Exactly. I think there is some problem here, namely identifying what a “casual player” and what “casual content” is.
Personally I don’t think that a casual player is a bad player, or that a hardcore player is a good player, being one, doesn’t suggest the other. A casual player can read guides and change their builds just fine so difficulty has nothing to do with how casual content is.
A player who grinds all day to get gold to buy a Legendary isn’t a casual, he is a hardcore grinder. Just because you can get something by playing on your time and do things that you like, doesn’t make it casual friendly, because it might take years upon years to earn it. You might not play the game for that long.
A player who runs a raid once a week for an hour with a group of friends isn’t necessarily a hardcore player, casual players can run raids. They won’t do it on set schedule, or not run them for 3-4 hours each time, but raids do not exclude casual players from running them with like-minded individuals.
That’s my take on it.
I agree.
I’ll add that there is probably a continuum between casual and hardcore, so some of what you bring up may apply to a lesser or greater degree to any single player.
But, you’re right on target: the definition is soft, and that leads to disagreement. SOME of that disagreement is real, but some is simply not using the same terms to mean the same thing.
Answer. Legendaries were never meant to be casual. The trade off is they’re not required either. Early on, when people asked Eric Flannum if there would be stuff to grind for, he said, yes, but there wouldn’t be required grind.
This is where your legendaries fall, and to a lesser degree ascended weapons.
Not really. Raids require at least full-ascended gear. The GAME doesn’t require them, but there are virtually no teams who will accept less. And, the game doesn’t punish people for being exclusive.
However, you’re missing the point. Flannum said no required grind. But HoT is essentially nothing BUT grind.
but I don’t find the increased HP to be challenging, hard or innovative.
And this is were I stopped reading because you obviously have zero experience fighting HoT mobs. In fact the whole thing about calling them “not challenging” shows that you haven’t actually fought them. The usual excuses of those who need to Learn to Play, “it’s not hard, it’s just absurd”. No, you just need to get good and learn how to play, stop giving lame excuses.
Actually most HoT mobs have less HP than any core Tyria mob, some even to the point of half the amount (smokescales). HP values in HoT are ultra low, that’s why having a proper build and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each mob makes it easy to deal with them. That’s how “good” mob design should be anyway, tricky to deal with unprepared, and much easier if you know what to expect and mastered their abilities, and to this end HoT did a very good job.
Clear L2P issue here.
Interesting that you make all sorts of claims against Soon, but you don’t back ANY of them up? Just name-calling and one-upsmanship.
Instead of throwing around insults, try actually putting a real argument forward.
Games shouldn’t be balanced around the inability of their worst players though. You being incapable and easily frustrated by that fact should have zero impact on further development.
And why do you stoop to name-calling? How have you determined that I am one of the games worst players?
That worked!!! Thanks!
But it’s just your opinion that open world content should be laid back. And fun is absolutely a matter of opinion. I don’t really love challenging content all the time, but HoT isn’t really challenging so much as a learning curve.
I don’t call HoT zones challenging. I call them absurd. Not absurdly hard, but just absurd. To be locked out artificially for any period of time with no story element involved is just crazy. And to have maps that even the most dedicated and hardcore players have admitted are crazy hard to navigate, well that was just dumb.
Even the events and wandering creatures aren’t challenging. They’re just exercises in knowing when to flee because the spawn rate is too high. That’s not challenging, either.
Challenging would be new creatures that you have to do new things to defeat. HoT merely upped their power levels. So far, I haven’t had a single event or story mission that I would call challenging.
…but everyone has been able to do the new zones.
…
I haven’t. Couldn’t get through it, although not due to mission strength. I just couldn’t find my way through the map once I hit DS. I tried many times, but each time was more frustrating than the last, so I finally gave up.
Please understand that the zones are auto-leveling you. So, fighting a level 15 harpy, you also will be level 15 or thereabouts.
The thing you want to do next is get your armor and weapons focused on certain attributes. A lot of people like “berserker” armor, which adds bonuses to your power, precision, and ferocity, so I’ll use that as an example, pretending that that’s what you’re going to focus on. However, use whatever you want; the key is to make all the pieces match.
To make a full build, get armor that is berserker armor, weapons that also are, and the add-ons likewise berserker (runes and sigils).
