Guild Wars 2

zombyturtle.5980:

This attitude is honestly just toxic and has no place in any game. How rude of you to criticize others way of playing and to be so intolerant of their seeking like minded people to play with.

Sorry, but I’m not an elitist, and I don’t come close to liking elitists. And only elitists would pull such a stunt. So, sorry to offend you, but that’s not going to change my mind.

CIndeR.3479:

It’s not that we don’t like playing with other people, on the contrary I love playing with others. It’s the fact that we don’t like organized grouping. I love group events, trading, talking with others, and generally playing in a game where others are playing with me. What we don’t like is depending on others or (often even worse) having others depending on you. Rather than a carefree, enjoyable, go-at-your-own-pace adventure you are now in a stressful go-go strike team of people who are all there to get loot and get out and you better hold your own or you’re getting kicked. I understand that that is a pleasurable experience to some but certainly you can understand how it might not be pleasurable to others.

Well stated. This is my style exactly. And, I would bet it’s true of 80% of the PvE-only crowd.

Altair.8402:

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

I do play with real-life friends and relatives. Guildies might work, but I’ve (until recently) been in a guild with just friends and relatives. It’s general pick-up groups that are the problem.

What draws me to it? I would play GW even if it were not an MMO, assuming the game was otherwise the same. The fact that other people are playing it doesn’t really matter to me (except that I can’t keep up with the economy, but that’s a different issue). I like the GAME, not the fact that other people are playing it. And I do like playing with friends and relatives, so the MMO part is good there.

Linken.6345:

did you read what others wrote, rings bought with pristine relics so no need for laurels, amulet 20 if you got afew badges of honor that you get from ap chest.
true you need 1 stat for each armor part so thats 30 laurels.
Total since you can change stats with exotic insignias/inscriptions

you need a total of 90 for all armor types
105 for all weapon types
180 for all your amulets and your done a total of 375 not 1890

I was answering for me, not for everybody else. I don’t get pristine relics or badges of honor in quantities that would help. Changing stats might work, but that seems more expensive than just building it right in the first place. Thus, I believe 1890 is accurate.

NOTE: Not completely. I have two characters who both use tailored carrion armor. So, it’s really 1680. I may even double-up again, but that seems like a longshot at this point in time.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Daddicus.6128:

Bummer.

ANet: You’ve got to change this. This destroys a huge reason to continue playing once you maxed out masteries.

Getting exp on a level 80 did nothing from the June 23rd changeover from skill points to hero points/spirit shards till the start of the expansion. From that date to the start of the expansion a level 80 got nothing for gaining exp. if you didn’t notice it back then, it must not of been that bad.

No, I was gaining shards daily, at a rate beyond the 3/day from the daily rewards.

But we WERE getting shards. Do you mean you suggested it in anticipation of masteries?

Jamais vu.5284:

You haven’t answered his question …

No, I corrected the question, and then answered the corrected question.

Orangensaft.7139:

you only need laurels for ascended amuletts and recipes

for recipes only 1x then you can permanently craft it whenever you want

amuletts cost just 20 laurels each

and if you started playing gw2 late it will just take you a bit of time until you have the stuff

you need 0 laurels for rings or acessories…

just dont spend them for anything else but amuletts and recipes then you will easily get every amulett/recipe that you need with the time

30 laurels for the recipes for one full armor set (6 × 5).
30 for one amulet.
70 for two rings
80 for two accessories

Total 210 for one character. I have 9 characters. That’s 1890.

Laurels were added January, 2013. You could only gain 40 per month, but I don’t know for how many months before it changed to about 35 per 28 days. Plus, you can get another 20 if you pick laurels for the 28th day of the cycle. Roughly 1500 since they started. Hence, a shortage.

mcwurth.2081:

dungeons however are ENCOURAGED to play with some friends or guildies, sure, but it never was stated that we can not do it solo. I think it is rather fair to ask for this after the release of HoT to at some point in the near future to have an option to be able to solo the dungeons with reduced rewards (more reducing sigh). would it hurt you if we got that option? do you feel the need to tell me to leave the game as well?

Why reduce loot? The loot is balanced for 5 now. Just give the exact same amount. The solo player should get the same loot as if it were divided by 5. 5/5 = 1

Bummer.

