crying will end, but for now….screw that! we got two years of being worst class to catch up on!

I got the Trapper runes already. The stealth stacks, but the super speed doesn’t.

The super speed is freaking awesome. I can catch players trying to run away, or run away myself. You can time laying down traps since super speed doesn’t stack, and run pretty far.

The stealth…not sure what to do with it yet….

Morsus.5106:

nexxe.7081:

Anet should’ve made these items soulbound on acquire. This would’ve prevented all of this.

No, no no and no. Breath of Kralkatorikk (an item from a collection) should not be soulbound on acquire, and neither should the other exotic components. Once the economy balances out, we’ll be glad we can buy the items.

Once the economy balances out? The economy almost never balances out after one of these changes, and the inside traders that took advantage are still the ones who benefit the most, and the earliest. I don’t want to wait six months to get this achievement when I could have gotten it today.

And its one thing for the economy to get thrown out of whack after the patch hits, but for it to happen a full week before most of us even have information on it? That’s a little beyond the limit of unacceptable!

Leo Paul.1659:

I’m just finding it hard to swallow that 2 years worth of research and these changes are the best they can come up with for new players when it essentially dumbs down the experience/

Research probably done with corporate focus groups…..always a bad idea, and always gives you metrics that never reflects the actual population.

Matthew.7061:

Thrashbarg.9820:

Price will settle at what the market will bear. Not many people going to pay 2000g for a daily chest.

The market doesn’t have nearly enough to supply for more than a couple dozen people to acquire the chest. No matter how this information was released, this would have been the reaction.

But now, the couple dozen people that benefit from the information, are the same couple dozen people that got the information first, and are the same couple dozen people that benefited from the same insider trading that occurred just before every other release in this game, because they are the same couple dozen people Anet gives the information to first.

That’s an unfair system and needs to change. Everyone should get the information at the same time. I don’t care that people like Bogotter, Dulfy, and Woodenpotatoes, etc. have guides to make. They can make those guides after the release, just like everyone else.

Azrael.4960:

It’s always interesting to see people go to all this trouble for virtual currency but not apply the same level of determination and discipline on say a stock market. A small investment taken far enough can make a healthy return

Insider Trading in the real stock market is illegal, like very illegal, like so illegal that you can potentially be locked up for several consecutive lifetimes.

Also, most of this Insider trading goes on several days before the Speculation starts to get out of control. The Commissar’s Manifesto for example, jumped to 200 gold on September 3rd, and 300 gold on September 5th, signifying that all available supply was bought up, but, not everyone knew what was happening exactly.. The Speculation didn’t make the sell listings as high as 800 gold until this morning when all these articles came out.

That clearly shows that insider trading was going on long before the larger player population knew what was going on, and the fact that nothing is being done about it, the fact that it seems to be encouraged, just makes me even less excited for the Feature pack.

http://www.gw2tp.com/item/39468-commissars-manifesto

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/39468

The Complexity of Gw2 is already on a level comparable to Console games with less buttons than a keyboard, and GW2 is nothing compared to GW1, which itself is nowhere near as complex as an MMO like WoW or Everquest.

Mortifer.2946:

LOL… I stopped playing a month ago, but I go to the forum from time to time to see how it is going. And it is really interesting to just sit back and smile at all those furious reactions to this slowly sinking ship. There are more games and other real life stuff out there it is not worth to get annoyed because of a few pixels. …I mean, I would really like to go back, but there need to be something valuable added to this game, not just FIXES that should have been there from the beginning, or useless and often annoying changes like the ones that are noted above

The ship is slowly sinking, but its more like a minor annoyance, a leak that can be fixed anytime the captain wishes go back to land and make port. The only problem is, the captain doesn’t think that the catch is good enough, so they stay out at sea. The problem is that this creates more problems than the leak. The previous catch is slowly starting to rot, so the Captain orders them be thrown overboard in favor of the fresher fish. This Captain will eventually learn that staying out at sea for too long brings in the exact same size catch as if they back to land faster.

…I think there’s enough allegories in there to take up the rest of someone’s day, so I’ll just say this. The Captain’s Buddy’s ship over at Carbine is actually sinking compared to his ship, so he has no reason to worry until it actually becomes a problem.

There is one thing I can definitely say I’m never excited about on patch days. Its the amount of insider trading that goes on the day before the patch.

Also, the fact that every feature in the feature pack is a quality of life improvement, and doesn’t expand the game in any significant way….yeah, kind of sad about the fact this game is always in Beta.

Zardul.3952:

like most people have said.
its a steady decline and i would imagine its because of the content and updates being underwhelming and serious issues still in the game that need bug fixing.

the onyl way to stop a decline is to change your approach. the Cheese(money) is not always going to be there.

read the book " who moved my Cheese " its about how to deal with losing profits and money.

very common and popular business book

Changing their approach could be the problem though. Anet has changed their approach for Post Launch GW2 like every 3-6 months. They might be trying to reinvent the wheel a little too often, and a little too fast though. There are some things about the original two week living world release schedule that didn’t work, and things that did, and there are some things about the current ‘lets release everything at once’ approach that work, and things that don’t. 1 year isn’t enough time to accurately determine if one strategy worked over another.

uknortherner.2670:

Chrispy.5641:

Either everyone around me is getting bad vision faster than me, or they just like to complain about anything and everything.