Once you have all-matching equipment, you should expect dramatically higher power, precision, and ferocity. So, you’ll do a lot of damage quickly, critically hitting a lot.
HOWEVER, to do that, you gave up on healing power, vitality, and toughness (among other things). So, you can’t expect to stay in fights very long if there are a lot of enemies.
It’s a trade-off. Pick the stats you want to improve, then find armor and weapons that improve those stats. Toughness improves your armor, thus reducing damage you take. Vitality gives you more hit points. Power increases the base damage of strikes you deliver. Precision increases your chance of getting a critical hit.
Go to the wiki and look up all the stats you can improve (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute). Then find armor and weapons that matches the ones you like best.
You can craft a significant number of sets (by set I mean a set of 3-attributes that are improved), like berserker and carrion. But, there are many more available only by adventuring or the trading post.
I agree, except it should have existed for years and not at a cost. GW1 had this nearly a decade ago.
Of course, auto-loot should have been available years ago as well, but now it’s a mastery. Maybe they could add another mastery?
By the way, as a casual, raids don’t bother me at all. I could care less if I ever achieve the rewards they offer.
The only thing I think needs to change about raids is that there should be a lobby, so they don’t interfere with zone meta events (artificially inflating the population of the zone).
“Fun and entertainment” is not enough to keep people playing the same content in the same game for years.
Perhaps not for hardcores, but it is for me.
Never mind, I found the answer.
I see a lot of people advertising 3 fractals and daily. But, I only know one meaning for daily: when one of the 12 daily accomplishments is a fractal.
Can someone explain what people might mean by “daily” in the context of 3 fractals?
HoT doesn’t require you to be hardcore to play it – it does require you to sink time into it.
It’s likely I’ve played at least as much as you have. It’s not time that’s the problem. It’s the onerous nature of what I have to spend that time doing that’s the problem.
Sorry, duplicated effort on my part.
(edited by Daddicus.6128)
It’s clear the manifesto is old news, that was clear a long time ago.
I agree with your post, but I would say we’ve only really known for 3 months. Before that there was lots of posturing, but no substance. They spoke out of both sides of their mouths.
But, when HoT was released we realized we had been misled. This wasn’t GW2 plus some more challenging content, as advertised. This was a substantial rework of GW2, making further progression much more difficult. It wasn’t harder so much as it was blocked (gated by time, XP, extreme encounters, etc.)
As I played through further and further, it became obvious that I wasn’t having fun. I was just grinding through various gates.
But, I’m casual. I like to play almost all of my characters every day. I progress their mapping title, run events, gather, do storylines, and generally just have fun. The dailies help, as I use those as roadmaps off of which I’ll choose WHERE I’m going that day. But otherwise, I’m more or less just following whatever winds are blowing that day.
With HoT, I don’t have that option. I have to force myself to play just to attain the next milestone. And, the milestones were getting further and further apart. When I got to DS, I basically stopped. I couldn’t even tell where I was supposed to go, and yet I was still gated.
THAT is what I mean by anti-casual. I survive the encounters just fine, but I don’t have fun doing it. In core Tyria, I could wander about to my heart’s content, but not in HoT. Everything is gated by something (including an impossible-to-follow map), and when you finally get through the gate, you discover there’s an even worse grind to get through the next one. For all I know, I could be near the end, but I have no way to know that.
I’m as loyal as they come to this game series, but I feel betrayed by ANet. I just feel deflated whenever I try to accomplish anything in HoT. When I was still trying, I would go and commit to a couple hours, but in the end I had accomplished almost nothing perceptible. It just kept dragging me down. So, the time periods between attempts got further and further apart. Until I stopped trying altogether.
Grinding with a purpose can sometimes be OK. For example, I’m a Champion of the Gods (I earned all 50 points in GW1’s Hall of Monuments). There was some grinding there. But, I could step out of the grind and do something else, even a different grind. Kept it from becoming boring at least.
But, in HoT I don’t have that choice. I must finish one grind before I can start the next.
Map rewards.
Predated HoT by nearly 2 months. But, it was related, so I’ll give you that one.
