Guild Wars 2

Xstein.2187:

Even if they are working on improved mini maps, they aren’t going to announce it until its ready because they learned that doing that shoehorns them into a path and if something goes wrong with implamentation after the announcement and before its ready than they are just kitten outa luck. They didn’t even release all information about the next expansion.

I don’t need specifics. Just a general statement that admits the problem exists, and that they want to do something about it.

I (and others) have been asking here since right after HoT was released, and I haven’t heard a single word from ANet about it. Not one word. Dozens of people have quit the game in sadness due to this and other HoT issues. Most of the others have been addressed, but not this one.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable in this. I’m not asking for the moon here. I’m just asking for communication on a single subject that they have never addressed: mapping of maps that have multiple levels inside each map tier, and showing how far up or down you need to go to get somewhere (and, how to get there if you’ve been to that location before).

starlinvf.1358:

Congratulations……. because PoF maps are looking to be more about horizontal space, with a purposefully limited use of vertical travel.

How do you know this?

I really would like to pre-order, but there’s no way I’m going to unless I know — in advance — that they have understood that this is a major problem that they need to correct. (I do not need to know that it’s fixed, just that they understand they have a problem.)

As I feared (and, unfortunately, expected), no response from ANet.

Sounds interesting, but if the map isn’t fixed, what’s the point?

I hope like core GW2. HoT had MAJOR problems, some of which still haven’t been corrected.

In particular, the maps (Tangled Depths in particular) are horrible to navigate. There needs to be an accurate way of knowing where you are, vertically. As it is, it is unacceptable.

The strength and overlap of mobs was way too high in HoT zones. They’ve toned it down a little, and even more so in Season 3 zones.

Gating has to make sense. To gate simply to slow down players is disgusting, and should never have happened.

Please fix the mini-map so it actually works in multi-leveled* zones (like Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons). If you’re going to have five levels, then the map should reflect that, and the mini-map should be able to tell them apart.

See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Show-stopper-for-PoF-for-me/first#post6664750 for discussion.

*By multi-leveled, I mean more than one level exists in a map tier. Map tier means one of the buttons you can click in the main map.

Agreed. And, I should say that the statement I quoted is on the extreme end, where I would immediately respond. If they have something to say that isn’t extreme, I would certainly listen and evaluate.

I really love this game. Anything that even resembles an attempt at a fix would probably get my dollars flowing again.

Perhaps I should also say that when HoT came out I had a long list of “show-stopper” issues. They’ve fixed most of them, or at least made changes to help. But, two years with only one official peep on mapping (the green/blue down/up arrows) is a long time.

Also, I should say: Suppose an ANet person were to say, “We think it’s an issue. We’ve targeted the first quarterly release, after PoF releases, for an attempt at a fix.”

I would pre-order within a day, and say so here.

Thanks, Chris. I should says that I don’t have a problem with the verticality. But, there needs to be a way to tell where you are; that’s my issue.

I also agree that “show-stopper” is a hard sell. But, ANet has never responded, which means (to me) that they don’t care. So, it’s a line in the sand (for me).

There is one show-stopper issue for me that still remains from Heart of Thorns. Before I will consider buying the second expansion, I need to know that it is fixed or being fixed:

The mini-map is nearly useless on extremely-multi-leveled maps such as Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons.

For example, there are somewhere between seven and nine levels in Draconis Mons, depending on how you count them. But, the map only has three tiers. And, you can’t consistently tell which of the “sub-levels” you are on.

I will only pre-purchase if an official ArenaNet (ANet) person states that an attempt has been made to correct the failings of the mini-map in zones like that.

I will only buy if player response says that either the maps are either not tier multi-leveled (as in, more than one level per in-map tier), or if there is some kind of mini-map method of telling where you are vertically.

Many ideas have been proposed. My favorite would be to use a colored tunneling system that shows what’s above and below you. Alternately, you could just show seven tiers of maps when there actually are seven tiers. But, there still needs to be a way to distinguish on which of the tiers you are currently standing. Even allowing more colors and sizes of the blue/green up/down arrows would help.

But, none of them have ever received an acknowledgement by ANet that there’s even a problem. That’s unacceptable (to me). You’re still going to get some money from me (I just bought gems a few days ago), but the long-term prospects are grim if I don’t buy the expansion (I’ll likely start to lose interest in the game if I can’t move forward with it.)