Instead of finding creative ways to complain about someone’s post, use your head for two seconds, and figure out a way around your own inability to read.

For example, you could hold down the left mouse button, and highlight the words as you read them, unless its too much work to hold down one measly mouse button, which just goes back to the first sentence in this post.

Oh, I can read. I just value my free time over reading a load of poorly-formatted gibberish riddled with netspeak. If the OP can’t be kitten d writing properly, why should the rest of us take the time to read through it?

You value your free time over reading a load of poorly formatted gibberish riddled with netspeak(which isn’t even a word), but you obviously don’t value it enough to complain.

Either everyone around me is getting bad vision faster than me, or they just like to complain about anything and everything.

Instead of finding creative ways to complain about someone’s post, use your head for two seconds, and figure out a way around your own inability to read.

For example, you could hold down the left mouse button, and highlight the words as you read them, unless its too much work to hold down one measly mouse button, which just goes back to the first sentence in this post.

GOSU.9574:

Substance E.4852:

The skill reads like some throwback to the days when the game behaved VERY differently than even what we saw in early Betas. I suspect, at some point, the fact that it healed both pet and Ranger was it’s bonus effect but they then made all heals work like this when they made the pet more central to the class and in their infinite oversight, simply neglected to update a skill that may very well be years old in design.

It smells like a skill straight out of GW1 that just doesn’t work in GW2.
Which is sad because the GW1 pet skills where much more dynamic and interesting.

You may very well have hit the nail on the head. It does come off as something that at one time was a good option, then the other heals got worked on and fleshed out, but no one bothered to revisit this skill.

not so much hit the nail…, as its the actual truth.

Heal as One exists the way it does because other healing skills originally didn’t heal the pet, you can read past versions of all heal skills on the wiki, or you can read this massively article from 2010 ::: http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/07/15/new-information-on-the-guild-wars-2-ranger-massivelys-intervie/

it just might make you sad to read that article though….

Those long distances are indeed impressive, but those aren’t target shots. They’re distance shots.

The 1.5cm pole at 240 meters is very impressive, but it wasn’t twice in 11 arrows. It was once after four shots, and once after nine shots. He achieved this by shooting an arrow, then correcting for wind and other factors, the exact same way you would with a rifle. He also had to adjust quite a bit, shooting as much as seven meters off target.

If he was given only 6 arrows, and told to shoot a 122cm wide target at 200 meters, he might be able to beat the current world record, but based on the number of shots, and how he adjusted his shots, its not too unreasonable to say that the current record will stand for now. And the reason I like this world record is because all the factors were far more tightly controlled. Even with a man of his skill, you can’t just give him a bow and arrow, then tell him to hit a flagpole at 240 meters and expect him to do it every time.

He also used bows with a weight of 100 lb, I haven’t found anything saying that he uses 200 lb bows (and if the Mongolians did, they should have been able to fling arrows way farther than this world record holder). this guy and his son(who also holds several world records) also have all the benefits of modern day technology and engineering precision, unlike 13th Mongol hordes. And even more impressive, is that he and his son started to practice archery in 2006. He broke records between 2008 and 2011 and probably still is. That’s not many years worth of training, but a tiny few years worth (being a mechanical engineer with an almost kittenly accurate eye for numbers probably helped too)

He wants to shoot an arrow a distance of over 900 meters, and he wants to accurately hit a human sized target at 300 meters, but as of 2011, hasn’t yet (haven’t found any articles after that date, going to search later).

And lastly, I’m not trying to argue, I just don’t believe all the facts about ancient archery and warfare because there are way too many things that contradict them. I hate reading facts about how it takes ‘years’ to train an archer, and statements about how Archers were so pinpoint accurate that they dominated battlefields, and especially things that say Medieval Archers were using Bows with pull weights that were as strong as steel crossbows at the time.

Markus.9084:

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

We respect all opinions as long as they are expressed respectfully and this is a condition for having healthy discussions on the forums.

It’s not true. I can see at least 3 reasons which should have led to the closure of this thread.

1) This thread isn’t constructive. No idea, no propositions, nothing. Just complaints about others players.

2) insults and verbal abuse. A moderator kindly edited it, but there was something like “you’re 12yo kid". Moreover, it seems that the OP didn’t get an infraction point for that.

3) this thread is a rant, aka “coup de gueule” in my langage. And guess what ? it’s not allowed on this forum. I know it, because I’ve been punished for this particular reason like 1 week ago.

And there’s a lot of other little details, like :
Use a relevant thread title that clearly expresses the subject of the thread.
Be respectful. Be pleasant to forum members, staff members, and moderators.

But hey, he is pro A-net, so I guess it’s totally fine…

P.S : nice to see you, FRENCH community manager

I think someone wants more threads ‘in support of’, instead of nothing but threads critical of it.

