Guild Wars 2

Plus, it’s kind of like going "Why does the bonus mission pack have crap for Saul D’Allesio and Master Tohgo, but nothing for Elly Rigby or Old Mac!?

Yes and no.

No because there’s no need to put the spotlight specifically on a side-character that happens to be transgender. (Honestly, this was one of the few times something like this was handled reasonably well by a dev team that I’ve seen rather than feeling it was simply a PR/image move, simply because the relevant character was just some random NPC in the world.)

If they have a logical reason to bring her back into the fray, I’m obviously fine with that, but considering how they’ve been with the prior character cameos in this section of Verdant Brink, I don’t have a lot of faith. >_>
I just don’t want to see them specifically try to create a larger role just so they put her in the spotlight.

The ‘Yes’ part is because we have a severe dearth of NPCs in the world that legitimately make it feel alive. There aren’t many NPCs we interact with that feel like real characters in the first place. Dialogue tends to seem rather dry where its present, the game doesn’t really promote talking to NPCs for the most part, and for story stuff, it generally feels like were being talked around, rather than to…
If they wanted to introduce something akin to the FFXIV Moogle Mail quests which were specifically designed to be side quests that allowed you to become better acquainted with and learn more about side characters, that could work.

I’d say no, but that’s probably just me… There really wasn’t a lot to interest me beyond the story, the new maps, and the masteries though.

Gliding is fun, but it’s started to fall flat for me due to the nature of the map. Because everything is so narrow and claustrophobic, where you can go becomes very limited and it all ends up feeling kind of monotonous.

In addition, the current map has the issue of feeling neither truly remote and desolate, nor emotionally-engaging IMO…
(Needs less towns/outposts for the former [including enemy bases], ideally spaced further apart, yet more friendly settlements for the latter [with compelling NPCs]).

Bouncing mushrooms are convenient, but it seems like the map was either designed to be frustrating so they’d be useful, or that they were created after the maps were to help resolve a fundamental deficiency in their design.

The event chains are decent (well, as GW2 events go at least), but need to be more diverse and have a large number of branches. I’d prefer a much more elaborate dynamic event system in general (different triggers, branches from one chain affecting the progress of a separate chain, cross-zone events, etc.), but I’ve wanted that since before GW2’s launch, so I can’t expect much there. :-/

As for the story… The first chapter back in BWE1 was slightly better than most personal story steps, but I have no faith in the story in general at this point. :-(

Basically, it’s the other maps that will make or break my purchase as it stands.

It’s something of a ghost-train for me…
Do look forward to it hitting, but that’s because I want to just blow through the story content and be done with it at this point. :-/

The fact it would eat into character slot money pretty much tells me its never going to happen, though I’d far prefer it to having multiple characters in general.
As far as I’m concerned, I have a main, and even if they release a class/specialization I like more, I’m stuck with what I’ve got now. I would like for her to have access to everything since its the only character I’ll ever really bother with (the others only exist for unlocks that require them currently), but I know that won’t happen.
Makes me actually hope they never release another class or specialization that does anything I really like since the other classes becoming more enjoyable is actually just a negative for me as things are. :-/

Deth.4109:

why? rewards should be unique across game modes or else they really aren’t all that appealing. like if some how you could get tripple trouble worm skins from WVW it would make the reward from beating them meaningless. rarity is part of the motivation to do what has been done by so little.

Make them both be available in all 3 primary modes and yet unique to each.
In other words, have completely separate unlocks for each mode and no using them in the others if you hadn’t unlocked them there.

Hell, I’d honestly have been more happy with the modes being completely isolated, to the point that they each had separate clients, but at the very least insulating the rewards would be a nice change…

4 maps, 2 armour sets, etc…
The scale is… disappointing… Especially since I’m an active supporter of LESS dense events and greater ambience.

Unless they can do a 180 on story-telling and world-building, not really expecting anything to leave me satisfied as it stands.

Meh… Of all of the things they tried to ‘get away from’ with regard to MMOs, more traditional quests are the one thing I would have actually liked (Tyria needs inhabitants that feel much more like actual characters and some signficantly better lore).

Maybe now that they’ve given in and thrown in raids, they can finally concede that point too… Otherwise, “whatever”.

Have yet to get the cash for a legendary weapon and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Legendary armour being tied to raids assures I won’t get that either.

Ah well. I wasn’t really all that invested in the game at this point anyway, so I suppose this hasn’t changed much from my perspective.

Eh. So only real news is I get a free outfit and the ability to grind out my Belcher’s Bluff wins without bothering anyone else… That’s… cool?

Just make all the spirit weapons green and call it Green Lantern.
Boom.

Kind of get the feeling these items may get added to the last prize in the log-in rewards since it seems to fit that theme.