ANet: You’ve got to change this. This destroys a huge reason to continue playing once you maxed out masteries.

GW2 is the main way I enjoy my free time. 4500+ hours so far. Almost always solo PvE, although I like grouping with people I know in real life. I never do PvP, raids, or WvW, and only occasionally dungeons or fractals.

Civilization and Master of Orion 2 are my other time-sinks, but they pale in comparison to GW.

WvW dailies, not PvE. I already do all the PvE dailies every day. I’ve avoided WvW for the reasons above, but mainly because I play solo most of the time, and that’s painful to endure in WvW.

What I’m asking in this thread is if it’s possible to wander WvW without as much fear of instant death as it used to be. (Last time I did anything in WvW, the mapping title was the only reason I went there, so that tells you how long it’s been.)

I’m with you, OP. I go through laurels like candy. There just aren’t enough of them.

I suppose some people are willing to always use berserker equipment, so they don’t have to buy all those recipes. But, you can go through them mighty quickly buying different armor for your different characters.

To the OP, I’m with you Cinder. Forming groups sucks. Not because the game mechanisms, but because of the people.

Yes, there are many people who play well and aren’t abusive. But, when you are with 5, there is almost always one jerk who acts like he’s a god’s gift to the game.

And I hate people who try to gate grouping by equipment. I believe the game should auto-perma-ban anybody who requires certain equipment on other players to join their group. Half of my main characters have their ascended gear. But, I would never be so crass as to demand that of others. It’s taken a LONG time to gear them up; I can’t expect that of others. If I see it in a group, I leave, regardless of whether I have the gear or not.

The number of bad groups I’ve been in greatly outnumbers the good ones. I hate the idea that I am forced to join with jerks in order to complete basic content.

zombyturtle.5980:

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

That’s completely false. GW2 has always been advertised as a game you can play your way, grouped or not. Further, for grouped content, it was specific parts of the game, like dungeons or fractals.

For basic PvE, it’s always been such that you can solo anything other than group events. And, even those you don’t need a formal group for; you just have to have enough bodies present. They go their merry ways after the event is done.

You CAN group, and nothing prevents it. But, we’ve never been forced to, until HoT.

Thanks for the info. I think I’ll try to sneak in and stay unnoticed.

Mal.1670:

Unfortunately yes. You get spirit shards as random loot I believe, and from champ bags sometimes like skill point scrolls formerly. Kinda lame that experience always used to get you something at max level, and now once you max masteries you don’t even get spirit shards for it… but it is balanced by random loot chances anyway.

What’s the source of your info? Have you finished your masteries and then seen no more shards?

Thanks!

Celtic Lady.3729:

Pretty much this. When an MMO’s forums go silent, it isn’t a sign of happy players not posting.

It’s a sign of people not playing.

They’ve moved on.

Exactly.

nGumball.1283:

If masteries is the only thing you aren’t enjoying in HoT, I may have a tip for you that may improve your experience. Try to consider masteries as some kind of a long-time progression method. Don’t try to rush them, take your time collecting them as long-time goals while trying different kind of things in the expansion. I know it may sound bad since you maybe interested to play one part of the expansion and the masteries create a wall that prevents you from doing that. However, trying to look at the mastery system with a different mindset, may actually improve your gameplay. This may not help you to be fair, and you may still dislike how GW2 have developed… however, giving it a try may make some kind of a change.

I already operate in that mode, and have from the beginning. What you are missing is that XP is REPLACED by masteries. It’s not masking it and it’s not a progression system. Once all masteries are full, there’s no more advancement. And, even during mastery progression, we’ve lost spirit shards (except one-off rewards like the dailies).

How am I supposed to complete the outfitting of my 9 main characters with ascended equipment? You can’t make ascended equipment without spirit shards.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but several people have stated emphatically that XP is dead. If that’s wrong, then some part of my issues goes away, leaving only the gating and gold nerfing as huge issues. But, at this time, it’s what we know. And it is unacceptable to me.

