Guild Wars 2

I don’t know how to sign up for the newsletter. Where do I go to do that?

I agree with you 100%, OP. If ANet builds a release that’s all and only about hard content, it will prevent new players from buying the game, and the game will die.

On the other hand, ANet also must satisfy the desires of the ones who want harder. It’s a difficult road to hoe for them.

In GW1, they came up with hard mode and elite missions. Those worked great, extending the life of the game nearly 5 years. They need to come up with something like those.

Unfortunately, it can’t be a compromise. It must be multi-tracked. I think they’re on the right track by having achievements separated from the basic storyline. But, all the guys challenging your post have probably completed most of those already. I do not envy ANet their task.

Folks, this is GW2, not WoW or any other MMO. One of GW2’s guiding philosophies is that you are rewarded and not penalized for helping others. It would be diametrically opposed to that goal for it to make sense to not rez people.

That’s why they disabled the ability to WP in dungeons when defeated: they don’t WANT us gaming the system (if it’s even mathematically possible). They want the friendliest MMO on the market. It would be crazy for them to reward unfriendly behavior (like, ignoring dead people until they WP out).

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

And you’ll lose DPS for the rest of the battle if you WP out, as you cannot return.

My point exactly. At least for VW.

For other bosses, IF there’s a close uncontested waypoint, it might be feasible to measure the time spent running back against the down-time that a second character loses while rezzing you.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think often people spend so much energy arguing about this that it defeats the main goal, which is a successful run. All that “discussion” (by those pro or those con) means that folks aren’t focusing on the battle or on helping those still present to focus.

IMO, vinewrath succeeds when “enough” people know the mechanics; it fails when too few do. I’ve been in plenty of south|middle|north attempts that succeeded with 4/5 of the characters dead and failed a few with most everyone up (although some lanes are prone to failure/death going together). Largely, this is also true for tequatl and other runs where “wp if dead” is a common cry in /map.

---

I think we get fixated on “WP if dead” because it’s the easiest thing to explain during combat and it’s “obvious” when people are dead. But that doesn’t mean it’s the difference between a good run and a bad one.

(Full disclosure: I do waypoint if dead, unless very little time remains and I’ll sometimes link the nearest waypoints to make it easy for others to do so, only if those calling for “wp if dead” aren’t including the link.)

The problem is that there’s frequently a contingent of people demanding that others WP out during combat. So, in addition to getting the math wrong, they’re wasting precious damage points by typing instead of fighting. That’s why I start this thread, and why it’s important:

• it’s flat wrong, and
• it wastes time arguing or even speaking about it in-game.

Daywolf.2630:

Daddicus.6128:

So, the bottom line is that unless there is a close waypoint, or there are other circumstances, it’s always better to rez your comrades.

Nope. If they are downed, I keep a eye open for that and revive them right away if possible. If not possible and they die, they need to WP out, period. Only time I don’t think them to be a waste of character slot is if it’s the last sliver of life in the event such as with a grenth assault vs. high priest phase.

But no one listens, so failure happens sometimes when about the only one left is my d/d stealth thief dancing around 30 player corpses that won’t wp out. Sometimes I can pull it off, sometimes I cant. Though I’m better off just soloing the priest from the start with no one around.

The only place it’s best to not tap out is in wvw. Bout’ it.

Ahh, so I see that you are claiming you can beat the boss by yourself, once those other 30 waypoint out.

Thank you for making my point:

reduction ad absurdum

If it’s always better to WP out when dead, then logically, teams should have an easier and easier time of defeating the boss as they leave. Reducing to the absurd, when the last character dies, the boss should be really easy.

Since that clearly can’t be true, the premise is falsified. It then follows that rezzing your colleagues is best. (Although, as stated above, there may be timing problems, like really close but still active waypoints.)

21) While crafting, for recipes I already know all the pieces for, list the components which will be required. This would be similar to the way the wiki shows components for recipes when you click that link.

The game could also show me how many I already have as well, making it easier to know if I have everything I need when crafting that next ascended item.

So, the bottom line is that unless there is a close waypoint, or there are other circumstances, it’s always better to rez your comrades.