Any new chance to get those cores would be good though. Had started working on the Spinal Blade pack, but stopped at Advanced once I saw the prices…

Narrrz.7532:

Unlike Zhaitan, Jormag & Kralkatorrik, Primordius has shown no ability nor inclination to ‘convert’ creatures into its minions – it just makes minions out of lava, in the form of other creatures.

Gaheron’s allure was that he’d found a way to ascended into a fire elemental type creature, and presumably his followers (what with being flame legion and all ~) thought that was a pretty sweet deal and figured they could get a piece of that action.

Primordius isn’t worshipped for the same reason Mordremoth isn’t; it offers no incentive to do so. it will just kill you.

I originally thought that about the Destroyers and I liked that (the idea that each Dragon might function differently was more fun, honestly).

There was one event or story step though that debunked that. You have to go kill a Destroyer ‘Queen’ and its mentioned that the only reason she can spawn more offspring is that the creature she originally was had been pregnant before being converted.

So, expect ranting, raving Destroyer converts at some point. :-/

Change the name to Archmage or something.
Or completely revamp everything to make it feel like an actual storm mage.

That it relies on selling the mats means I never make jack.
I need those things, man. :-(

Personal housing, if done right, would be one of the few additions they could make to truly hold my interest for any length of time.
I’ve realized how little I’m actually invested in the world of GW2 and its characters, cities, etc. so when I take a break, I don’t actually ‘miss’ the game as I tend to when I take off from MMOs.
While personal-housing wouldn’t really fix my existing problems with the world, it could give me a place that I actually feel a connection to and have a desire to return to.

Tempest feels like it was, at best, designed as a concept, then iterated over enough times that the current form has virtually nothing to do with its concept.
If it’s a ‘tempest’, it needs more focus on storm-calling. Right now, it feels more like some kind of sonic-mage than anything.

To a lesser degree, Dragonhunter and Chronomancer also feel fairly lax in their adherence with their theme.

HaxTester.9816:

How about this, give Magister Ela Makkay an additional dialogue option that will make the player character transport to the old Lion’s Arch. The dialogue would be as if Ela Makkay is interested to know more about the player character’s experience with the old Lion’s Arch, and this sequence would be like a flashback of sorts, but in playable form.

Bonus points if a random ‘glitch’ could throw you into the GW1 version. >_>

I’ve been mentioning this for a while too…
Either make it the Legendary Envoy Stance, or change the others. :-(

xarallei.4279:

I wish they wouldn’t use the sepia. I want to be able to walk around old LA and get that nostalgic feeling. This is the only way to see our beloved old LA afterall. The sepia makes it washed out. Hate it.

Turn off post-processing.

“Legendary Dragon Stance”…
Race/Species again.

Change Assassin, please. :-(

Considering all we’ve gotten since launch is the Reef Drake, I don’t have high expectations.

That said, even though it wouldn’t have the utility it did in GW1, I’d like to have a menagerie to see all of our pets in once unlocked. That was an enjoyable place to visit, and the roaming pets are one of the best parts of the HoM in GW2 to me.

As I’ve said before, I don’t want characterization from the Dragons.
I want unknowable Lovecraftian horrors that the Tyrians can’t even contemplate fighting in a traditional sense.
I loved the idea of them being these unbound forces that the world is pretty much at the mercy of…
Then Zhaitan happened. And we got ‘intelligent’ champions and a zombie army (complete with zombie anti-aircraft guns) instead of an unstoppable horde incapable of being contained by normal tactics that serves merely to spread the infection further.
And now we’ve got Mordremoth speaking a normal language like a generic villain…

So much wasted potential.

Repeated from elsewhere, but just add a line showing the reward to the completion notification (medal and such in the top-right corner). And they should add a TTL to those notifications as well, so I don’t have to constantly click them away while they’re at it. >_>

Maybe a UI flyout on the inventory screen as well detailing your last X# of rewards.

As I said elsewhere, I’d prefer the current defend events be replaced with much larger, longer ones that have multiple mechanics and a large base rather than a couple of useless barricades that you just circle-camp and fight in. Each at a structure more akin to the Silverwastes forts, but larger and better would be ideal, but at least something that feels suited to a long onslaught. And I’d have the scale of the attack and ‘style’ vary by night (Full army vs. ‘tactical’ strikes, etc).

Elsewhere, I’d slim down the mobs on the ‘standard paths’ significantly. As you deviate from them, density could increase, but I’d say just have more dangerous types of mobs instead (IE: Smokescales and Raptors pack it in for the night because something worse shows up).
Maybe on certain nights, Mordrem ambushes become more of a thing as well. Add some intelligence to it, so a Mordrem will stay stealthed and keep away from the fray if 10 or so people are in the area, but will attack if a straggler is left behind.

timRAR.2765:

I see Trahearne falling to the dragon’s corruption in HoT and becoming a significant story mode boss. The dragon will put extra effort into converting the leader of the Pact.