Though yeah….this thread is nothing but flame bait.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

…snip…

The heaviest bow I know of that was ever drawn to the maximum is a world record of 200 lbs. It was an English Longbow. He shot at only a 5 yard target because he only wanted the weight record, but still…..You can watch a cool youtube video of a 225 lb bow, but no one’s actually pulling it back, aiming for a shot, because it has a 37" draw length.

On the hunting thing, I’m in America, I want to kill me a delicious deer! A 55lb bow with broad head arrows is more than strong enough for a lethal shot. Actually the 42lb bow would work, unless it was the generally larger mule deer. Since I live somewhere where the two species live in the same place, I need a bow/arrow that is lethal to both.

As far as Mongolian bows go, there are several problems I can think of…..

• 13th Century Mongolian Composite/reflex/horse bows were not the same construction as the ‘traditional’ bows you see today.
• Those ‘traditional’ Mongolian bows with their distinctive shape didn’t actually exist until 2-300 years later.
• They were constructed in a way that allows a slight increase in the arrows energy on release, allowing the arrow to fly farther, but the arc wasn’t anymore reliable than any other bow/arrow at the time.
• It is true that you can hear of these bows making shots to 500+ meters….well, not exactly. Ancient stories of these shots cannot be reliably verified, especially if its coming from a conqueror who wants to tell stories of how great his armies are to the rest of the world. There’s going to be some fluff added to that number.
• The world record for the longest accurate shot was made by an Australian, it was 200 meters, and it was hitting a 122 cm target. He hit it 2 out of 6 times, and I’m saying the entire meter wide target, not just the center. While I want to believe ancient stories of the prowess of these Mongolian and English archers, they are just that, stories.

On the rifle thing, I can hit a moving target at 100 meters easy with a lighter rifle like an M-4 10 out of 10 times. I also have no problems hitting a 300 meter target. With a heavier rifle (like an M-14/M1a), slightly more difficult, especially in Standing. ITs easy to hit pig/human sizes targets, but are those shots deadly? I’m not concerned with just hitting the silhouette, never was. I want deadly accuracy! I want that 3cm~in grouping, and I want deadly accuracy unassisted with any scope or bi/tripods! I have an ACOG and a very stable tripod for the M-4, and I can hit dead center at almost any range, but nothing beats the feeling of doing the same thing using iron sights, and doing it in a (mostly)unstable standing position.

Ascended Armor gives a defense rating equal to 54 more toughness compared to exotic armor, which gives a defense rating equal to 122 more toughness compared to rare armor.

If your going full Zerker, Ascended armor will give you approximately 14 more power and 11 more precision and ferocity compared to exotic armor, which gives 37 more power and 27 more precision and ferocity compared to rare armor. Ascended armor doesn’t give a noticeable stat increase.

You can take advantage of the Infusion slots to boost your defensive stats (equal to 30 toughness or 300 more health), which is something, and all together, a full set of Ascended gear will boost your survival and damage about ~10% (which on a longbow can be 300-400 extra damage on long range shot, and even more dps on a sword or greatsword), little more if you use the infusion slots and add more stats.

Its at this point that you’re just trying to min/max your stats to be as efficient as possible, not deal any significantly greater amount of damage. If you don’t use food already, you can spend way less, use food and get a bigger boost than ascended gear gives.

With that said….in Guild wars 2, 40-50lbs is all we need for the ranges in the game to be lethal and be the highest dps weapons, and if you assume that Rifles in the game are still smoothbore (engineer Rifled Barrels trait not included), its reasonable to say they aren’t accurate to as long a range as a longbow, even at the short ranges in the game.

Basically what I’m asking in that last paragraph is….why would a Ranger even bother to pick up a Rifle or Crossbow? It could be for DPS, or we could have some cooler stuff…

The Rifle could be a different kind of long range Condition weapon. Its silenced and uses Stealth, and fires darts instead of bullets, and the darts inflict various conditions. We could even have a cool new grandmaster trait that prevents us from breaking Stealth as long as we have a Rifle equipped.

The Crossbow….still not sure what kind of weapon that could be, but it can’t be a hybrid weapon like the crossbow, and it can’t be dps like the Longbow. We could get a crossbow instead of a rifle and have it fill the same purpose that I described, but, I think its more likely that Anet just gives us the rifle (or more melee/support weapons first). Or we go with Dirame’s idea, and make it a long ranged, AoE explosive weapon, which actually sounds kind of cool.

Solandri.9640:

Chrispy.5641:

• To hit the same grouping with a Bow, it took me the same amount of time. 2 months. The Bow was a Longbow, 42lbs @ 28"

Draw weights for longbows like the ones made famous at the Battle of Agincourt were in the 90-150 lbs @ 30" range. They weren’t lazily shooting at straw targets, they needed the extra energy to punch through plate armor. So I think the theory that it took a lot longer to train an archer vs. a rifleman is still plausible despite your experience to the contrary.

