Guild Wars 2

Diminishing returns is a necessity in some games (ex: WoW), but I don’t think it belongs in GW2. We have too many counters to CC to need diminishing returns.

Lifestealer.4910:

People told me that you didn’t need to grind much in this game but when i played it, it feels like u have to kill hundreds of mobs just to even level once at low level.

It takes time to level up, just like in any MMO, but you have more available to do at low levels than pretty much any other MMO.

If leveling is feeling “grindy” to you, then you may want to diversify your experience. Play some dungeons or jump in some WvW.

Also, consider opening up the map by traveling and visiting waypoints/points of interest/vistas. This can often be a faster way of leveling than doing heart quests.

Another option is simply exploring a bit and paying more attention to what is going on in the world than what your experience bar looks like. There’s tons of little stuff out there with a lot of depth. Check out some of the mini-dungeons out there for some examples of this.

Ugruk.4069:

I dont get it so only certain things qualify? What is the kittening diference then?
If it is so quick to do then just give it to the spvp players and move along, it could be locked in pve for the same characters I couldnt care less…

You’re considering only radical extremes, which is probably why you’re having so much trouble understanding this.

Radical extreme 1: 100% everything is unlocked or is so trivial that it’s almost instantly unlocked.
Radical extreme 2: Things that need to be unlocked require a heavy grind where the player is put at a big disadvantage in terms of performance until they unlock everything.

The reality of what is being designed is something that takes some time to unlock, but isn’t on the same level as leveling a completely new character from 1 to 80. It’s also something that can be unlocked through PvP as well as PvE. While there will almost certainly be some strong meta builds that use the new traits, all of them certainly won’t and using a build with an older trait for a while won’t be gamebreaking by any stretch.

If you use D/D, then Corrupted Shard may be a good option since it glows quite a bit. Here’s a screenshot of someone weilding one (it’s not lit up when sheathed).

Ugruk.4069:

Dahkeus.8243:

Darek.1836:

Justin ODell.9517:

Nineaxis.1826:

snip.

Please do not presume to speak for all players. As a PvP player, I disagree with you, and I know others that do as well.

If you want to turns this into a numbers game, please do keep in mind that the vast majority of PvP players play PvE and WvW as well. We definitely want to make the game fun and enjoyable for PvP-only players as well, but we need to keep a broader context when designing systems.

No one on the entire forums agree with you. Does that not say enough?

Don’t try to speak for “everyone on the forums”.

I agree with Justin. I think a lot of players are getting scared that they’ll have to actually work towards something instead of just getting it handed to them, but personally, I will enjoy having something more than just a higher ranking to work towards.

I am completely, 100% against the power imbalances with players who put tons of time in the game for gear/bonus/etc. advantages like you see in other MMOs, but I don’t think that’s what this is.

This will be a good change.

So you would agree if they made you level you character to play spvp too? Since the rest of the people is so “entitled”.

You are missing the point of spvp, that was just play when you wanted and not to have to worry about petty things like gearing up and grind new skills, you were all on equal footing

If this only aplied to pve it’s fine they, dont have anymore to do besides afking in LA bank…

It is the comple oposite of what they advertised and made us belive…

Rofl! Come on, you can’t be serious! You’re comparing a trait unlock of additional traits for build diversity that can be done entirely through PvP to leveling an entirely new character to 80 through PvE only?

I know this change is scary, but just step away from your keyboard and think about it for a while.

Darek.1836:

Justin ODell.9517:

Nineaxis.1826:

snip.

Please do not presume to speak for all players. As a PvP player, I disagree with you, and I know others that do as well.

If you want to turns this into a numbers game, please do keep in mind that the vast majority of PvP players play PvE and WvW as well. We definitely want to make the game fun and enjoyable for PvP-only players as well, but we need to keep a broader context when designing systems.

No one on the entire forums agree with you. Does that not say enough?

Don’t try to speak for “everyone on the forums”.