“Close” = time taken to walk back is less than it takes to rez someone.

This principle was illustrated in a huge way in a recent VW. At south, everybody was rezzing away. We succeeded by over a minute.

The other two teams were both constantly telling people to waypoint out, and they both failed.

South succeeded, again, with everybody rezzing away throughout the battle. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a 3rd chance.

20) Create a table where I can tell which characters on my account have completed mapping a zone. I’m thinking for dailies: I would really like to know without logging into each character whether I’ve finished today’s daily event zone with that character. So, let me see it at the choose character screen (logged in, but not all the way in).

19) Create a trade board similar to gems for gold that allows trading bandit crests for geodes and vice versa. But, don’t allow cash transactions (that would remove the account-bound nature of the items, which you presumably have a reason for doing).

NOTE: This probably isn’t as simple as it sounds. But, it’s an idea.

Please give us a link, Stompy. Search doesn’t see anything called “dps meter” (except your post here).

So, what really matters is the time to rez vs. the time for the scaling to catch up. Unfortunately, we would need ANet to tell us how long scaling takes.

Ayrilana.1396:

For VW, you’re under time restrictions. You lose DPS and time when reviving people from being dead.

You also lose the dead guy’s DPS, at least for as long as the down-scaling takes.

I just made the run: It takes 1:35 to run from the north gate in SW to where the kidney guy stands.

Therefore, if it takes less than 62 seconds to rez someone, it’s more profitable (for the team) to rez. Longer = WP and run.

But, that’s probably the longest possible run in the game outside of fractals. Normal situations would seem to take less time to run (the aforementioned IG2, for instance).

Does anybody know how long it takes to rez someone?

I don’t want to hear opinions. I want facts. I already know there’s a large contingent who says “always WP when dead”.

To me, it depends on 2 factors:

• Which is faster: to rez vs. to WP and run back? (Must remember that when rezzing, one other person is out of action. Also, the scaling change due to being dead probably doesn’t happen instantly. So, we probably should double-count the time the person rezzing is out of action.)
• Are there mitigating factors? (For instance, it’s nearly impossible to rez someone in the Hidden Depths. Rezzing is difficult against some bosses, too, because you can get knocked around, downed, or even killed yourself.)

Healix.5819:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/26vke4/boss_blitz_scaling_revelead/ is the only legit research I’ve seen. It suggests that dead players count.

RoseofGilead.8907:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_event#Event_scaling

The information on the wiki is based on very old information. Scaling was changed at some point during season 1 due to zergs being able to instantly kill bosses before they actually scaled. Originally, you didn’t count towards scaling until you dealt damage while in the event’s area. To fix that, they simply made all players within the area count.

That entry was checked (and kept) less than a month ago.

Thanks. That’s pretty darned solid.

To your second paragraph, that’s true, except when the distance to the nearest uncontested WP is long.

There’s been a lot of conversation in-game about whether you should waypoint (WP) out of combat once you’re dead.

Many have claimed that if a dead character doesn’t WP out of the battle, the strength of the enemy stays higher (as if s/he were still alive). Does anybody have any actual evidence to support or refute this?

I tried to add you other folks’ entries to my list, but there’s a limit to how many characters it can have. So, I can’t do that.

Please go back and edit your posts to include bullets or numbers, so they can find actual entries (vs. comments). Maybe boldface them, too.

Riku.4821:

Not to many useful suggestions that I can see, since a lot of them are boring QoL changes. But I’ll keep an eye on this forum.

That’s why I bolded “small” in the first sentence. The devs already have their work cut out for them with “big” changes. These are intended to be (we hope) quick and easy to implement.

pdavis.8031:

OP:

Just for clarification: To enable ArenaNet ….

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/forum-code-of-conduct/

It’s already in the ToS for using the forums that all users agree to when accepting the terms upon creating an account.

Agreed. I deliberately wrote it all-encompassing, so nobody would think they’re entitled to anything except possibly a better game.

This is a list of small changes I think would be useful. Feel free to add your own ideas (even if diametrically opposed to mine).

However, please don’t comment on other peoples’ ideas. Let the developers decide if an idea has merit.

