Guild Wars 2

Bye Vee Wee. Thanks for all the great posts!

I like it, but I won’t get it. Whenever I buy an outfit, I soon find that I’m bored with it. I’d rather they release new armor sets. At least then I can mix and match.

Vayne.8563:

DaShi.1368:

Vayne.8563:

And since the personal story technically begins in the introduction and then you get it again an hour later, it should work for most people.

You may get it an hour later, but many players don’t. It’s reasonable to say that new players will take significantly longer to reach the next part of the story.

Not if they’re following the arrow they won’t. It really is that fast. I can get to level 10 much faster than an hour. An hour isn’t an unreasonable time frame for a new person to get to the story.

As an experienced player, following the arrow took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach level 9. I then gave up on the arrow entirely.

I also like the cultural armors and would love to see more of them.

I did understand that. That’s why I used your example. I thought we were on the same page.

I apologize if you took offense, but I simply wanted to know what you consider good writing for a forum post, since you deemed the OP’s post as bad writing. If you’re going to take my posts so literally, why do you complain if I follow your same example? I think you should relax, dial back the paranoia and please be more respectful. I don’t deserve that kind of response.

I tend to read every word of a post that I plan to respond to. I certainly don’t write paragraphs of criticism on posts that I haven’t even read.

And do you really compare everything to a “serious treatise on world peace”? Now I’m very curious as to what this would look like and why you think that people should be posting in that style.

I don’t think that opening it at level 20 will make it any less confusing for those who are confused by it. There’s nothing between levels 2 and 20 that will explain that game. Putting it in Rata Sum might make more sense.

Anyway, it already has a tutorial. Frankly, if people are getting frustrated by this and thinking of quitting over such a little thing, then there’s little that can be done for them. The whole game would have to be dumbed down to a five year old level to keep them happy, because there are far more challenging things in this game than RC Golem.

Vayne.8563:

And since the personal story technically begins in the introduction and then you get it again an hour later, it should work for most people.

You may get it an hour later, but many players don’t. It’s reasonable to say that new players will take significantly longer to reach the next part of the story.

Avinz.2456:

Story Instances Level lock:
I personally found the story instances to be incredibly easy now. Too easy and really not very fun to play. You have to be over leveled in order to play the instances. When I first played through I would try to get as far in the story as I could because I enjoyed the challenge of enemies being a higher level then me. Now you’re forced to play as a higher level then the enemies. Why not make the story 1-10 unlock at level 1, then story instance 10-20 unlock at level 10? The way it is now just seems silly to me (Is this a bug?).

This is also how I thought they would do it. Now the stories are auto-attack only easy. It’s to the point where why they even need to worry about how they introduce new skills if there is never a need to use them.

Since many of the “bug” fixes lately have hurt mesmers, I was happy not to see them in the patch notes.

KngGilgamesh.3481:

Fast and easy perhaps but i would not consider it best, i have seen too many people advise new players to level their first character though it.

I can see this though. Mapping quickly becomes a chore. It’s not bad small bursts when you feel like doing it, but feeling forced to do it to level or get your legendary makes it very unpleasant. Before EotM, I still took characters to WvW to level rather do much mapping. I think that many new players will get tired of the game, if they think mapping is the only way to level their characters.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

I don’t the think the personal story was as well received as Anet wanted it to be. We all know what people thought of Trahearne and the Zhaitan fight. We’ve all seen people talk it down. While it did have people who liked it, many many people disliked it. The open world has always been the strength of this game.

I think Anet really wanted to shift the focus to the world and away from the story.

See personal story isnt great, but its actually generally better in the first 20 levels, (depending on your race/choices) But it does provide a backdrop or narrative.

The open world on the otherhand isnt that strong early, its ok, but its not stirring. Also the open world actually loses more with the arrow. Its good for completion, but its bad for making you feel like the game is free and open.