I agree with Justin. I think a lot of players are getting scared that they’ll have to actually work towards something instead of just getting it handed to them, but personally, I will enjoy having something more than just a higher ranking to work towards.

I am completely, 100% against the power imbalances with players who put tons of time in the game for gear/bonus/etc. advantages like you see in other MMOs, but I don’t think that’s what this is.

This will be a good change.

I believe this will make longbow rangers a serious force to be reckoned with, especially on a non-conquest map. However, I think that it’s still going to be counter-able and overall it will be a good change.

hooma.9642:

isolatedchimp.2510:

Dahkeus.8243:

It’s actually a quite elegant fix if you think about it:

GW2 solved the issue of PvP players being at a disadvantage to PvE players by separating PvP and PvE gear. However, the problem it created was a lack of rewards to strive for.

By attaching new talents as rewards, it allows players to still PvP without being at a gear disadvantage while still giving them something to work towards.

Yes, newer players will have less traits to compete with, but newer players are also learning the game/their profession, so a limit of options isn’t that problematic.

A similar system existed in GW1 and it was one of the reasons that GW1 PvP has such a strong legacy.

No, this is not the type of “reward” PVP players want. No one wants to have to unlock new traits and skills as a “reward”. That is no reward that is making you work for something that you should have in the first place. This is going backwards, NOT an “elegant fix” at all.

Now if they want to make it so that we can unlock these traits for PVE in PVP, that’s fine by me, but access to skills/gear/traits/etc etc in PVP should not be restricted by unlocks. That’s not the type of progression PVP players want.

its the same like in gw1.. my only problem with this:

all the unlocks are characterbound! at least make them accountbound.

Maybe, but it wouldn’t make a huge difference unless you have a bunch of characters of the same profession. =P

Whit.2385:

This is counter the very premises of spvp laid out in the beginning of the game, and what made spvp such a wonderful departure from other mmos. Spvp should be completely even playing field, even access across the board.

On the otherhand, this type of change reinforces my concepts on how they are approaching the spvp feature(ette) in this game anyhow.

It’s actually a quite elegant fix if you think about it:

GW2 solved the issue of PvP players being at a disadvantage to PvE players by separating PvP and PvE gear. However, the problem it created was a lack of rewards to strive for.

By attaching new talents as rewards, it allows players to still PvP without being at a gear disadvantage while still giving them something to work towards.

Yes, newer players will have less traits to compete with, but newer players are also learning the game/their profession, so a limit of options isn’t that problematic.

A similar system existed in GW1 and it was one of the reasons that GW1 PvP has such a strong legacy.

OverlordOutpost.5961:

Dahkeus.8243:

Rickster.8752:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

You can purchase any of the trait guides. Prices depend on tier and whether it’s new or not. So for every trait there will be an option to go out into the world and unlock it via specific content or just purchase it if you choose to go that route.

I hope the moderators aren’t at lunch. They are going to have work clearing up all the rage which will ensue.

Fwiw, Karl and Roy are good guys who do a good job for this game. It isn’t their fault the game has a PvE direction.

Seriously? I think if people would take a second to realize that you get gold from PvP now, they wouldn’t have the knee-jerk response of calling this anything related to PvE.

You can get all the trait stuff you need from doing nothing but PvP, so there’s no reason to get all up in arms.

GW1 was set up in a similar way and it worked out really well. Personally, I’m glad to see them picking up aspects of GW1 that worked and implementing them in GW2.

It then becomes an issue of “Why can PvE players earn our PvP unlocks faster then we can?”

Simple: PvE has a lot more gold sinks than PvE. In other words, you may earn more as a PvE player, but being a PvE player costs more than being a PvP player,

Allie Murdock.8152:

This episode of Ready Up, we’ll be talking about a lot of the things you have all been waiting for! First up, We’ll have Hugh Norfolk and Darrin Claypool on the show to preview a new map that has no capture points. Next, Josh Davis has prepared a presentation to show off all the new traits, while the designers Karl McLain and Roy Cronacher talk about them.