To save space, put all your ideas in one post, and edit it if you come up with other ideas later. Just put the date on the line with your ideas, so the devs can know whether they’ve already evaluated your idea(s).

Disclaimer: If you post an idea in this thread, you agree that you do not need any sort of compensation from ANet should they adopt it.

1. Allow the crafting window to be resized. (4/21/2015)
2. Add a capability to mark items as “junk” for purposes of selling to merchants (personally only, obviously). For example, minor sigils of earth are something I never want to hang onto. It would be nice if merchants would take them off my hands when I click the “sell junk” button. (4/21/2015)
3. When right-clicking a “currently equipped” box for implements, you give us a nice drop-down with all the implements we currently have on our person. It would be nice if you could add a parenthetical number of charges remaining. For instance, if I have two iron mining picks, one with 8 charges and one full at 100, I want to pick the one with 8 (usually), but it’s 50/50 the way it is now. (4/21/2015)
4. In the “currently equipped” box’s right-click pop-up, sort the implements by tier. If you do this, you could also sort secondarily by number of charges remaining. If you implement both of these, bullet #3 becomes obsolete. (4/21/2015)
5. In the story journal of the H display, when viewing Living Story episodes that have achievements, add a note of how many I already have attained and how many I have left (2/3, for instance). (4/21/2015)
6. In a crafting window’s discovery pane, give us a checkbox to not show items which we can’t use at our current rating. This would allow us to avoid a lot of scrolling.(4/21/2015)
7. In a crafting window’s Search drop-down, if you click between two checkboxes, you end up selecting whatever item is in the list underneath the Search pop-up. It would be good, I think, if these small areas were not clickable or did not click through the pop-up. (4/21/2015)
8. Make some (or all) crafting components bankable. For instance, piles of salt and pepper, green wood dowels, and/or cheese pizza slices. (4/21/2015)
9. It’s possible in the game to forget to equip the right implement. For example, I have a copper mining pick equipped, but I need an iron mining pick. In real life, nobody would make that kind of mistake. However, for new people, they need to learn that using an improper implement wastes the resource. How about allowing players to “learn” that this mistake happens? After a certain number of instances where we mangle some orichalcum by using an steel pick, you pop up a message asking if that’s really what we want to do. (4/21/2015)
10. Once we attain a certain level of competence at crafting and adventuring, there comes a point when we no longer want to craft or discover certain items. Specifically, 8-slot bags, 10-slot, etc. Runes of life also come to mind. How about giving characters who have already crafted those items the ability to turn off their discovery for all other characters on the account? (4/21/2015)
11. Offer an item in the gem store that allows higher stacking limits in bank panes, similar to the way Storage Expanders work for items in material storage. (4/21/2015)
12. In the Achievements pane of the Hero window, add a checkbox to no longer show achievements already attained. (4/21/2015)
13. Add things we can craft using the nodes we purchased or earned in our home instances. For instance, because there are no recipes currently available using watchwork sprockets, they’re effectively useless once we’ve built all the spinal blade items and portals we desire. (4/21/2015)
14. Add a colored border around slots in material storage indicating we’re getting close to full in that slot. For example, if I have purchased 3 storage expanders, my limits are 1000 items. Show the ones above 900 with a red border so we can see them without squinting. Alternately, change the font color of the number of items in the boxes when this warning limit has been reached. (4/21/2015)
15. Give us something to do with our dragonite ore, similar to Mawdrey. Or, let us sell them to merchants. Or convert them to empyreal fragments in the Mystic Forge. As a pack rat, I hate just throwing them away. (4/21/2015)

Algreg.3629:

McNinja.5417:

It was free then and there’s no reason it can’t be free now aside from a money-grab.

yes, it is. So what? I dislike paying for drinks in a bar. A shame that won´t change their policies.

Not sure if you meant it, but you triggered an analogy in my mind: Happy Hour.

Bars sell drinks cheaper, and sometimes even free, to get patrons in the door. The expectation is that they’ll spend more money later that night.

This was the same thing: an enticement to keep playing.

Unfortunately, happy hour is over now. But, shall we tip a tankard anyhow, right?