LaCoria.8549:

I think our biggest issue with seeing the flood of complaints on the forums is the lack of developer response since launch. In the past, I could look under the “What are the Devs Saying” feature, and find two or three dozen responses. Since HoT dropped though it seems like our “community oriented developers” have gone into hiding. I know they’ve been busy, and I know they’ve got a ton of work on their plates, but it would be nice to see at least a response or two that we are being heard.

Agreed. They have a community liaison, so we don’t need to hear from the devs. ANY word would be good.

I do understand their lack of communication a little, though. If they are reading, they know they’ve really screwed up. They may be putting a lid on posting until they can formulate a complete response. For game companies, sometimes a partial response or a response that turns out to be incorrect later, is worse than silence.

But, just hearing that they’re reading would be a major step forward.

warbignime.4610:

I don’t get your logical, why you have to go to that little spot you can not access now, there are many more things to do and level the mastery on the way of doing them. You play video games for content not level up.

Well, I wouldn’t expect anybody to get my logical, but my logic is fairly straightforward. But, that probably was just a typo.

I was referring to masteries. Masteries start at a million XP, the equivalent of 4 levels worth. So, it costs 4 levels (or, 1 million XP) to get the mastery I need to attain the third mastery point. Then, I’m stuck until I earn 2 more million XP to get to the next couple of hero points. Oh, and I can’t advance the main story, either, for the same reasons.

Why do I want to get to that little spot? Have you so soon forgotten that you had no choice? You couldn’t advance the story until you got one of the masteries, and you couldn’t get those needed hero points so you could use your new elite specialization.

Am I missing something?

Tell me you don’t consider this to be a grind: killing random monsters and doing random events PURELY so you can get to the next step of the story. It’s not even to earn money; just XP. It doesn’t get more grinding than that.

saturn.4810:

After maxing masteries, your XP is for the birds (or for the cat, if you’re German)

Are you sure of this? Do you mean we won’t get spirit shards (from XP) any more? Is that official?

saturn.4810:

In the past, Anet listened to many complaints. Atm not so much anymore, but still a bit.

They will improve the fracral rewards. They made more items depositable. Also, they nerfed druid and removed minstrel amulet in PvP.

I wish I had your faith and optimism. But, what I see is that they made a fundamental change to the game that cannot be changed back.

IF they were to restore dungeon, fractal, and other things to their former usefulness, then maybe that would help. At least I could leave the HoT areas and just ignore them. But, they damaged the main game as well as the new content. I just don’t see how they can fix it.

I wish I had your optimism. But, if they realized the size and scope of this disaster they implemented, then they would have said something on at least one of these complaint threads. I haven’t seen a single post, positive or negative. So, if they are reading, they’re ignoring the whole set of problems.

I wish I had your optimism.

warbignime.4610:

Masteries are not boring and grindy, it’s only grindy if you make it that way. Mastery are progreesion system that last months to come, you can easily level it up by playing regularly in the jungle and there are variety of activities to level it up. Actual grind are cof p1 and spider farm, playing content to earn time consuming progression are not grind or else every RPG is GRIND.

You can’t be serious. What could possibly be more grinding than having to gain the equivalent of 4 levels just to progress into the next spot on the map? The ONLY reason to have to spend that time is to pass a gate. And then, when you get to that spot, you have to do it again, but this time you have to gain 8 levels of XP.

That is the very definition of grindy.

I hated WvW before HoT for a number of reasons. The biggest were that the people were mostly jerks; nobody would help you unless you were in their team (or whatever they call groups there — can you tell I don’t know much about it?).

Then, after avoiding it for years, the second and even bigger reason jumped in front of me: there’s no way to catch up.

But, many people have been saying HoT destroyed WvW. What I want to know is, is it “dead” because there’s nobody there? If so, does that mean I might like it, since I won’t have to be overrun by bunches of enemies all the time?

This is a serious question. I’ve never completed a set of dailies in WvW, but now I’m wondering if maybe there’s a chance. And maybe I can use up all those useless siege weapons in my bank.

I regret even buying it at all. So, yeah, I regret even more buying it in advance.

No way. HoT totally screwed me. They turned the game into a grind. I think it’s unlikely I’ll still be playing when their next expansion comes out.