When & Where:
March 21st, 12pm PDT
Official Guild Wars 2 Twitch Channel

We’ll see you there!

Source:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Dev-livestream-Ready-Up-Mar-21-12pm-New-Traits-Map/

Agreed. Big thanks for the communication and big thanks for moving the direction that the players want: Take a break from Living Story and address Feature Updates.

Rickster.8752:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

You can purchase any of the trait guides. Prices depend on tier and whether it’s new or not. So for every trait there will be an option to go out into the world and unlock it via specific content or just purchase it if you choose to go that route.

I hope the moderators aren’t at lunch. They are going to have work clearing up all the rage which will ensue.

Fwiw, Karl and Roy are good guys who do a good job for this game. It isn’t their fault the game has a PvE direction.

Seriously? I think if people would take a second to realize that you get gold from PvP now, they wouldn’t have the knee-jerk response of calling this anything related to PvE.

You can get all the trait stuff you need from doing nothing but PvP, so there’s no reason to get all up in arms.

GW1 was set up in a similar way and it worked out really well. Personally, I’m glad to see them picking up aspects of GW1 that worked and implementing them in GW2.

Anyone else think this could be pretty huge for rangers?

For so long, in sPvP, one of Rangers’ biggest strengths (ranged DPS/control) has been pretty inconsequential since conquest revolves so much over crowding in a tight spot to keep a point contested.

If they put a decent amount of space in the new map, then the ranger could excel at the role of controlling enemy movement. Anyone who is knows the CripShot ranger build from GW1 will probably be familiar with this. This should at least put Rangers as strong counters to classes like Engineer.

The new trait looks solid, even if I probably won’t take it in a lot of situations (+20% vs <50% hp foes is so good). I think this will be a handy trait to swap to for tough fights in PvE if nothing else.

Agreed. I’m much happier and confident in my decision to play GW2 after seeing this post.

I’ll be buying gems tonight for sure. =)

Yea, I’ll take new skills and imbalance over a stale meta with imbalance any day.

Hopefully things will be reasonably balanced though. If they’re not, it will at least take a while for things to stabilize. Often in GW2 it takes a good long time before a meta is really established and all the strong builds are really recognized.

I don’t play a mesmer, but I’m glad to see this. This is taking a step in the direction of GW1 for mesmers and honestly, I thought mesmers had a much more interesting role in that game.

Kudos to ANet for doing this.

Let’s ignore Martial Mastery for a bit since we can all agree that investing in WS will cost you the ability to run spotter + frost spirit. Instead, let’s assume a 20/25/0/25/0 or 25/25/0/20/0 GS build that has 2h mastery:

1) Yes, unshakeable does diminish vuln, but vuln is a 1% dps increase per stack for all group members. This means that 5 stacks of vuln increases the dps of all 5 people hitting that target by 5%. This gives a net boost of dps that is much greater than most personal dps boosts. Yes, this does mean that the vuln will drop off before maul. With 25 in marks, the vuln on a boss will last 6.125 seconds and you have 6 second recharge + 3/4 sec cast time to reapply maul. If you have 20 in marks, then it’s a 6 second vuln. However, you still have the 5% group DPS boost up about 90% of the time, which is very substantial, especially in a high DPS group.

2) This is true, but with 2h mastery, you will have very high fury up-time, which negates this to a large extent.

3) This is a valid point, but you would really have to calculate the difference between the 90% up-time of a 5% group DPS boost vs the boost of the fury lost to the group without warhorn. Keep in mind that you still have moa fury available with GS.

4) True, although I would consider this rather minor.

5) Yes, but not for long. =P

So, considering all this along with the increase in cleave damage that the GS has and I don’t think that there is such a clear winner/loser. There are a lot of factors that could easily sway which weapon pulls out as better in practice: number of AoE fights, % of time fighting a boss with unshakeable, amount of vuln stacks the group can apply, up-time of fury from the group, etc.