Archduke.3817:

I agree with the OP and many others on here. It is ridiculous that people who were promised a “pay once for game content” must pay more because …

We were indeed promised that. But, you are misinterpreting what it means. We were NOT promised ongoing content updates when we bought the game. We EXPECTED content updates, and to a degree they fostered that attitude on our parts. But, there were no promises. In fact, they overtly stated the exact opposite: they specifically disclaimed any future updates.

They do it because they love the game, and they know the game would die if they never changed it. That choice happens to have the positive side-effect that people stay focused on the game. Win-win, IMO.

Ayrilana.1396:

They had a blog post which I could link if you do not believe me. This blog post was also linked into the news feed you see every time that you log into the game. All active players would have seen this. You then have this spread across the forums and reddit by other players. It was discussed a lot on map chat when the blog post was released just like all of their other blog posts have been. You also had the YouTube bloggers who made videos about it. Various gaming websites also did articles about the change.

The information was very widespread and available to active players.

Oh, I believe you, and even generally agree. But, you’ve made the opening poster’s point for him: 2 emails, 1 blog (that aged out of visibility 2 days later), and a mention in another article. That’s all there was to highlight this in the form of basic communication. If one missed both emails, and were casual enough that one didn’t notice the blog, one didn’t know about it.

Now, you make the point that if one visited the forums or reddit, it was all over the place. But, that’s my whole point and part of the OP’s: those are NOT casual gamer sites.

But, I do agree overall with your statements. It’s just this minor point I quibble with.

Brahmincorle.1264:

They advertised GW2 as a complete product which include all future updates for free.

Show me.

Azrael.4960:

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where content updates have ever been free. Content patches and tweaks yes, but new content being added to the core game has never been, and given any sane business model should never be, free.

I can think of one, but it won’t help his/her argument: GW1 added Sorrow’s Furnace for free. They added hard mode for free. That place you got armbraces from was (I think) a free later addition. They added quests to Pre-Searing Ascalon. And, my personal favorite, those Terminator-saluting quests in the spring.

But, those were hardly of the caliber of LS. They were more like patches to fill holes, for people who had “done it all already”.

But, I sure hope those didn’t contribute to the sense if entitlement recently on display here.

kimeekat.2548:

I’m interested to see whether your carefree opinion on S1 changes should they ever release S1 episodes — as they have said they ideally would like to do. Perhaps you’ll think you deserve this for free, too, despite the extra work it’ll take for them to make the episodes instanced and add them into the story journal.

Count me in. I’ve said before I would pay 500 gems per episode if they could pull it off.

But, I’m not being overly generous or just a yes-man. I realize they didn’t write the code to allow for this, so it will be much more expensive for them to convert it to the same motif. So, I’m willing to pay a lot more. In fact, I picked 500 gems because that’s $50 US, about the same price as an expansion. It was 16 months of material, roughly what I would have waited had they made it an expansion.

Which brings up another point: what if they included it as HoT-special? Something akin to Digital Deluxe’s relationship to the basic game.

Now where did I put my wallet … ?

Zombiesbum.3502:

You don’t play WoW or D3 expecting to buy quests (That’s essentially what Anet is doing with GW2).

Excuse me? WoW is the epitome of charging for content. You pay for EVERYTHING, including the right to continue playing it … next month.

ALL MMOs operate on one of three business models:

1. Pay periodically if you want to play.
2. Buy once and play forever (THAT game; NO company promises to keep enhancing it).
3. Get it for free, but only a basic game. It stays free unless you want … extra content.

In all 3 models, you pay for extra content.

With one glaring exception: ANet doesn’t charge IF you log in during a specified time period. Seems to me that ANet is being exceedingly generous. In fact, they’re in a class by themselves.

Ayrilana.1396:

Everyone that was playing the game between that announcement and the season was well underway understood this.

While I agree with your overall post, I have to disagree with this. I think it could have been better-advertised to existing players. Now, I’m an old fart with aging synopses, but I am a player, and I almost missed it. Blame it on being old, but still, I did almost miss it the first time.

Don’t get me wrong; I logged in most every day then as now. What I mean is that I didn’t understand that you HAD to log in to unlock the content until my son-in-law mentioned it. From that point on, I made certain I logged in.