What they really needed to have, was an open world means of leading newbs. Lets think of some newbie like dynamic event chains that tell a story, The truth is the dynamic event system is one of the main strengths, and a well crafted chain in the beginning could be a lot more satisfying than the starter story, and hold them over till level 10.

They should also kind of make it clear when your next personal story missions will unlock.

point is, if they want to keep people, a more riveting starter experience will probably go further than a more easy one, imo.

Every new character I made, I played the first parts of the PS first. It was the best content and the best way to start the game. I even made characters that I didn’t want (Charr and Norn) just to see there parts of the story in the early levels. My only complaint about it was that each chapter was too short.

I agree, if there is no PS at the start, there needs to be something more interesting in the early levels than mapping, which quickly feels like a chore.

There’s plenty of content for your style of play, Vayne. However, not everyone has the same style of play. They should be allowed to ask for content that they want. Yes, the new content may affect those who don’t want it, but the content for your style of play affects those who don’t want it too.

I have no problems with turret engy’s. Playing them or playing against them. They are very strong against certain builds and there are some builds that can easily destroy them, but that’s true for many builds.

However, I tend to play a turret engy more like it’s a mesmer. I pop my turrets frequently for their effects. So I tend to only carry the healing, rifle, and fire turrets. This allows me to move around a lot. But it also means that I have to be in the middle of the fights to be the most effective.

Great to hear! You do fantastic work and I find the tool very helpful for searching and managing my activities on the TP.

I don’t think it was an intended function. It’s clearly a single target channel skill and none of the others can switch target mid-cast.

Really? Time for an obsidian shard farm! jk

The TP bots are certainly one of the things detracting from my desire to play the game. I just don’t have the time or patience to get in a bidding war with someone who’s not even playing the game. It’s a Casey Jones like scenario.

GW1 had damage types. In fact, some builds were designed around them. However, I agree that they can be complex, and I never fully understood how they worked in GW1.

Vayne.8563:

And people won’t be talking about this for years. They’re be talking about it for weeks, maybe. Already most of the map chatter about it has died down.

That may be because most have already said their piece. Not everyone is compelled to repeat their position in every thread about a topic that they’ve already addressed. I stated my feelings about the NPE in one thread and it is far down on the forum. However, my opinions about the NPE have not changed.

The volume of complaints do mean something. And that a significant of the forum population expressed so much dissatisfaction should not be ignored.

I do apologize if you felt I attacked you personally. My only meaning was to ask you to be considerate of others opinions and to play by the same rules you ask others to. However, your response to my post is entirely your own responsibility and I take no credit for your behavior.

Let me know if I’m correct: Telling some one to leave the game is something you will do. You won’t, however, suggest alternative games to play.

I am. You are making claims about my beliefs and opinions and arguing against those made up claims.

All I ever asked you to do was to not speak for other people. Something you have asked of others. I then pointed out some factual definitions. Everything else is baggage that you carried. I made none of the statements you’ve claimed that I did and that you then ranted about. Perhaps an apology is in order?

No does it change a word I said in my post. Since we are in agree, why are you being so hostile?

I wish you could communicate with me. Instead you just state what you want me to say and argue against that. You are currently having an argument with yourself, because I’ve made no statements related to your post that quotes me. Frankly, I don’t think you even read my post and just went on another rant.

Probably. It might be some months until it does.

Vayne.8563:

DaShi.1368:

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think it’s right that people do that either. I don’t go into one person’s store and tell people about another store. I wouldn’t do it in real life, so I don’t do it online.

Everyone has to choose their own behavior. I choose not to do it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. It just means I won’t.

But you have encouraged people to leave the game because you claimed it wasn’t for them.

Try to find those quotes. The only time I’ve EVER said that is when people say they want something this game obviously isn’t going to give them, like full on gear grind. The player base as a whole doesn’t want it, as evidenced by the huge fall out over ascended gear.

I may have, over the course of the last two years, said it twice, if that. I almost never tell people to look elsewhere. Unless, as I say, they really are looking for a different game and it’s obvious.