And pre-purchase was harmful. If I had waited, I could have seen the torrent of dumb things they did, and I wouldn’t have bought it at all. It wasn’t that it was too much money. It’s that it was a decidedly negative addition to the game, but now I’m stuck with it.

saturn.4810:

Also, they nerfed druid ….

They NERFED Druid? Before they did anything it was the weakest thing in the game. I went back to a standard ranger because the skills for Druid were more harmful than useful.

Stupid forum won’t let me tag both as answers. But, you both helped! Thanks!!!

What I do, Sungtaro, is tack on a word or character at the beginning or end of my post. Then I re-copy the post, so next time I can do the same thing. Seems OK, except when you are saying “thanks” 3 times to people who revived you.

That helps, thanks.

So, our map was at tier 3 (day), and it reached the far right edge. Then we completed 3 or 4 more events, but it never went to tier 4. Looked like the progress bar was maybe under the icon? is that possible?

Check your spirit shard count. I don’t know if it’s going up. But, remember not to count the things that reward shards other ways. I haven’t completed my masteries, and it’s hard to tell, but I think I’m still earning spirit shards.

nGumball.1283:

I have been using the forums for the past three years, and GW2 forums were never a friendly platform for people to exchange advice, not in the general discussion at least.

Whenever GW2 has any kind of activity or update, there is always complaints. Alot of people are implying that HoT ruined everything and that’s why people are complaining. However, people were complaining as much before HoT, saying that ANet always releases easy content and they should be releasing an expansion with a harder approach.

Sure, there is alot of flaws in HoT. However, these forums have always been a place of complaints. And the only times they are friendly is when the forums are dead and there is nothing to complain about.

Wrong. I did not complain at all between the abysmal magic find torture they “gave” us and HoT. Not one word of complaint.

I’m complaining now because they’re destroying the game. They’re trying to make it WoW. News flash: I play GW over WoW for a reason. Or, at least I used to. Those reasons have faded considerably lately.

This game was NEVER boring before HoT. It was NEVER grindy (despite some opinions to the contrary). They openly stated many times that GW would never be grindy. But, masteries have made it incredibly boring and grindy.

The forums are filled with complaining because ANet does not allow us a real way to offer suggestions. They used to, but they took it away.

Now, our only way to contact them is to complain on the forums. They claim they are reading them, but clearly they are not, at least not very much.

So, people have to complain “louder”, which on a forum means more often.

Try changing the actual text of the messages. If you copy/paste, they’ll block it after two times every time.

I’m very confused by Verdant Brink (VB) in the area of tiers and the meta. I don’t know what the tiers mean, and the wiki is not very informative. Can someone point me to some info about the meta events?

UnbentMars.9126:

I agree with you, but unfortunately it’s not going to change. Every game with PvP and PvE makes changes based on PvP across the board

Incorrect, as the OP pointed out. GW1 separated them when it made sense to do so.

zaced.7948:

magic find only affects drops from kills and certain pvp chests.

Actually, unless they nerfed this, too, it affects lost bandit chests in SW as well.

Celtic Lady.3729:

It’s possible, I suppose, that they’re so swamped by the sheer number of bugs to be fixed that they haven’t gotten around to addressing this yet.

As opposed to never intending to do anything about it.

I hope you’re right. But, they seem rather proud of the things they’ve done. It would be hard to accept that 80% of the players are revolting to the new baby they thought was so great.

Game designers are taught to ignore poor reviews in favor of long-term goals. Unfortunately, THIS breakage will not be fixed by time. Couple that with denial and it’s a recipe for disaster.

With what they did to the main game, and (to their knowledge) shifted the good stuff to HoT, I can’t see how they can save themselves without a hugely humble perspective. They really REALLY screwed up with this one. But, it’s part of a much larger pattern of thinking. I’m not even sure they are capable of realizing how badly they have damaged the game.

I’ve been playing GW for 10 years, and I’ve had my ups and downs with how they do business. But, this one seems different. It’s almost like they’ve forgotten who they are and why they have been so successful over the years.

For the first time since the magic find debacle, I’m having a hard time bringing myself to play the game. But, this time it’s not because I’m angry. This time it’s deeper. I have a profound sadness at the direction the game seems to be going. I don’t know how to overcome it. And, unless they change what appear to be fundamental pillars of their new model, I’m not sure I even can change my heart towards the game.