Zombiesbum.3502:

I may just say screw the expansion and go play other games, there are other games out there and companies who strive to treat their customers more like human beings.

Name one. Name any MMO company that gives away free content after the original purchase.

Zombiesbum.3502:

Simply put, if you bought a game, you should receive everything that anyone else received regardless if you put the game down for ANY reason.

You say “… you SHOULD receive everything …” (emphasis mine).

Can you tell me where that’s written? Is that a law of gaming or something game companies are required to do?

ANet is the ONLY MMO game company that gives out real content (beyond the basic game) for free. There are no exceptions (that I know of). So, how did you come up with that rule? Unless you reply with some evidence, there is no basis for that statement.

Content delivery-wise, Living Story Season 2 (LS:S2) is exactly the same as LS:S1, with one exception: They’re ALLOWING us to buy it if we missed it. With LS:S1, we can’t buy it. Seems kind of generous to me, especially at the price. They didn’t have to make it available at later dates at all.

Xaqq.7562:

Imagine you played idk what MMO. You go away for a while. In the meantime they add a new map. When you come back you cannot access that new map unless you pay. This is garbage.

ALL other MMOs would charge you, because ALL other MMOs charge you to do ANYTHING beyond the basic game (and some — think WoW — continually charge you for even that!)

Only in the Guild Wars family would this question even come up.

Thanks, guys! Just what I needed to know! (Including the bit about the armor!)

I’m trying to do the Living Story Season 2 (S2) content for the achievements. I thought you only had to finish the content on one character, and then all of your level 80 characters on that account could try for the achievements.

Am I incorrect? Does each character have to finish a mission in order to redo the mission for achievements?

The reason I ask is that I’m going in for the first time with a mez, but I previously finished the whole S2 on my ranger. When I go in as the mez, I don’t see the 3 yellow things over my skill bar.

Walhalla.5473:

And if you are not sure if an AOE field is good or bad and if you are stuck at some point, just go in and see what happens next. Just as an advice

You missed orange. Red is always in circles. Orange is always in disks (or other filled-in areas). White WAS always in circles, never disks. Until now.

But, that’s exactly what I did. I stayed alive kiting around for 45 minutes, and then I passed through one. Once I connected that, it got easy (until the snuffers).

Andrax.4576:

… It was more challenging than other fights in the game for sure, but it wasn’t THAT hard, you were given so many visual and audio clues during it its not even funny.

It’s an easy fight once you discover the secret to killing those snuffers. But, it’s impossible if you don’t discover it. That’s a pretty wide gap in challenge, and it all hinges on one piece of information. Call me dumb, but I didn’t discover it on my own. Could I have? Maybe, if I understood the clues.

Shadelang.3012:

… but the content will probably be atleast at this level in HOT if the trailer and the way they have talked about combat and level design in there announcment are any indication. After all. One of the biggest complaints about PvE was that it was simply too easy.

That was my main point about HoT: They made it sound like it was going to be significantly harder than this or any other combat. But, this was basically a frustrating bore-fest: kiting around until you happen to stumble upon the secret. If they’re offering more combats like this, I’m not sure I’m interested.

Shadelang.3012:

… (the bit of about divine fire appearing OUTSIDE the arena?….what?)

Oh, I was wrong, absolutely. But, that’s what I thought. I heard Rox say “here, take this”, so I figured there had to be a door or window or something. I could see flashes of my allies through the walls, so I thought I had to somehow make contact. Obviously, I was wrong.

But, the point was I was facing the wall when the first white circles appeared, so I couldn’t see them.

Gumball’s post highlighted something to me:

If they had charged initially for this, say 50 gems per episode (in place of being free), I’m not sure I would have bought it. It would go against their pay once philosophy, and if they were willing to violate that, what other things might they do?

But, let’s say I had paid for the first one, just to see. Well, that first one was good enough that it would have convinced me to continue.

That would have given me a 150 gem discount from what you will have to pay. But, that business model wouldn’t have bothered most people, I don’t think. Get it live = you get a discount.

In the real case, though, it was free. And, there’s something about “free” that makes it different than the raw 200 gem difference in price. I’m entitled to “free”; I’m not entitled to something that has a cost. There’s a mental block in my mind against that, and you’re probably similar.