Muskets had terrible accuracy until the introduction of rifled barrels. Until then, the only effective way to use muskets was to have a group of soldiers fire a bunch of them simultaneously and hope one of the balls hit your target. Basically using about a dozen soldiers as a single grapeshot cannon (enormously helped out by the fact that generals marched their soldiers in formation straight into the line of fire until WWI).

They needed the extra energy to punch through plate armor at 200+ yards, not at the ranges I described. If I needed to fire an arrow at 200+ yards, and I had to use a 90lb bow (twice the strength of what I use), I could get the proper strength to do it in a few months, not years. That’s if I choose to, but, I don’t need anymore than 42lbs for practice. If I ever get the courage to try bow hunting (who’s success rate is pitiful compared to rifle hunting), I will get a 55lb bow, and practice with that for weeks, not months, until I get the necessary strength to shoot an accurate and lethal shot out to a decent range.

After you get the proper form down (which takes a few weeks), the learning curve for Archery is quite fast (and if I had the time, I could probably hit a 50 yard target reliably in the center in half the time it took, but school and work got in the way), but I keep hearing that it plateaus after awhile, not in your ability to use a stronger bow, but in your accuracy at increasingly longer ranges. If you build up the proper strength and keep proper form, there is no limit to the power of the bow you use (at least for realistic human limits. No human will probably ever achieve a 250+lb draw weight like comic book heroes Hawkeye or Green Arrow)

But the factors in accuracy start to stack up at longer and longer ranges. Its similar to a Rifle actually, but with much greater effect at smaller ranges. Smaller target, Gravity, Arc, Wind, the Earth’s freaking rotation, etc.

And no, Longbowmen were not accurate from 200 yards away. The English used the same tactic with Archers as was used with Muskets when they were invented. They fired a massive amount of arrows, hoping that something would hit. The advantage with an arrow was that it fired in a pretty reliable arc, and if you knew the arc/range of the targets, you could reliably cover a small area in thousands of arrows from any range. As an added bonus, you could fire way more arrows in a short time than you could with musket balls or crossbow bolts. While some archers are very good at what they do, and can get an accurate shot at long ranges, most can’t hit a target reliably past 100 yards, even after years of training because there is way too many factors involved (With Compound Bows, yeah, its not that hard actually, but with a bow with no sight and little stability, and only your two eyes, its kind of difficult, if not impossible)

Muskets were lucky to do that at 50-100 yards, and accuracy wasn’t even considered most of the time, until rifling was invented.

Svarty.8019:

This:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/02/flameseeker-chronicles-whats-next-for-guild-wars-2/

Funny thing though, I expect barely any significant changes to my favourite game-type (WvW). Even if Anet implement the mother of all expansions.

This paragraph especially. Its pretty much what I think about feature packs :::

How could things have gotten so far out of hand? A great deal of the backlash came from people Savage Leaping to conclusions and there’s really no excuse for it, but it was fed by having few recent clues as to GW2’s overall direction. Since ArenaNet can’t even reveal yet whether expansion-level content is being developed, players are left to guess; on top of that, as I mentioned last column, features that were requested along with very detailed feedback are sometimes implemented in baffling ways. The trait revamp made getting traits more difficult for new players and characters but hasn’t provided much in the way of increased fun. Commander tag colors will now all be unlocked with a single purchase, so it’s great that ArenaNet made that change according to feedback, but it’s troubling that it was even going to be implemented in a way that completely missed why players had asked for the feature in the first place. If ArenaNet is only able to tease stuff that’s a few weeks out from release, there’s much less time to get feedback on implementation — and when even small features are kept under wraps before a big reveal, it can lead to what I really would like to avoid calling “hype burnout.” Since I don’t have a better term for it, there it is.

Chrispy.5641:

How best to answer the question….

…..snip….

/rant

I want to add onto my already long rant….

Its not that I’m unhappy with the game itself. I am actually very satisfied with the core experience in Guild Wars 2. The supporting systems as they were presented in guild Wars 2 in 2012 were amazing (the base achievement system, the base dye system, the base bank system, etc.), and the core experience was already superior than almost every other MMO I have ever played combined (except one).

What I don’t understand is the never ending need to spend so much time and resources on improving those already solid supporting systems at the grave expense of the core experience (combat), which is almost never touched, looked at, or even considered for some developer love and attention?

You fight everywhere in this game, and 90% of the new stuff implemented, while not combat related, still means that you are doing combat at some point along the trail. Why is it then, that combat isn’t even being touched in this feature pack? Why isn’t that being expanded in any significant way? Why does combat have to go stale for 5-6+ months at a time between balance patches if its such a large part of the game?
(And no, I do not consider Profession balance part of the feature pack. I will once again say that Balance is not a feature, it is necessary for an MMO to exist.)

That’s my gripe, and it the main thing that I’m unhappy with. The biggest part of the game, the most universal part of the game, the part of the game that you will always be doing at some point whether you like it or not, is being ignored.

(There’s smaller thing’s I’m unhappy with too, like the lack of lore, the lack of variety in WvW(which relates to combat/fighting), the incomplete experience as it relates to crafting(6 of 8 are at 500, but the last 2 have been sitting at 400 for almost a year) and a few other things, but Professions, Profession balance, and combat in general is the big thing.)