With free transfers, it’s pretty much inevitable that there will be some serious condensing of population. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if at least one server gets emptied as a result.

However, I’m sure there are plenty of people mistaking the condensing of servers for thinking that the overall population is being wiped out or something, lol.

TurtleDragon.3108:

The gap doesn’t look so bad on paper, but it is much bigger in practical play.

I don’t see how…the GS is much easier to DPS with since it doesn’t have all the issues with normal attacks that the 1h sword does. It also has a gap closer that lets you switch to attacking additional targets faster than the 1h sword does, meaning that you have less downtime.

edit
Nevermind, I think you mean that since the GS requires trait investment that’s deep in defensive trees, it offsets the damage boost of those traits.

I really miss very little of the living story. The only parts I miss are the instances we got early on. Sadly, so much of the living story degraded into massive zerg content. =/

ZilentNight.5089:

Dahkeus.8243:

I’ve never seen this bug, but I have noticed that if a teammate turns the treb before the game starts, it stays in that position when the game starts as well.

This is kind of a minor thing, but it does make a difference since you can get on the treb and hit #2 right away to take off the clock tower’s roof with the default position, but if a teammate moves it, you have to spend time moving the treb back to a decent position.

I am not sure how you are able to interact with a treb before the game starts.
There is no “interact” option if you go to your treb prior to the game starting.

Hmm…I never tried myself as I pretty much stand in one place until the game is ready to start. Maybe they fixed this already?

Too soon.

Yea, it’s the same reason why games like WoW prevent you from mounting up during combat. If you moved as quickly in combat as the out of combat speed, then it would be too easy to run away from stuff and combat would be too chaotic.

jmatb.6307:

News Flash

Fanboys, GW2 is nowhere near as good as it gets.

Their story is terrible. SWTOR’s 1-50 class stories roflstomp the crap out of GW2.

Their PvP is terrible. MOBAs are the best, Smite, SWTOR, FFXIV, WoW are better.

Their PvE is terrible. FFXIV, WoW, SWTOR, even Rift is better.

Their RvR still doesn’t hold a candle to Dark Age of Camelot.

Their Event system is buggy and terrible. FFXIV does it better, way better.

You paid 50 bucks one time for the game.

You get what you pay for.

It’s good enough to keep you coming back to these forums. =)

I noticed something about the new male Asura mohawk hairstyle the other day during the preview mode of a character change kit that wasn’t noticeable from the screenshot: The spikes in this hair style appear to be held up by the things at the tips rather than being supported from the hair sticking out. In other words, there pieces at the tip of the spikes seem to be some sort of hovering devices that hold the hair up.

You can tell this because when the head moves from normal movement, the base of the hair moves, but the tips stay put.

I wasn’t brave enough to actually use my kit to purchase this hairstyle, but I do think that this was a pretty clever innovation for a hairstyle since it adds a new dynamic to the physics of the hair style.

I’m curious though. Has anyone used this hairstyle and if so, do you have any footage of your character running around with it? I’m wondering how the hair moves when your character is running and jumping around.

(screenshot source: http://dulfy.net/2014/03/18/gw2-new-hairstyles-in-total-makover-kits-and-self-style-hair-kits/)

Armor looks different in different light settings, so of course your armor will look different from the preview if you’re in a different light setting than what the preview has.

garethh.3518:

Dahkeus.8243:

Lots of angry gamers…probably because they’re realizing that GW2 is as good as it gets. Otherwise, you’d wouldn’t be on these forums.

If you really want to make a point that ANet will hear, play another game and ditch the forums. Until then, it’s clear that the competition isn’t holding your interests. =P

PvP’ers have been leaving this game, constantly, since launch.
Only a few hundred people in all of NA play GW2 TPvP right now.