Try jumping that hurdle with 200 gems ($2.50 USD). If you have 200 gems available, what else are you going to buy? Give the first episode a try. I think you’ll like it. It’s that different, AND that good.

But, if you don’t, then drop out with no further loss.

(I just hope ANet somehow turns the first year of LS into similar content. THAT I would pay for in a flash. While the new content is, IMO, better, I REALLY want to replay some of that first year. My guess is that it’s impossible with the technology, but maybe I can hope?

ANet? I’ll pay 500 gems per episode if you can pull it off!)

White circles: good.
Red circles: bad.
Orange DISKS (filled-in circles): really bad.
White disks: ?

In the heat of the moment, it’s not so easy. I do not recall having seen white filled-in areas anywhere else. All other filled-in areas have been orange, and they’re mostly deadly.

My snap judgment was danger, completely wrong. But, as I said, that’s only a minor part of the frustration. It merely got me in the mood for the upcoming frustration.

Regarding “learn to play”, was that not insulting to me? All I did was point out that their basic assumption was completely false (I know how to play, and in fact have been playing at least as long as any), and that their following statements are thus based on a false premise.

kortornervi.4209:

i want to come back and enjoy the game but this pay wall for the old content really turns me off.And the worst thing is even if you pay the price you cant play season 1, its not available.This is so stupid.Sadly there no point to buy the expansion and return the game.

Perhaps you should think of it as a cheap expansion. Typically, expansions cost around the same amount that the original game cost. And, they come out a year or two after release.

This came out in the second year, and it’s cheaper than an expansion would be.

Is it worth it? I think so. In fact, so much so that I wish they could do the same with LS1.

Pay wall? Maybe. But, think of it as a cheap expansion, and I think it’s a lot more palatable. Of course, this is to one who won’t have to pay, so I’m obviously biased. Take my words with a grain of salt.

Woljnir.7810:

Yes, as a matter of fact. Your personal reasons for not playing the game are obviously your own. It’s not ANet’s problem you stopped playing, it’s yours. Everybody has spells where they take breaks from the game. MMO burnout happens. Heck, I’ve taken 2-3 month breaks myself. You need not explain at all why you stopped playing, but the point is you not only stopped playing, you stopped following altogether. Are you saying you couldn’t pop on the forums every now and then to see what was happening/coming soon?

The point isn’t that you stopped playing, it’s that you stopped following completely and missed all the announcements and all the hoopla about everything, and now that you’re back it’s someone else’s fault you weren’t around for the news and now have to pay. All you had to do is log in and you got the content. Unless you feel like expounding on why exactly you couldn’t play, that hardly sounds like much of a commitment to me, even for people on a break.

Actually, I think his point is that everything had changed. And that was brand-spanking new to MMOs. Nobody has ever done that before. It’s always expansions or add-ons or whatever. Changing the map? Trashing the biggest city on the continent? Those are pretty big changes.

Nobody not already in the knew could have guessed what was coming. My daughter had the same experience of leaving (senior year of college), and coming back to a very unfamiliar game.

In other games (including GW1), such changes only occur when you buy an expansion, and even then the original content didn’t change. (Well, unless you didn’t realize you could actually LEAVE pre-searing Ascalon — things kind of changed after the Searing.)

Living Story shattered the old mindset. And, if you hadn’t played, you have no in-game way to realize what happened.

Piecekeeper.4361:

…
Did you not hear when they shout, “Use the fire!” and then see the ‘white light’ get thrown into the ring with you?

See my post, but they don’t say “use the fire”. They say “here, take this”. When I heard that, I assumed I had to make contact so they could hand it to me. So, I moved next to them, assuming there was a hole in the wall or something through which I could grab it.

Scraping the walls trying to find the non-existent door/window, my back was always to the fire (for the first half hour or so). I never saw a circle until I was so far down in HP that I had to start kiting again. At this point, it’s just another circle on the ground, albeit a white one. Do I trust the white color? Or, do I take it as another dragon attack (most of his were also circles)?