You go through what I say to people who don’t like the game. Usually, I’m giving them the upside of staying, not encouraging them to go. You’d have to go back pretty far to find me actually saying that if I’m not mistaken, because I generally don’t, and often tell others who do it not to.

What can I say? You already admitted I was correct.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think it’s right that people do that either. I don’t go into one person’s store and tell people about another store. I wouldn’t do it in real life, so I don’t do it online.

Everyone has to choose their own behavior. I choose not to do it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. It just means I won’t.

But you have encouraged people to leave the game because you claimed it wasn’t for them.

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

@Scipio

My point is we know that a dev said only 10% of people playing Lotro ever raided or did PvP. We know that the PvP population of Guild Wars 1 was higher than that, but I do remember a dev talking about DOA and how few people ever completed it. I wish I dev would come here and confirm that, because at this late date I’ll never find the quote.

Over years in this industry, we’ve seen devs make hard content that most players never get through, but you think, for some reason, Guild Wars 1 was different.

The elite zones in later games were nowhere near as hard or as long as the ones in Prophecies. Anet spent less and less time on them as the game advanced.

you dont have to complete content for people to enjoy it. Most underworld runs were not for completion, it was super long, and 1 mistake could end it, thats why having mini objectives were good.
The same with DOA, you could do every path seperate, or only the path you wanted to.

also, how many people did raids in lotro, has little to do with how many people did elite instances in gw2.

there is a substantial difference in accessibility with content that requires 12 people, and content that requires 1 or 2 people.
yes i duo ed domain of anguish with my friend and his heroes,
yes i trio ed underworld without henches with trappers and 55 monks, and a weird necro cannot die build i made
point is, the bikitteniment to people attempting raids, isnt the word raids or even the difficulty, its that it requires organizing with some generally large number of people.

now im not saying dungeons is the only form endgame can take, but i dont think that the principle you have, that instanced content serves no purpose is false.

Let me rephrase then. Most people who tried it and died quickly, had that bad first experience, never went back, because in a nutshell, that’s people. People don’t like to die and fail. The amount of resilient people that keep banging their heads against stuff is always going to be a minority and that’s not only true in games. That’s true throughout life.

That’s human nature. A few self-starters. Leaders. Resilient people. People with vision. And a bunch of people sitting on the couch, eating potato chips, watching American Idol and Big Brother.

On the forums, we are the minority. In the game we’re the minority. This is my opinion, but it’s backed up by a whole lot of stuff I’ve seen and heard, over a whole lot of years. It’s not just my opinion…it’s my experience.

Please speak for yourself. Every time you start a sentence with the word ‘People,’ stop, think about what you are doing, and delete the post. You’ve complained before about naysayers speaking for the “majority,” but I frequently see you making the same argument in to support your preferences.

Vayne.8563:

Right now it’s a choice. You can speak to NPCs if you want to. Other people don’t have to.

I don’t think we should take away more choices in this game.

You think only the choices you don’t like should be taken away because you’ve expressed satisfaction with all the choices lost in the NPE thus far and dismissed others complaints asking to play how they want.

I used to worry that my character had no shoes, until I met a character with no feet.

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

Aliven.4056:

@Vayne
That is problem for that players. If you skip tutorial in a game you dont know how to play this is only your fault. The devs give you tools, and if you dont want to use them then be ready for consequesnces.

Also there is not a single reason to NOT make a tutorial and a tutorial section of the game should be THE best part of the game.

Gating things is not the answer. Teaching how to use tools you gain is a way. Giving more solution for the problems is the way. Not striping us from the tools.

Actually it’s a problem for the devs. If a player skips the tutorial and leaves the game, it doesn’t help the game. Sure it’s his fault, but it’s Anet’s problem. That’s the problem in a nutshell. More people need to stay after starting.