If Anet hasn’t gotten the memo by now, that what they are doing is bad… I think they are a bit too dense to change.

Some have left, yes, but people leave games all the time. However, there are still a lot of people playing and the active forums are proof of that. Sure, there are a lot of grumpy posts, but that’s mostly proof that people will stick with GW2 even if it’s not exactly the game that people want it to be. =P

This vid may help. It’s Jumper using S/D vs Caed using D/P. S/D has been nerfed since the making of this, but the nerfs haven’t made that much of a difference in fights against a D/P thief since it’s mostly affected fights where you need more than just a single stun breaker.

I think the real problem with the ini buff was that it ended up highlighting how broken some mechanics are: i.e. Pistol Whip

I think the ‘out of control’ builds should be addressed independantly of the ini change.

The ini change gave thieves a boost in PvE DPS, which is good since their support is so weak.

The ini change also helped D/D specs that rely on the blind on stealth to keep from falling too far behind D/P.

In no particular order:
1) Profession Balance
2) Creating more permanent, instanced content (10-person raids would be awesome)
3) Guild Halls

Lots of angry gamers…probably because they’re realizing that GW2 is as good as it gets. Otherwise, you’d wouldn’t be on these forums.

If you really want to make a point that ANet will hear, play another game and ditch the forums. Until then, it’s clear that the competition isn’t holding your interests. =P

Ksnake.8097:

Dahkeus.8243:

Daishi.6027:

I’m less salty about the SOTG… miffed yes but most people knew what was happening on the 18th.

Anyways I wanted to ask about the saved match win reward chests… As far as I can remember players were told to save their chests for the future. Is this still the status quo? or has something come to light that I may have missed?

They said to open your chests:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Opening-Chests-after-March-18th/first#post3754797

Tyler Chapman.1832:

I suggest to open all your chests, don’t just leave them unopened as they will be deleted. Either way, don’t be too alarmed because tons of new rewards are coming. Even PvP specific ones!

This is the part I dont understand, they are coming, they are not here. Why would you remove the existing reward before they come? Consider how long it takes for Anet to get anything to “come” to pvp, this is just disappointment on how stupid Anet plan their patches for pvp.

Imagine if Anet remove karma in Pve world and replace it with nothing but “Soon”. I ensure kitten storm will rise.

Glory has already been replaced by gold, so it’s more like if they decided to replace Karma and started giving you the new reward on top of Karma before taking Karma away.

Remember the days when winning a match only gave you glory?

As for stuff to turn the gold into, well, that takes time. It would be nice if we could have everything poof into existence all at once, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

Joseph.7213:

They’re trying to push players into playing all aspects of their game. I understand that and those that WvW and sPvP will be happy, but strictly sPvP players have been shafted.

What would you strictly sPvP players want for rewards? Because there is no gear progression in sPvP, there cannot be gear rewards other than cosmetics – and from what I gather nobody here gives a kitten about it. So, leaderboards that work, and what else?

Allowing players to cross over aspects of the game =/= pushing players into other aspects.

Exile.8160:

why do they keep pushing pve rewards on us?

What were before PvE rewards are becoming PvP rewards as well, so they’re not “pushing PvE rewards” on you, but rather building a bridge between PvE and PvP rewards to make both PvE and PvP more inclusive to players rather than exclusive.

GW2 has had some truly amazing characters (Tybalt, Taimi, etc.), but Trehearne is not one of them.

I would have been fine if they just left him out or let him get killed off in the LA fight.

Poor Tybalt…I still miss him. =-(

lesalthg.4536:

Dahkeus.8243:

Bart Weird.9671:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Q: Will we be able to sell PvP materials to npc vendors similar to tournament tickets?
A: These materials are not being removed as part of the maintenance build. In this update we are only removing glory and MAKING AN ADJUSTMENT TO THE AMOUNT OF RANK POINTS EARNED.

So where is the adjustment to the amount of rank points earned? because I can’t find it!