NOTE: I will be ignoring non-ANet responses that don’t agree with the above. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post them, so ANet can take the pulse of the subject.

I will, however, respond to clarification requests, even from disagreeing posters, if the request stands in its own post.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You keep saying this, despite the fact that, at any given time, there are many promotion recipes worth 50-150 silver per spirit shard, after taking into account the cost to buy the inputs on the TP.

“Many” is greatly overstated.

There are 54 promotions of common mats available. On 7/26 @ 7:11 PM US central daylight time, only one was profitable after including the 15% selling fees. Occasionally, there are two profitable promotions. It is very rare that there are three or more.

There were three promotions on that day that would have been profitable if used entirely for ones own purposes (i.e. dropping the 15% fee).

Mobs can aggro on you from a long distance, but that’s the only complaint I have. I spend more time farming there than anywhere else.

In fact, I think it would do well to slightly nerf the loot there (which they may already have done, very recently — jury is still out on that).

When HoT released, I think it included LS S2. (LS S1 can’t be released for technical reasons.)

Practically any change to the Forge would be welcomed. This is a good idea. I’m hoping they can redesign it, though, and add even more features.

I’m no fan of gating of any kind, but I have to say placing maps behind a story gate is OK by me.

What bothers me is gating other content behind things unrelated to the story and not needed for any logical purpose. Specifically, I hate the Heart of Thorns gating of the story behind masteries.

I’m coming to the conclusion, though, that I’m far more interested in the stories than others, so I understand your concerns. Unfortunately, I don’t think they can avoid it, because the maps don’t exist prior to the release of the story episodes involved.

So, I sympathize, but not completely.

Yargesh.4965:

You need 1 kill to get bronze.

This is incorrect. It’s hard to know the details, though, since ANet doesn’t tell us.

I think you need one kill that drops some kind of loot. Or, possibly one kill plus getting hit once. Or, revive someone downed plus get hit or kill.

I agree, Aliam: glass gear isn’t for me. I would change the quote to “a bad player in glass gear is tomorrows non-player”. I despise glass gear. It creates a ceiling to the character’s playability, which is not good for the player’s longevity.

However, I left the option open here because I wanted to hear what people had to say. I play a warrior with berserker’s gear* and a thief with assassin’s*. And, I’m building up some light armor as viper’s*, and trying out viper’s exotic gear right now. I don’t like any of them, but I’ve learned to run away from combat early when the mob is too tough.

Starred items* in the previous paragraph are ascended.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

And yeah, for a while, one could buy elder wood logs, refine them, and sell them for post-tax profit. I’m always happy to let the impatient pay me to do a few minutes of work.

:)
:D
LOL

It does scale. I can run through with a reaper at level 20 or so, but I for sure need a rod starting about level 40ish, and two or three rods in tier 4.

“Run” means just running and using speed boost skills.

Does anybody know why the price of crafting materials rose so much today? Or, is it limited? (I only checked tier 5, mithril, elder wood, and silk.)

Ayrilana.1396:

That’s not a source…

Someone quoted that on the forums, but with no search capability…

But, I compared it to my own experience. I’m a non-raider in the top 12% of all players. I may be atypical, but the real number can’t be a whole lot off from that.

Ah, OK. Thanks!

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I prefer Karma boosters, because I have far more uses for karma. Despite having spent 2000 spirit shards to unlock all the antique weapon skins, my surplus was higher afterward than when I started (and that was without unlocking raid masteries). Whereas, I spend karma like crazy and can’t seem to maintain it as well.

How would I spend spirit shards to get those skins? (Feel free to start another thread if you think it would derail this one.)

Thank you!

Ayrilana.1396:

Daddicus.6128:

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

Is there a source for “the vast majority are in neither group”?

Yeah. Immediately after the statement.

Mercure.5689:

This is a BRILLIANT idea! I hope someone from ANet sees it.

Ayrilana.1396:

Just like gold is entirely useless unless you actually need it. What’s “useless” will vary from player to player which was what I was getting at when stating that I had a need for XP and that others may as well.

That doesn’t follow. There are tons of things to spend gold on, and you receive it all the time.

But, XP doesn’t even get granted in HoT/LS zones (unless you’re in one of the tiny groups of people — see my previous post).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp.