I don’t think I died at all before I figured out that the light lights the fires. It took a while (45 – 60 minutes), but I figured it out. Where I got stuck mostly was at phase 2. But, having spent an hour kiting and dodging, I’m already frustrated.

At that point, since I “knew” they were invulnerable and didn’t attack, I assumed it was a race: get my 4 lit before the little guys could put one out. It took two hours before I gave that up, realizing I couldn’t win that race. kittenumption, but that’s what I was thinking.

I guess some people comment without actually reading. Probably my fault for making it so long.

First off, I did finish. But I had to read the wiki, which was one of my main points. Couldn’t there have been ONE cut-scene showing my allies tossing over the fire? No, they SPEAK “here take this”. So, naturally, I go to the wall near them and try to grab it. But, because the light circle is now behind me, I can’t see it. Maybe you geniuses can tell what happens behind you, but I’m not so good at that.

Just one cut-scene showing Rox tossing over the fire would have shortened the battle (for me) by half. Or is that dumbing things down to much for the pros?

Second, we are misled by a statement made by one of our allies as to the nature of those things that put out the fire. Every time I heard it, it implied to me that I needed to stay away from them. Couple that with the fact that they’re invulnerable means (to me) that I’m racing against them. While in the heat of combat (kiting and dodging just to stay alive), I don’t exactly have time to test theories.

Third, the only indication that anything has changed is a single icon showing up in the list of buff and condition icons. When I had the fire earlier in the mission, I was lit up like a Christmas tree. Couldn’t that same effect have been used in the battle?

Regarding the battle where M trashes the fleet, it wasn’t clear to me that the Sylvari revolted. I saw a few of them fighting, but I just didn’t catch that they were fighting our side. So, I’m OK with that part now. Thanks.

To all you guys who said “learn to play”, your comments really aren’t worth responding to, so I’ll only say:

Instead of making a really dumb @ssumption, try asking next time; your statements won’t be so foolish. I’ve been playing this game at least as long as any of you. It wasn’t game skill that showed the solution here. I applied my game skills, but except for being able to stay alive for nearly an hour, those skills were pretty useless. One had to learn the specific tricks, which were not easy to discern.

To all of you who made it through in one pass without dying, congratulations. But, realize that stroking your own ego doesn’t solve my problem. (Frankly, I don’t believe you anyhow.) But, even if you did, are you seriously saying you didn’t get lucky? You just figured out the fire, and that those invulnerable creatures could be killed after all? All while not dying, reading the wiki, or talking to someone who had been through it?

It’s easy once you know the tricks. But learning those tricks is decidedly non-trivial.

No, they only send them out if you have signed up for them. And they only sent one that forcefully said anything about having to log in often. The other emails were a lot less pressing on that issue. Do you suppose a player who is forced to take a year off from the game is going to notice one email?

Without digging (here or on the wiki), you wouldn’t know that except for the month leading up to Season 2, or the 2 weeks after it started.

And please remember how frustrating Season 1 was. I know several people who quit playing during that time because of the incredible speed of the updates. They simply couldn’t keep up. I myself played 2-3 hours a day, and I could not keep up.

Still, Season 2 is tons better than Season 1 when it comes to game mechanics. The ability to return and replay is a god-send. That’s one reason I recommended buying the episodes.

The final battle against the shadow dragon was incredibly frustrating. If I hadn’t been in with my ranger I would have wiped out my armor a dozen times over.

All I could do was run around in the futility of trying to avoid getting stomped. It was obvious that I needed to do something with the gears, but when I got there, I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t have divine fire. And, the divine fire is outside the ring.

I hear my friends trying to help me, but I can’t reach them. I ran around scraping the edges a lot trying to get to them to get my divine fire back. After all, it’s outside the ring, right?

Then, I accidentally stumbled across one of the white circles (which appear to be something to avoid until I accidentally ran over one and didn’t get fried). Only then did I have a prayer of noticing that I had another ability. But no, because I’m running around in circles one step from the grave, and the visual appearance of my character changed only a little, it really wasn’t possible to notice the divine fire.

After an hour of running around in circles (MAN I’m glad they got rid of having to pay to fix your armor!), I finally figured out that I could light the fire while I had the fire. (ANet, couldn’t you at least put a different color on us? SOMETHING to let us know that something has changed, please!)