:(

ShelBlackblood.7826:

Maybe it’s time to get used to this treatment.

I would prefer it if you weren’t correct, but sadly you are. I’m not having fun with the game any more, and ANet doesn’t seem to care that it’s 100% caused by their bad decisions and refusal to correct them.

My bigger concern is that ANet hasn’t bothered replying to this thread. The hole they created is so huge and so poorly planned that it’s simply unacceptable. But, it doesn’t appear they’re even considering a fix.

jeezlaweez.6810:

Verdant Brink is on the brink of becoming the Raid Lobby, stucking progress for all those that are gonna play the game only in 2016, for whatever reason. We, at least, still have some hope on getting one organized instance. They need to fix it.

It’s not on the brink. It’s already fallen into emptiness. I’ve been trying for 2 weeks, and it’s just not possible to advance in VB any more. Events almost never complete, and only events count for advancing the mastery track.

So, because I played Halloween content instead of HoT when they were released, I’m dead. The raiding isn’t what killed things; it just made sure they would stay dead.

It’s obvious that having a raiding lobby is required. ANet should patch this immediately, or turn raiding off until they can.

But, I’m afraid even that won’t cure the root problem. There simply aren’t enough people still playing HoT for late-bloomers, like myself, to advance. Unless they fix the events and make them able to be soloed, VB will die.

7) Put a small “+X” in the corner of agony infusions. They all use the same icon now, so we have to mouse-over them to figure out which are which.

Cool idea!

However, you might not need a priest. Ship captains can marry people, too. Just watch out for the ones wearing an eye patch and flying a jolly roger.

Daddicus.6128:

Try rezoning while holding the new (and old?) stones. I think the new ones will be converted and then you can stack them together.

Scratch my previous idea. They are now two kinds of stones, one account bound (the old ones) and a new one that you can buy and sell. They won’t stack together, as far as I can tell. So, use the old ones first, then anything new you get will all stack together.

I’ve received a lot of those. Always report them, and then delete the message. Reporting them prevents them from continuing the scam.

Swift.1930:

Daddicus.6128:

Daddicus.6128:

0

The grind for masteries kills most of the fun, and the monstrously difficult and overly-prevalent mobs kill most of the rest of the fun. Couple that with virtually no humans willing to help (including even revives and rezzes), and it’s very bad.

I didn’t even start HoT content until after Halloween, so I’ve been in there maybe two weeks. But, I’m already so frustrated I’m ready to quit it completely. But, I still have to put up with masteries in the old content, and the rewards have been reduced.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s fixable. I’m not sure what they tried to accomplish, but fun was definitely not the end result.

I’m going to change mine to a 1 (barely). The revenant is mostly well-done. (It would be fully well-done except for the fact that you’re useless underwater.)

Oh, really? I kind of enjoyed the underwater 2-spam. Infinite forward stabs. Serious carnage. Not to mention torment for days with 1-spam!

Oh, yes, that is kind of fun. But, without a healing skill, you can’t do it for long or in a mob.

Wow. A subject with almost 100% agreement. That’s got to be some kind of record for this forum.

I support it, too, although I don’t understand it. (I’m just getting to the story up to Vinetooth. It’s possible that my numerous other complaints are actually side-effects of having idle people waiting for raids.) Hopefully, this idea corrects it, because I’m very close to just giving up.

Daddicus.6128:

0

The grind for masteries kills most of the fun, and the monstrously difficult and overly-prevalent mobs kill most of the rest of the fun. Couple that with virtually no humans willing to help (including even revives and rezzes), and it’s very bad.

I didn’t even start HoT content until after Halloween, so I’ve been in there maybe two weeks. But, I’m already so frustrated I’m ready to quit it completely. But, I still have to put up with masteries in the old content, and the rewards have been reduced.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s fixable. I’m not sure what they tried to accomplish, but fun was definitely not the end result.

I’m going to change mine to a 1 (barely). The revenant is mostly well-done. (It would be fully well-done except for the fact that you’re useless underwater.)

It’s the best-selling MMO, so I think they’re doing it pretty well.