Monstrously valuable, though: on crafting material every 2 events. To make your post make sense, you’re going to need something a bit bigger.
your analogies are incorrect, your amusement park started off as 98% ‘casual’ rides and perhaps 2% ‘hardcore’ cutting edge in the shape of high end fractals, then Anet added a new rollercoaster in the shape of raids and 99% other stuff.
You’re wrong on your percentages, but I’ll give you a chance to prove them: Name ONE THING that HoT added that is unambiguously casual-friendly.
If casuals want hardcore rewards they should become hardcore – it’s that simple.
For once you and I agree on something.
The problem is that HoT doesn’t allow me to play through, effectively, without being hardcore.
Except I’ve seen casuals who also want the hardcore gone – completely driven off the game if possible so that they can afk-1-1-1-1-1 it to death.
Name one.
I don’t want to start that other thread again and I will only say that content comes with its rewards. Hardcore content with reward A and casual content with reward B. Content and rewards for everyone. …
There’s only one problem with your logic: It isn’t reward B. It’s reward C. Reward B was what it WAS before they nerfed them.
Not possible. As the last few months of back and forth on the forums proved, hardcore players aren’t satisfied with just content meant for them. They also need rewards hidden behind that content – rewards that are both inaccessible by casuals, and yet at the same time desired by them. Elitists want casuals to be unhappy (unhappy that they aren’t as good as them, of course). Hardcore content whose existence casuals can simply ignore just won’t cut it. …
Completely correct.
If all HoT had done was add hard content, the casuals would have been happy just leaving the rest alone and letting us know in advance that we shouldn’t buy it.
But, they didn’t. They tried to satisfy both camps, but did an abysmal job of it by gating everything. The hardcores got their raiding (but for some strange reason they’re not content with it), and the casuals got less than nothing. Not only was HoT designed almost 100% for hardcore types, they made it unappealing to their more numerous counterparts, the casuals.
And, for the icing on the cake, they nerfed rewards for those left behind.
That worked! Thanks!!!
I’m in the Not so Secret jumping puzzle. I’m after the first boat, on the pillars below it (and just above where you fall if you miss a jump).
I’m perpetually in combat because the stupid game thinks I’m still fighting the aetherblades that are below me. They can hit me (which opens combat), but I can’t damage them beyond their ability to repair.
Because I’m supposedly in combat, my speed is reduced, which means I can’t make the jump.
So, how do I get up enough speed to make the jump from the last pillar to the yellow u-shaped pipe?
I had the same thing a few minutes ago. It failed for about 15 minutes, then magically started working again.
Same also: 32 and 64 bit.
Sassy: Already done. No effect.
Rylen: I always knew we would be assimilated someday.
Sorry, guys, I miscounted: I CAN attain the highest level of Fractals. It’s legendaries that are out of reach (fractals doesn’t have the big one at the end).
But by doing them you get experience which levels Masteries..
You need two things for masteries. Experience is worthless once you’ve spent all your mastery points.
And leveling Tyrian masteries really isn’t that hard…it just takes some time. Grab some buffs, run some events in Orr and you’ll be surprised how fast you can level masteries.
You missed my point: I’m not gated by the XP. I’m gated by the Mastery Points. I made the mistake of spending some on Legendary masteries before I realized I would never complete it.
You obviously don’t play the game enough if after almost 3 months you’ve failed to get r3 in Fractal Mastery, why are you complaining about rewards for a game you play once a week for an hour?
You are completely wrong. I’ve averaged 5 hours a day in the 3+ years the game has been out. I’m closing in on 19K achievement points. So, I think I know a thing or two about how to play.
What’s stopping me is not skill. It is the mastery points that are in things I’m no longer physically capable of achieving, like the last diving location. There are quite a few I can’t get to any more. Perhaps when I was 30-40 years younger, but the game wasn’t around then.
I can envision 3-5 more points, and then I’m out of the running for any more. I could see maybe getting a couple of the regional points for getting all the achievements. But, since I’ve spent a year trying, and I’ve only attained 3 of those, it doesn’t seem likely.
I have a glimmer of hope that maybe I can squeeze out some more in Fractals, but even my rosiest projections don’t get me close to the top.
FYI NOTE: I already have the main Tyria ones all done. I’m working on the experience for the 2nd fractal one.