Yeah, that was my point on XP. The only way you can use XP is if you:

• Are training masteries for which you already have MPs, or
• Have all masteries completed (including raiding MPs)

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

However, karma boosts are still useful. There are tons of things karma can buy, and ANet seems to be adding them all the time now. I may have 10+ million karma available, but I spend some of it almost every day. I would buy the karmic retribution boosts in every map if it were available (including core Tyria, although that doesn’t seem likely to be on the table for ANet).

Thanks for all the tips!

The Karmic Retribution boost is a great idea. How about getting it for the rest of the HoT/LS zones?

By the way, the Empowerment boost for XP? Not such a good idea. Almost nobody can use it, so why buy it? (The XP is wasted for most players.)

I agree, provisionally. I think that things that offer mastery points or larger numbers of achievement points SHOULD be more difficult.

However, the difficulty in this puzzle (and several others) is extreme. It took me days to complete the Ember Bay JP. MANY days.

The biggest problem to me isn’t the difficulty so much as how the difficulty depends upon players hitting the keys at exactly the right moment. We shouldn’t have to hit a one- or two-pixel spot to continue. Unless one is willing to spend hours on each of several difficult jumps (that are difficult ONLY because of the precision needed), they’re not fun any more. They’re just drudgery.

Further, more checkpoints are needed. There are many puzzles that can ONLY be done (by most players) with a Mesmer. That just shouldn’t be; it’s wrong.

Finally, the rewards are way off-base. Difficulty should map to rewards, but it doesn’t. In the core game, every JP gives similar rewards, but they’re not all of similar difficulty.

There’s a workaround I use: highlight the whole message and copy it (ctrl-c) to the Windows clipboard (if you’re running on a Windows device).

If I expect to have to do it with the same message a lot (like when I’m waiting days for a partner for a specific achievement), then I paste the text into a text editor, for use later.

I recommend trying the Living Story Season 3 maps. There are some storyline spoilers, but just mostly-mapping the zones can provide quite a few XP and Mastery Points (MPs). Bitterfrost and Lake Doric can be mostly explored without gliding (etc.)

The XP from those counts towards Heart of Thorns (HoT) masteries, and there are a lot more (percentage-wise) MPs available there than in HoT zones.

AliamRationem.5172:

Or you could just build tankier? People always seem surprised that if you deviate from “zerk or go home” you can live longer even if you aren’t a total pro. For instance, try something similar to the PvP build for ele and it’s hilarious how difficult it is for enemies to kill a class that is considered in contention for the “squishiest” class of all.

Stats and traits really matter in this game. Try something different if what you’re doing isn’t working.

I agree. (I didn’t specify WHAT gear to get, just that it be the best.)

I actually despise berserker gear. While it’s good for running around against wandering monsters, it’s a severe hindrance to one’s allies when fighting a large mob or most bosses. They’re always having to revive berserkers, who are usually the first to go down in protracted battles.

Daddicus.6128:

Currently, he has ascended carrion gear with fire-based runes and insignia.

If by “Maguuma” you mean “Maguuma Jungle”, then I don’t think I can offer much help.

However, if you mean “Heart of Maguuma”, as in the four Heart of Thorns (HoT) maps, then there’s no solution. Sadly, those areas are just too overpowering. ANet made some minor changes to correct this problem, but nowhere near enough. So, you have to work on perfecting your characters instead:

Get all ascended gear (plus runes, infusions, and sigils), and know how to dodge and how to run away. And, never attempt to take on two mobs at once while solo. If two aggro on you, immediately turn and run away, preferably using an area-effect chill or cripple to slow them down. (Exception: if there’s another player nearby helping, keep fighting unless it’s three mobs.)

Eventually, you’ll get good enough to recognize too-powerful mobs (of which there are far too many). Then, you can avoid them.

Also, try starting one of the five Living Story Season 3 maps. They’re a tad easier than the four main HoT maps. And (with the exception of the fifth map, Draconic Mons), the mapping is orders of magnitude more playable.

A 1-copper delta happens to me about 10-15 times a day.

Edited: By delta I mean the difference between current buy and sell prices.

It seems that way to me, too. Both my ranger and tank necro also had trouble. But, the ele is by far the worst so far.

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks!

It’s more for HoT and some LS S3 mobs that I’m having trouble. I’m getting wasted in that last mission in Bitterfrost, for example. LONG before the boss; the first mobs are killing me.