Vayne.8563:

laokoko.7403:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

If it requires that much work and testing, then it means that each version has different code. Even if slightly different, that’s a bad thing. I really doubt that Anet was that foolish when it came to programming the China version, because it would mean that for now on, we either get half the features, or they have to work twice as hard to get the same features in each version. That’s not just foolish, that’s just plain dumb.

Right, but Anet dont’ have a choice. Foreign game studio can’t just go to China and release mmorpg there. They have to cooperate with other domestic china company by law.

Simply put, Anet really dont’ have full control on what goes on in China. Another company(publisher) is working with Anet to release GW2 in China. ANd since they are cooperating, some features might be included/excluded because the local publisher wanted it that way.

It’s true. Some features they have in China they’d hate here. Really hate.

And none of that means that the game code is significantly different here than it is in china, if there’s any difference at all. We should probably hold this discussion for another day though, since its blocking out on topic opinions.

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

If it requires that much work and testing, then it means that each version has different code. Even if slightly different, that’s a bad thing. I really doubt that Anet was that foolish when it came to programming the China version, because it would mean that for now on, we either get half the features, or they have to work twice as hard to get the same features in each version. That’s not just foolish, that’s just plain dumb.

They have to have some different code, because they’re different games. For example, stuff unlocks in China at different levels that it unlocks in the US. I’m sure that there are many individual differences, even though they have the same engine. Some of those were implemented just for the Chinese market and were never meant to port over.

Despite that some of those things (that I remind you were never meant for our version) were found through data mining?

PSX.9250:

A lot of Enginneers have been waiting for this since the beginning. One can only hope!

prays to the 6 gods

Charr have no gods! If you want your hobo sacks removed, you need to get some pitchforks and torches and march down to Anet’s HQ!

Or, you can find a nice, friendly Asura to build an invention that warps the Eternal Alchemy just enough to change Anet’s priorities.

Or, keep praying I guess…..

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

If it requires that much work and testing, then it means that each version has different code. Even if slightly different, that’s a bad thing. I really doubt that Anet was that foolish when it came to programming the China version, because it would mean that for now on, we either get half the features, or they have to work twice as hard to get the same features in each version. That’s not just foolish, that’s just plain dumb.

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it a little bit worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are saved and unreleased until the scheduled feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

The idea of having a dye template is a common suggestion, and a great one. It’s been floated to the development team before, but I just raised it again as an idea to remind them about it.

TriggerSad.2597:

Deli.1302:

While you’re at it, remind them about the build and equipment template we’ve all been asking for as well.

Fixed that for you.

There, Even more Fixed! Probably too Fixed! Perhaps under-fixed! Maybe the perfect level of Fixed!

Also, while we’re speaking of Templates and stuff, Trait templates would be cool to have too since those can change quite frequently no matter what equipment you are wearing, but I can understand the difficulty in implementing Equipment templates (except for PvP), and can understand if those never happen. What happens if you load a template, and all that gear is in the bank? Kind of makes it pointless, doesn’kitten

How best to answer the question…..

I’m happy that the game is getting improvements, but I’m Unhappy with many aspects of the feature pack, and I’d be hard pressed to say it actually adds anything new and fresh to the game. Its not that the features takes anything away either, besides the even slower leveling experience. Making the leveling experience even slower in the name of making the already simple systems (in MMO terms) even simpler to understand, just doesn’t really make sense. I have one level 80 (Ranger, and proud of it!), but, none of these changes are really motivating me to go finish leveling any of my other characters.

I’m Happy that the Professions are getting balanced, but I am Unhappy, actually, unimpressed, almost to the point of being insulted, that it takes 5-6 months for a new balance patch to come out.

It also irks me to no end that the Article for Balance Changes are grouped together with ‘Competitive Week’ PvP and WvW changes. Any balance changes that are made affect PvE as well.

Balance changes are also NOT A FEATURE. Balance changes should NEVER BE A FEATURE. I felt it important and very necessary to bold and capitalize those facts because Anet seems to be advertising balance changes, the most necessary update to keep an MMO running smoothly, as a feature.

This is something that should be done on a regular basis to fix glaring bugs in the system, and remove imbalances in the system. Regular basis is like, every 2-3 months, not 6. Even worse is the fact that some of the changes might actually be a bad thing, and, now its going to upset the balance of the game for….another half a year…what?!? No amount of internal testing (even 6 months worth) is going to remove the fact that players can and will discover problems with any balance update, then exploit it as maliciously as possible for the next half a year until it gets removed. Sometimes those things are used/exploited for several years, and take forever to fix(such as the fiery great sword thing). Probably even worse than that is that there are some bugs that still exist, years after release, and they aren’t being fixed.

One thing that makes me definitively Unhappy is that its been two years, and the ways you can play your Class/Profession/Race/Etc. hasn’t been expanded in any significant way. There has been 1 Living World healing skill, 1 Actual Healing Skill, and 5 new Traits.