Whenever I go into GW2 on my Windows 10 system, at the point after logging in, but before clicking play, there are messages. If I click on them, it brings up Edge, despite my having set my default browser to something else.
Do anybody know how to fix this?
VB is loaded with people waiting for raids. So, the raw count is high enough to not trigger megaserver’s algorithm. We’ve asked them to create a lobby, but they simply don’t listen any more.
… It does involve getting the Fractal masteries unlocked, …
And therein lies the rub: gated by HoT.
It is absurdly impossible for me to attain all of the central Tyria masteries. I’ll never even come close to getting just two tracks done. Legendaries are something I gave up long ago, but I’m not convinced I’ll ever see the top of the fractal masteries.
And, I’m sure there are many others like me.
So, again, the rewards are reduced. In theory, I could get the rewards back up to what they were before HoT, but that just begs the question.
It’s called a “Shared Inventory Slot”, and it’s crystal clear what it means. It even states it allows characters on an account to share “one non-bag item”.
Think of it as a way to email yourself stuff. Is it worth 700 gems? Not sure. But, it’s definitely described clearly.
Ascended crafting cost: You mentioned in a previous post/twitch that you’ll be adjusting the cost for crafting ascended armor/weapons. It’s been quite a while since that happened. Was this just some random comment thrown out without any substance or is this actually in the planning stages? I realize coding is hard, and trying to juggle the economy without screwing up isn’t an easy job. But I can’t see adjusting the amount of items needed for a certain item to be that big a deal.
I think you misinterpreted them: they wanted the price to go UP, not down.
Which is a wasted opportunity, community interaction is growing in importance and one of the (few?) things ANet is utterly outclassed at by most others in this space.
What’s really sad is that they used to be very good with their forums. THEIR forums.
I can’t believe you aren’t addressing the number one complaint: HoT’s gating.
Please read and REPLY to some of the complaints. Thousands of people have left the game because of the tortured frustration we have been forced to either endure or stop using our $100 purchase. Those aren’t good options.
Not mine, but I’m not a heavy fractal player.
… and told people to move to fractals and …
And nerfed the rewards there, too.
I remember when people complained that Gw2 is “too casual”.Now people complain that the game is not “casual friendly” and too challenging.Shrugs
“Challenging” has nothing to do with it. It’s the layers and layers of ways to make players waste time. When you have to earn the equivalent of 4 levels killing the equivalent of wandering monsters (from D&D), it’s boring. When you CANNOT attain all the masteries (in central Tyria), it’s frustrating. And when it’s extremely rare for anybody on the map to respond to requests for help, that’s downright unfriendly.
Guild Wars has never been about gating and boring grinds, and it’s always been highly friendly. HoT changed all that and more.
But don’t equate it to “too challenging”. Challenging implies you have to up your game, or solve new puzzles, or whatever. HoT did NOT do that (except possibly raiding, which I’ve avoided and so can’t speak to).
Fractals are historical Tyrian events. But, I don’t expect to get any mastery points from Fractals anyhow.
Fractals are part of Tyria. WvW is not.
And, you’re right: the collection was made part of the mastery as part of HoT. It should not have been made so, since it requires leaving Tyria. It’s clearly a bug introduced with HoT.
And, I only have a handful (3-5) more mastery points that I’m capable of earning. I need every point I can get.
OK, thanks. I’ll try that.
One of the mastery points for main Tyria requires getting a spoon from WvW. Clearly, this is a bug, since one should not have to leave Tyria to attain a Tyria-only aspect of the game (the mastery point). Please either remove the requirement for a Siege Commander’s Spoon or allow other ways to get the spoon for the collection.
So, how do I find the specific enemies that I have to kill to get this? And, how do I avoid humans (which is the reason I never go there)?
Is there a way to get the Siege Commander’s Spoon other than going around defeating WvW opponents? I never play WvW, and I don’t want to, either. But, it seems that I have to in order to get this PvE collection which to be required to get one of the Tyria-PvE mastery points.
Am I reading this correctly?
Wow, that will be even more of a grind than HoT!
I’m on a “quest” to play through all the core storyline missions.
Farm zones with tier 3 & 4 crafting materials, then sell the mats.