In that case anet should try adding more things early on to get the players engaged, rather than pushing things back. What sort of things? Maybe some sort of ongoing personal story, one without a lot of aggravating level gaps, with interesting, recurring characters doing interesting things all involving the player’s character personally.

I always find tutorials boring and skip them if I can. Having the replay them on a new character is even worse. Unfortunately, the NPE has made the entire early and mid game a tutorial.

I remember the cows from the demos. Those little hearts when you feed them were one of the great joys of the early game.

Ohoni.6057:

Back when Super Adventure Box was live, you might remember that it was sometimes too hard, so they gave us the option of “Infantile Mode” so that anyone could get their way through it eventually. This was a great idea, and sometimes playing this game can be too hard. With that in mind, here are some changes I think would be a really good idea for low level content in the game, just shift things around so that it’s less confusing for those age 3 and up:

• Weapon skill 2 (Unlocked at level 2)
• Weapon skill 3 (Unlocked at level 3)
• Profession skill F1 (Unlocked at level 4)
• Rally(downstate) (Unlocked at level 5)
• Off-hand weapon slot (Unlocked at level 7)
• Weapon skill 4 (Unlocked at level 7)
• Underwater Combat (Unlocked at level 8 with underwater weapon skills 1 and 2)
• Personal story (Unlocked at level 10 in chapters every 10 levels)
• Weapon skill 5 (Unlocked at level 10)
• Utility Skill 1 (Unlocked at level 13)
• Underwater skill 3 (Unlocked at level 14)
• Weapon Swap (Unlocked at level 15)
• Down Skill 3 (Unlocked at level 19)
• Profession skill F3 (Unlocked at level 22)
• Underwater skill 5 (Unlocked at level 23
• Utility Skill 2 (Unlocked at level 24)
• Profession skill F4 (Unlocked at level 24)
• Adapt Tier Traits (Unlocked at level 30)
• Elite Skill (Unlocked at level 40)
• Master Traits (Unlocked at level 60)
• Grandmaster Traits (Unlocked at level 80)

When playing in Normal Mode, of course, all of these things should be left exactly as they were in March.

lol. People wanted SAB back. Anet gave it to them in the form of the new leveling system.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

geekanerd.4123:

Maybe it’s because I don’t kitten around with alts or leveling too much, but I really don’t understand what all the kitten is about. Somebody do me a solid and direct me to a relevant thread detailing why there is such a river of tears today.

Everyone has their reasons. it depends on what they like in game.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeon-owner-sometimes-required/first#post4390962

Is my reason. For others, its the leveling system, for others, who knows?

Lilith, sad to see you go, even if I only know your forum presence. But it makes sense.

Relshdan.6854:

too late.

there is a reason they have spent so many resources re-doing nearly all of their existing systems, instead of creating new content………the game isn’t doing well enough as a business w the current player-base. they need to create/retain as many new players as possible, so they put their effort there.

i hate the NPE, trait system overhaul, Megaserver, etc, but their surveys/studies told them otherwise.

better hope they are correct, or this game goes pure F2P…..and then gemstore becomes P2W.

Seems like they just copy-pasted what they did for the Chinese version of the game.

The more I hear about these leveling changes, the more surprised I am about how patently awful they are. Maybe if this was a mobile game, it would make more sense. But GW2 is so far from that any attempt will not attract mobile gamers and cost them PC/console gamers.

I have to admit, I’m seriously questioning their judgement on these decisions, and no longer have the confidence in the future of this game I once did.

I look at this from the “Play how you want” perspective, which is why I don’t like the new leveling system. The new system feels like your riding on rails, showing you the sights. But the whole time, I want to get off and do my own thing.

Take the Personal Story. Before the new system, you could do the personal story at any level. Basically, you can do it whenever you wanted. The only restriction being whether you wanted it to be very hard (below recommended level), average difficulty (at recommended level), or very easy (above recommended level). Now that first option has been taken away. I understand that having to take leveling breaks between the story could be jarring. My suggestion would be to keep the story chapters under the new system, but let you start them whenever you want. So the first chapter would still be recommended for level 10. However, you could try it at level 5, but receive a warning that you are below the recommended level.