I think I’ve got a celestial set somewhere. I’ll try that. I’m working on building a vipers build; that takes a bit longer.

moonstarmac.4603:

Serious answer: We should call them Skrinkies (Skritt Pinkies). And the really smart ones can be Skrain (Skritt Brain) and they should work together every night and try to take over the world!

So, maybe they can get together and make a TV show: Skrinkies and the Skrain?

I’m looking for ways to make an ele more survivable. I only care about solo PvE play.

Currently, he has ascended carrion gear with fire-based runes and insignia.

He can take out most small (2-4) groups very quickly. However, against larger mobs or elite and higher enemies, he’s a lot harder to keep alive.

I’m willing to re-gear him, but I’m at a loss as to what to use. Viper’s would probably let him kill small mobs faster, but almost certainly he would die faster to more difficult mobs.

Ideas?

Dawdler.8521:

Because… uhm… you’re dead…

Except you’re not; you’re defeated.

Gop.8713:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You still receive the Daily Log-in Chest, and when accepted the window for Dailies appears, whether you are capped or not. You also receive the notice of 10 AP when finishing 3 Dailies, even though you don’t actually receive the 10 AP.

Thus, in your case, prepare to be annoyed.

Good luck.

That’s more than annoying, that’s actually insulting :/

Not really. You do get rewards for the dailies you do, and for completing 3 a day.

ArchonWing.9480:

Oh btw, what would you people think if dailies were uncapped, but were only worth 3 point per day? That would still make them of disproportionate value.

I would love it. I’ve been suggesting something like that for years (I call it diminishing returns, vs. capping).

A minion-necro is about as tanky as you get. Their health is middling, but they get a 2nd “health bar”. And, some of their traits can really improve their toughness.

The downside is they don’t kill things very quickly. But, for learning the ropes while staying alive as much as possible, necros with minions (and the right traits) are hard to beat.

I think there’s usually a Scout, that’s highlighted, near the missing heart. If you’re roughly in the middle of the zone, he should show up on your compass. Go to him/her and talk, and that will make the heart(s) appear.

OK, I didn’t know about that. Probably because I don’t WvW (or PvP) much.

Thanks!

Fix the mapping. Multi-level mapping is horrible since HoT redefined “multi-level”. We need a better mini-map. If it’s not changed and the maps are HoT-like, I won’t buy the expansion.

Make new zones more solo-able. The LS S3 zones are greatly improved in this area. So, all they really need to do is resist the urge to make things harder. But, I’m not holding my breath; they seem to listen much more to the tiny minority of players who want extreme content.

Add MANY more mastery points. LS S3 is better, but still not enough.

Give us more graduated ways to get hero points. I like the idea HoT had where hero points come in piles of 10. But, they’re not evenly laid out. Some absolutely require a group, while others are easy to solo. So, yeah, have some 10-pointers, but also maybe some 3 and 5-point HPs.

De-link experience from mastery tracks. It’s absurd that you can’t get XP until you’ve topped-off all of the masteries.

Why would WvW have anything to do with PvE? I’m not seeing a connection with my little grey cells.

Guys, the caps have been in place since day one. How many other significant pieces of the game have been in place since day one?

And, I stand by my statement that ANet has never given us their reasoning for including caps. Other people stating reasons are simply giving their opinion (as I am). I want ANet to explain it, including the logic behind continuing to penalize those who play the game the most.

All I care about is radiant armor. But, I’ll likely never get there; there simply aren’t enough APs left that I can do. I’ll most likely die of old age before I can get the 6th piece.

I still like the game, and I’ll keep playing it. And, this is far from the worst problem the game has. But, I would still like an explanation from ANet.

There’s no excuse for having a cap. But, ANet has been challenged many times to show one, and they have ignored those requests. So, it’s apparent they believe there is a reason. They just won’ tell us what it is.

They’re wrong. A cap punishes the most loyal players, something no game company should ever even consider. Diminishing returns is the right way to handle it, at least to a degree. A different fix would be to raise the caps at regular intervals.

Unfortunately, even if they came to their senses, they couldn’t just remove it now, because there are thousands of players who have been capped. How do they compensate them for the time in-between when they were capped and the time of any removal of the cap?

Nevertheless, it’s a really bad thing for the game. I’ve known hundreds of people who stopped playing because of caps. That means they’ve stopped buying gems, too (obviously). I just don’t understand their reasoning.