The act of Expanding the ways you can play your Profession, by releasing new Weapon/Utility skills is what I would call both a Feature and new Content. A Balance patch, that might remove/replace a trait out of necessity? Never is that a feature, or content.

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

/rant

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

It is understandable that some people are more sensitive culturally speaking. As a European, I don’t care seeing various elements of different cultures mixed.

However, for Cantha, there could be a little trick to avoid mixing… How about “zoning”? I mean, Shing Jea could be (let’s say) heavily Korean-oriented, while most are around Kaineng could be Chinese-inspired, down south we could find some kind of jungle with Cambodgian-like temples, and some city around the Jade Sea could be Japanese-influenced…

There are millions of ways to avoid hurting people, even though as we say it’s just a game and any resemblance with real-life elements is purely fortuitous.

As people said on this topic, if they really wanted to avoid Cantha, they could create a story where bubbles wiped the continent. We would curse but still, that’s how it is. Because it was given a background story, and since most people are eager to go back there (I’m part of them, I really liked Shing Jea for example), I assume they will somehow make us go back there (after all, the Zephyrites and Marjory are standard-bearers of the land).

I won’t say I’m positinve nor negative about the future of Cantha. If they release it, I will praise the devs’ names! If they don’t, I will be sad and disappointed, but if it’s for the greater good (like a new continent? The planet is huge) I could accept it… wirth a heartache.

The problem is that all of these areas are part of the same country/kingdom/empire on Cantha. Even if every area has a separate/unique culture identity, Everyone in East Asia will still get offended because, for example, the emperor’s imperial palace leans more to one culture or another, or is melted into several different cultures instead. Koreans wont tolerate the Korean styled Shing Jea Island being ruled by the Chinese Emperor.

sorudo.9054:

Vayne.8563:

Zoso.8279:

Stiofan.6720:

The maps in guild wars 2 do feel a bit bigger than their counterparts in gw1, But we are still missing so many areas that were in gw1. Rest of maguuma, Rest of eotn areas, Crystal desert, Ring of fire isles, All of Cantha, All of elona. How was the gw1 dev team able to pump out new maps/content so fast? The gw2 dev team is bigger so you would think they could bring out maps/content much faster than the gw1 team, I would love to know what they do in the office all day.

Lets remember GW1 was almost all private instances. Only part of GW1 that was “open world” was city hubs. That affects development.

And GW 2 had more content at launch than all three games. The last two years are content fixes, because the game launched way too early.

-only 1/10 the amount of armors (could be less)
-only 80% of tyria playable, let alone elona and cantha
-just about 1/10 of the skills available per profession
-8 professions instead of 10
-5 dance emotes instead of 10
-no henchmen nor any hero
-more gear based
-poor story writing
-no normal missions
-no typical GW quests
-no tactics in battle needed
-dungeons incorrectly scaled

and the list go’s on, i am 100% positive GW1 has way more content within 2 years then GW2.
in fact, GW1 is by many players still seen as superior, the simple reason is because everything is simple yet filled with content.

You are way off in the deep end of wrong on armors and skills.

• 1) Lost feature from Beta #1 – Loading screens used to have text describing the area you were loading into, and there used to be collectible books that displayed in game lore information about various monsters and enemies. There seems to be a serious lack of in game lore, and nothing added in 2 years is fixing that problem.

• 2) Lost feature from Beta #2 – Underwater maps. Why were they removed? In fact, why don’t underground maps exist when you toggle the underground view of the world map? Why do they only exist to where you are at, at any time? Why does that toggle feature even exist?!?

• 3) Lost feature from Beta #3 – You used to be able to customize Ranger Pet Skills, and some of those skills were quite passive and relied on no bad programming/AI. That would solve a lot of our AI issues right there!

• 4 BONUS Dev Feature The Developers need to get much more creative and think outside the box a little more often than they are now. Releasing a new weapon set every two months is probably the safest, most boring thing you can do. Why not give us a new Utility skill every two months? Or a new Trait? Why can’t you for example, use us the players as lab rats, and release the skills as PvE only, until proper balancing can be established for your super precious, hyper balanced, almost bare bones PvP mode, whose balance priority seems to be affecting the freshness of every other aspect of the game?

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Stop copying posts people made 2 years ago!

;)

fixed it for you

Manekk.6981:

In regards to the longbow discussion I believe one reason crossbows would be “easier to use” is you don’t have to be fit at all as you would use special tools to draw the most powerful crossbows where in the case of the biggest longbows you had to be increadibly strong to draw them at all let alone be accurate when shooting it.

English Longbows could require over 100+ pounds just to pull them back all the way. Arbalests (heavy steel crossbows) used a Ratchet of sorts to pull them back all the way.

At the ranges we’re talking about in GW2, a 40-50 pound longbow is all you need to be lethal, and it could shoot much faster than either a Musket, or Crossbows.

also,….