I mostly dislike the unlocking of abilities. Being under 80 was already a huge liability for many types of group activities (dungeons, world events, guild events, etc.). Now it is greatly worse because you will be missing key skills and traits.

The worst part of it is that you can’t do the experimenting at earlier levels that you could under the old system. I relied on leveling to learn my classes, but not through a forced tutorial. I liked trying out new weapons and traits. The more time (earlier levels) I had them, the better I understood them. In fact, the only drawback with the old system, imo, was that you used to have to pay for trait changes, which reduced experimentation and learning. Dropping those fees was a fantastic move by Anet.

My suggestion would be to return weapons, skills, and traits gained at level up to the old system. Any new traits and skills added to the game can be acquired through activities or by purchase like the new Grandmaster traits. This gives level 80s something to do to gain them (though they should all be available in sPvP for free).

All the other unlocks with level seem a little arbitrary and cruel to me. I’m not high enough level to use the trading post? Why? Underwater combat at level 7. What if I go underwater before that? I must be punished. I hear I have to wait until a certain level to do jumping puzzles. I love jumping puzzles.

All of this creates a long, boring ride to level 80. Before, when you started GW2, it opened up a world of possibilities. Now everything is handed/told to you during your ride. When you do get to 80, you feel as if you’ve already seen and done all there is to do. If there was more, they would have told you and held your hand through it, right?

Others have asked whether they would recommend GW2 after this update. My primary reason for recommending this game was the freedom it offered. There was so much you could do and explore, and running around the world felt great. Now, I would be embarrassed to make that claim to new players, because they won’t experience that wonder and freedom.

Does it at least stack with other stealth now?

I do like that he has a PU build in his sig.

Manual intervention will still hurt a server, and that server will have a much more valid complaint to Anet for manipulating the rankings. I’m not sure why another server needs to pay for Mag’s mistakes.

I also hope they make some other way of getting the Black Lion skins. I still haven’t been able to get a legendary. To have several other sets of skins be priced out of my range now would be awful.

Really disappointed that any of the Chinese changes are coming into our game. The leveling, the story, the ugly backpeices. They all made me feel sorry for the Chinese. Thankfully we won’t get the VIP system. I’m out, if that is ever implemented.

Despite his need to share this, I still don’t know what his problem is. I can’t imagine that the transmutation stones affected him in such a way that he’s still traumatized by it nearly 6 months later.

You could salvage the ectos you get from the rares for Essences of Luck.

Loss of bleed is tough, but the others seem fair. I actually thought the clone death traits could be blocked and blinded.

I never understood the concern with conditions. Even when playing on an Engy, I welcomed necros for how easy they were to kill. Generally, condition-based builds have their weaknesses.

However, what I noticed is that most people actually don’t bring condition removal, especially really glassy builds. I guess they feel the best defense against conditions is to go to the forums and ask for them to be nerfed. In the meantime, I’ve started playing a condition guardian and just roll over them with it.

So when I logged into my mesmer, I discovered a Birthday gift in her inventory. Thinking it was her second year gift, I clicked it open. Imagine my surprise when another Queen Jennah jumped out at me. Along with the 20 level scroll and booster.

At first, it thought there was a bug, and I had gotten the wrong gift. But then I remembered that Birthday gifts come through the mail. So I checked my mail, and there was my second year gift.

Not sure why there was a first year gift in my inventory, because I’m pretty sure I opened it last year and don’t like to leave that kind of stuff in my characters’ inventories. So I just wanted to let you know about a possible bug that is handing out extra Birthday gifts.

Yes- scepter needs more offense. If PU is the problem, then that should be addressed. But the scepter is currently an extremely weak weapon and needs a buff like this to be playable.