Serious don’t make a ,,March 18th Glory change FAQ’’ if you can’t keep your promises!
If we can’t trust or rely on your FAQ’s why even put them in?

Huh? Am I missing something?

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Structured Player vs. Player

• Rank points have been increased across all Custom, Solo, and Team Arenas.

Rank points EARNED is misleading. It could be read as them saying rank points that have already been earned instead of rank points that you will earn if you play more matches.

Misread =/= misleading

They could have phrased it better, but misunderstanding this largely came from the wishful thinkings of readers rather than anything ArenaNet hinted at.

Weapons look truly awesome…I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to get skins for all the weapons I like. .

I’m very impressed. The people that design weapons have made a lot of items that are wildly over-the-top with animations, particle effects, etc., but these look good. They are shiny enough to look special without looking completely ridiculous.

These are shiny, but they look like they’re made of metal and are solid enough to not break after landing a blow.

Farzo.8410:

World of Warcraft will have nothing to do for almost a year before their expansion releases.

^ This.

Personally, I’ll enjoy having some time to mess around on alts and just catch up on the gear treadmill instead of having to stress about missing some big limited time item that’s part of some living story achievement.

Yea, the inconsistency on when to save items really makes it tough to know what to do everything.

Determining what items to keep and what items to get rid of is enough to make your head spin. I mean, stuff like Candy Corn, Sprockets, etc. are all still very worthwhile items to have, but then you have other stuff like Found Belongings that are only solid currency for an arbitrary period of time.

There’s so much talk from the devs about how most players don’t spend time on the forums, but you wouldn’t think they know this from the way they communicate: leaving official announcements in random threads.

Daishi.6027:

I’m less salty about the SOTG… miffed yes but most people knew what was happening on the 18th.

Anyways I wanted to ask about the saved match win reward chests… As far as I can remember players were told to save their chests for the future. Is this still the status quo? or has something come to light that I may have missed?

They said to open your chests:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Opening-Chests-after-March-18th/first#post3754797

Tyler Chapman.1832:

I suggest to open all your chests, don’t just leave them unopened as they will be deleted. Either way, don’t be too alarmed because tons of new rewards are coming. Even PvP specific ones!

Since when is gold nothing?

Bart Weird.9671:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Q: Will we be able to sell PvP materials to npc vendors similar to tournament tickets?
A: These materials are not being removed as part of the maintenance build. In this update we are only removing glory and MAKING AN ADJUSTMENT TO THE AMOUNT OF RANK POINTS EARNED.

So where is the adjustment to the amount of rank points earned? because I can’t find it!

Serious don’t make a ,,March 18th Glory change FAQ’’ if you can’t keep your promises!
If we can’t trust or rely on your FAQ’s why even put them in?

Huh? Am I missing something?

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Structured Player vs. Player

• Rank points have been increased across all Custom, Solo, and Team Arenas.

Soon™

Unless you watch the dev posts on the forums like a hawk, it’s nearly impossible to know what’s really going on with the new items that flood your bags every 2 weeks.

=/

Aww…that’s sad. I heard that dialogue between her and the Charr more times than I could count. =(

So, I’m at work and I decided to check out the new hairstyles since Dulfy posted them on her site (Thanks Dulfy, you rock!) and I noticed the new mohawks.

It’s awesome that female asura can now rock a ’hawk too. However, male asura got another?! Too bad female asura miss out on this one.

I just bought the mohawk for my male asura that I created recently and I’m not sure if I’m frustrated that a new version has just came out or if I’m excited to see a punk-ier version available.

Even though they did announce this, unless you’re following dev posts on the forums religiously, it’s easy to miss.

The communication for a lot of stuff like this has really not been what it should and it’s also getting really annoying to have a bunch of new items added every patch that may be useful or may not be useful later on.

So much of living stories has becoming figuring out what to do with all the crap that ends up in your bags every 2 weeks. =(