Weapons I want to have for Ranger,

• Maces – Melee CC
• Staff – Support
• Rifle – Shoots Poison/Explosive filled Darts instead of bullets.
• Claws – Melee Condition weapon.
• Spear – Combination Melee/Range DPS weapon.
• Main hand Torch – What? the forest is scary when its dark.

Apparition.1576:

I really can’t believe it took you the same amount of time to hit the same group of targets with a gun and a bow. That really doesn’t make any sense especially if you were in standing position.

Also, FYI shoot a target 20-30 yards does not make you a marksman of the corresponding weapon. You are merely stating how much time it took you to hit a few targets.

FYI, neither does 4 weeks of military training and shooting at pop up targets during the final test. Getting Expert qualification for that was one of the easiest things in basic training, but, that does not make me an expert with the M-4/M-16.

Later on in my military career before I left, I got Expert qualifications in almost every weapon I could get my hands on (including the M-14. The fact I owned one and shot at least twice a month with it helped), and I generally got that expert qualification after a one day class, and nothing else…..still doesn’t mean I’m an expert or a marksman.

If you really think that “Hey, I owned a Rifle for a month, lets go to a Sharpshooting competition and win!”, you’re probably going to get your butt handed to you in many more ways than one.

One final note. I don’t think you quite understand what Standing Position actually is when it comes to shooting. It is the least stable position of the four standard shooting positions (others being kneeling, prone, and sitting). Even actual experts aren’t going to take a shot at standing position unless the target is less than 100 yards away.

More Info:: (sorry, long post)

• With the Rifles, I was in Standing Position, and used only Iron Sights. There was no scope.
• Standing position, with no support is actually the hardest position you can shoot with. Its actually way easier to shoot in Kneeling or Prone. In Standing, you aren’t actually going to be anymore accurate with a rifle than you are with a bow.
• Iron sights are also much more difficult to aim with than even the simplest of scopes.
• This is mainly where people confuse how easy it is to shoot with a rifle compared to a bow. It is stupid easy to shoot a rifle while laying down. When standing up, its just as difficult as a bow, and training takes just as long.
• You can get supports for a Compound or Recurve bow, and have stability similar to what you would see with a Rifle in Prone position. In which case, its just as easy to shoot out to 100+ yards.
• I didn’t train with them at the same time, it was years apart, but the training time is relative and can be matched up easily.
• You can put scopes on Traditional Bows (specifically recurve bows). A high tech compound bow isn’t required, and with a Sight, as long as you have basic fundamentals down, you can make 100+ yard shots as easily as you could with a rifle.
• Combine stability with a Scope for a bow, and there is no limit to how far you can shoot, just know that past 100 yards, you are doing the same calculations that a sniper does with their rifles at 1+ mile.

On a final note, people are confusing bows in history with a lot of things. Its not necessarily that Bows took longer to train on. One major factor is that Muskets and Rifles were actually easier to manufacture than bows, and took less time. Muskets just needed a generally straight metal tube, and a wooden handle to go around it. Bows required weeks of treating the wood so it was just right. If there was any deformities, then the bow is useless. The string also took some time to make as well. Muskets also require way less maintenance than bows. There was also the loud noises and clouds of black smoke to consider. Training wasn’t everything.

And while the English took years training their Longbow archers, literally from childhood, other countries didn’t spend anywhere near as long, and if the need arose, they could get an Adult Archer trained in about 3-6 months, and even then, all they were required to do was aim up, and fire with everyone else in a huge volley. Un-aimed Musket volleys happened until the mid 1800’s.

Ehecatl.9172:

DanSH.6143:

Honestly i don’t think crossbow is as easy to use as you think. Aiming requires a lot of practice, even rifles aren’t easy to use irl. And I can tell since it was part of ny military training.

It takes years to become accurate with a bow and arrow. It’s a very long, difficult process. That is the entire reason why muskets replaced the longbow in warfare. Muskets load slower and aren’t as accurate as a bow in a master’s hands, but only take a few months to become proficient in it’s use. When one needs soldiers they need them quickly, and the few months to become an expert marksman with a musket or rifle is nothing compared to the few years it takes to reach the same level of precision with a bow.

As someone who has shot with bows and Rifles for along time, let me add a little perspective here……

• In order to hit a proper grouping with a Rifle at 20 yards, it took me almost 2 months., The Rifle was an M-16, 5.56m, 6 bullets. (proper 2.5-3 inch grouping in a Standing position. Hitting a 1 inch grouping in Prone took all of 5 minutes)
• To hit the same grouping with a Bow, it took me the same amount of time. 2 months. The Bow was a Longbow, 42lbs @ 28"
• The grouping was about 2.5-3 inches. Yes, it took 2 months for me to shoot that with a rifle at 20 yards in a standing position, and took just as long with a Longbow.
• 20 yards is equal to about 720 range in Guild Wars 2 (assuming 1 range equals 1 inch)

Lets go outside and go to 30 yards (range was more like 25 with the rifle, and 30~2 with the Bow)

• The 20 yard grouping with am M-16 was enough for the Military. In my own time, I bought and trained with an M-14, which shoots a larger caliber bullet (7.62×51). Its a heavier rifle, has more recoil, and it took me some time (3 months) to get a 2.5-3 inch grouping at 30 yards in a Standing position.
• It took me about 3 months of hard training to hit the same grouping with a Longbow. You have to account for the bows arc, gravity, wind, etc. by the time you are aiming at 30 yards. At 20 yards, you don’t actually notice it all that much, depending on the arrow used.
  30 yards is equal to 1080 range in Guild Wars 2.