After another hour, I finally got the whole ring lit. Whew. Should be easy from there, right?

Wrong! Now the dragon sends out little invulnerable critters that put out the fires. So, yet another hour goes by, and I gave up, exited, and read the wiki. ANet, we shouldn’t HAVE to read the wiki to get through this! You’ve GOT to give us some clues that we can see or hear.

Once I read the wiki, it was easier. At least I knew what I had to do, but still, it wasn’t possible to finish it without getting perilously close to death again and again. Being a ranger was the only reason I survived as long as I did (pet could revive me).

Finally, it’s over. I can breathe.

And then it gets worse. Recall that we took on Zhaitan with 3 pact ships and 10 heroes, along with some cannon fodder. But in end-of-battle trailer, there are dozens or hundreds of ships, all loaded with troops. Should be a piece of cake, right?

But no, Mordremoth trashes them ALL in seconds. What logical sense does that make? If Mordremoth were that much more powerful than Zhaitan, it would have killed Zhaitan itself the last time the dragons awoke. It made for a great cinematic, but totally trashed the lore.

And, finally, there’s the Heart of Thorns announcement. Mostly good stuff, but one very scary point: you promised challenges beyond anything we’ve ever faced. ANet, is what you meant by that battles LONGER than this marathon, where no progress can be made except by accident? (Or, reading the wiki to take advantage of somebody else having already gone through the frustration?)

Frustration just isn’t fun. There needs to be a way to interact with the game in a way that I can figure out what to do next.

Great cinematics that are totally illogical also do not give hope. The lore in this game is what makes the game. It’s GREAT. But, one dragon trashing a fleet that massive in a few seconds?

Please have some normal people playtest the new material before you release it. Watch their reactions. If they have to try over and over again, getting more and more frustrated, it’s not good. Do not choose players who are already operating at a god-like level (they’ll be the ones who reply to this thread favorably comparing their playing abilities to mine). Those are not good play-testers.

When you see NORMAL players unable to proceed, don’t dismiss them as noobs; take it to heart. Add some clues. Give some direction. Look at those camera angles. Show us an overhead view such that when an NPC tosses over some fire, we SEE it tossed over, AND we see it land.

When our pals grant us protection, have them SAY that. Not just “maybe you can use this”, with no connection to the out-of-sight protection sphere that the game intends as the only way to make progress. Change the dialog when we obviously don’t “get it”. Have the NPC say, “here’s a protection sphere; go stand under it”.

You guys have done a great deal of excellent work. I really want you to succeed. But please remember that frustration isn’t fun. This battle was awful. But, the portent that we’re going to have even greater “challenges” in the future, especially when compared with this battle, it makes me fear for the future of the game.

Don’t be upset at your opening post. You are absolutely correct. ANet could have sent you emails explaining the situation, but did not. The only way to find out was to log in somewhat close to the start, or shortly after the start, and read the announcements you get when you log in. Or, visit here at the forums or the main web site.

The suggestion by someone else to use in-game gold is laughable; ignore it. If you didn’t have time to log in for a year, the odds are pretty good that you’re not exactly rolling in gold.

On the other hand, 1600 gems is $20 US. That’s not exactly a mountain of cash. If you think of it as a mini-expansion, I think that would be a fair price to pay.

The lore is pretty good. But, I have to warn you: some of the most pointless and frustrating battles to ever appear in GW2 are in Living Story Season 2. Most of all, the very last battle and the trailer leading to Heart of Thorns is probably the most illogical and frustrating sequence of events to ever appear in Tyria. The story is great until that last battle and trailer, at which point it really stinks. (It was clearly done to sell an expansion, not to continue a story.)

My take: spend the money; it’s worth it. Then make up your own mind about whether to continue with Heart of Thorns.

My daughter, same house as me (i.e. with Comcast in MN) is also failing.

I also am having this problem. It got to 57 MB before dying once. Now it won’t even get past the bootstrap portion of startup.

Minnesota and Comcast. However, my son-in-law lives 5 miles from me, does NOT have Comcast, and works just fine.