50 yards (1800 range in Guild Wars 2)::

• It took another month before I had a 2.5-3 inch grouping with the M-14 at 50 yards. Still in a Standing Position. Even then, I had about a 75% success rate in getting that same grouping after this.
• With a Longbow, it took me even longer. I had the fundamentals down, but there are more variables to account for with a Bow at any range compared with a Rifle. By this time, my skill with a Rifle finally eclipsed my skill with a bow, after 7 months.

100 yards ::

• Can’t get a 3inch grouping with either weapon.

Esplen.3940:

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

narwhalsbend.7059:

Dragons were a lazy ploy in the writing anyway. I want the writers that worked on GW1.

As I’ve understood, with my little knowledge of the lore, Cantha is suppressed by the Ministry of Purity, while Elona has Palawa Joko that can both be used as a plot-line.

And on a more literal cultural level, Cantha is suppressed because it depicts a singular Asian entity… think Greater East Asia… (unintentionally, but still there).

If that doesn’t ring any bells, you might want to do a quick google search.

Yeah…because dozens of separate European cultures take absolutely no offense when Thousands of years of their culture and history is all rolled into one mega nation!…

….

…no wait. They actually don’t, because they understand what the word ‘Fictional’ means.

Bryzy.2719:

Chrispy.5641:

Prysin.8542:

point 1: it is a bow. A bow shoots arrows. Want something else? get a musket or something, oh wait, rangers cant get those.

point 2: see point 1

point 3 : exploding trick arrows and flaming arrows of fiery death are already taken by other professions.

kitten, now I’m imagining how awesome it would look if rapid fire shot flaming arrows, or if barrage was like an arrow firestorm. Or if point blank shot were to shoot some kind of floral breeze at the enemy or some shiz. I can dream kitten.

If only Preparations existed in this game as utility skills that could change the way our weapon skills worked…

• Kindle Arrows would make the next 10 attacks apply 3 seconds of burning. (would cause all of our arrows to look fiery)
• Glass Arrows that Deal bonus damage/bleeding if blocked. Would be great counter play to professions that like to block a lot (warriors and guardians) (Would cause our bow attacks to have an audible glass breaking sound)
• Trapper’s Focus (elite skill) that grants Stability to you and pet. Your traps are unblockable . Conditions caused by traps deal 100% more damage and last 100% longer.

One of the big issues with Rangers that neither player or Anet is willing to admit that they originally weren’t even supposed to exist in the game, and that’s why Thieves and Warriors have so many Ranger skills from GW1 (pin down, choking gas, etc.)

Edited to remove Censored word, because anet forum policies are dumb.

ipan.4356:

Vayne.8563:

This game has made almost as much money in two years as Guild Wars 1 did in it’s first six.

Diablo 3 also broke records in box sales – and people hated it. The RMAH shut down after a protracted battle.

It’s no surprise at all that GW2 did so well at launch – the issue here is the roadmap, and the fact that we are 2 years in with no major content release.

Just low hanging fruit.

I don’t think the Megaserver is a low hanging fruit. That probably took hundreds of hours and dozens of people with technical knowhow far beyond us to figure out how to get it working as smoothly as it did.

With that said,

• Colored Commander tags is a low hanging fruit.
• Finally adding WvW skill trees for Golem Mastery is a low hanging fruit.
• Balance changes are balance changes, and are expected. Expected every 5-6 month….hell no. That just makes the game feel very stale and boring. 2-3 months? yeah! and it should have been every 2-3 months.
• 40 New traits isn’t a massive addition in content. Its a good addition, but at face value, to veteran and new players, its not really that big of a change. Its also a low hanging fruit.

What would constitute a big, massive, game changing change to me?,

• Changing the way a Class Mechanic works, like for example, removing AI pets from Rangers and implementing a much more easily controllable class mechanic, or Adding different Varieties of Deathshroud to Necromancers, or letting Mesmers and Guardians customize their F1-4 skills. That would be a MASSIVE addition.
• Adding a new weapon set (5 new skills) to every profession (which would mean 20 new skills to Elementalists, for 55 total new skills) This would keep the game fresh if new weapons were added every year or so.
• Adding entirely new Trait lines that add 13 new traits, and affect different stats..
  • Reduced Conditon Duration for example.
  • Celestial growth for another example (1 trait point adds 10 of every major stat instead of 50 points to one stat)
  • Stat tradeoffs for a third example (A Traitline that gives you double the normal toughness per point, but you lose half as much Vitality as a result)
• There are other obvious choices, like a new race, new class, etc.

Just wanted to throw my thoughts out there. Most of the new features aren’t really that big or game changing (But, Megaservers definitely are).