Then you fight him again at the Ring of Fire, and in Guild Wars 3, some Quaggan shows up with Caladbolg because reasons.

It’s a fairly common theme.
Dragon-hunter doesn’t really seem especially-equipped for hunting Dragons.
Chronomancers have a number of effects that are basically “Does X… because time?” where the flavour text tries to make it thematic…
Tempests… are not tempests. Hell, I’d say their overloads aren’t really overloads either, but what should be a storm-mage is basically just an arch-mage or an ‘elemental commander’ or something.

No bouncy chests, and no bags please. Maybe an added line on the event results (which I’d also like to see get a time-to-live feature, honestly), and a UI flyout in the wallet to show you your most recent X rewards.

Randulf.7614:

- Completely different lighting. A slightly gloomier map doesn’t equate night vs day. It needs to be full on night. Ever been in a jungle at night? Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

This is one of the most obvious faults to me. I honestly don’t like that we get an announcement/timer saying, “HEY! IT’S ABOUT TO BE NIGHT TIME!!!” either.
I’d prefer it to be a more subtle transition from day->dusk->night->dawn (with dusk and dawn being either ‘quieter’ or in some ways hybrids) where you know whar point of the day you’re in by the environment around you and… well… by what time it is…

And I’d say make anything off the beaten trail (aside from luminescent mushroom patches and the like) super-dark at night. WP actually had a good suggestion for a mastery allowing for ‘night-vision’, and something like that could actually be a good solution; it wouldn’t completely offset the lack of light (and may apply a visual filter when used), but it could let you ‘adapt’ to the jungle.

That said, I’m also not really fond of the event structure in the zone, especially at night.
The day event chains are actually pretty good (when they work), but they feel too linear and repetitive, so they don’t really feel very natural and it gets old pretty quick (IMO). Half hoping that some events in the part of the zone we’re in are just disabled, but I’m also not fond of heavy event-density since it makes the zone feel like an artificial playground, so I’d also not be huge on that. I guess just have the events we already have, but have natural branches such that each has a number of different paths they can take (some dependent on player interaction, some randomly decided by NPCs).

The night events are just really, really repetitive though. I get the concept of them and I like the sort of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ survival idea; it just doesn’t work too well in practice. I guess part of it is just how quickly and frequently they occur. A sustained attack on a base (like, potentially all night) with a lot of defense mechanics may work well, but repeated “Defend!” events that basically consist of standard fights while camping a circle are nothing new. Hell, even have variants where one point gets assaulted as a feint while a larger force marches on another, a hyper-version where a full army consisting of hundreds upon hundreds of Mordrem assaults a base at once, etc. Or even have some nights where they don’t attack at all (or instead ambush travelers more frequently). If they’re going to be an intelligent enemy (Not going onto my rant on intelligent dragons again right now, but suffices to say, that choice has already been made), then don’t make the attacks completely predictable.
One other issue though is that getting around to the various rally-points is kind of a pain as well, so even if we’re stuck with these brief, repeated attacks, moving from one place to the next is kind of annoying as it stands.

All-in-all, I guess the big thing for me is I’d like the zone to feel more like a natural place, and instead it feels artificial and overly-scripted to me.

I’ve still seen no real explanation as to why the class is even called Tempest.
They did mention that there have been a lot of iterations so I’d have to expect (or at least hope) the early ones were more centered around storm-summoning, but in its current state, it has so little tie to storms at all that the name really does not fit.

Is it just because the concept art was already done before the actual concept was changed? Is there any possibility the name can be changed by release, so we can at least have the possibility of a real tempest at some point? I’d like answers. :-(

Marjory really would have fit better for a summoner/ritualist sort of thing… :-/
Kind of a missed opportunity.

The story bit was slightly more enjoyable than usual… Well, the new dialogue system at least; the pact soldiers acting like finding out where the captives were kept was a big surprise despite being like 30 yards away was still kind of daft, but I’ve come to expect that with the limited scope of the maps and how many chapters tend to be crammed in each… The progression of the fights worked reasonably well too. Rytlock’s intro didn’t wow me, but at least it worked with the encounter.

Other than that, the only things I’ll give notable points to are gliding and masteries as a concept.
The former was rather enjoyable, and in a better (or at least more complete) map, it would provide a lot of opportunities for exploration.
The latter… I’m kind of on both sides of the fence on actually. I like the tiers of masteries and that I’m earning new abilities and such as I play, but I still feel tying them to XP diminishes the distinction of each track, and I’d like to see more specific activities in the jungle associated with them. Maybe at least lock tiers behind ‘quests’ of a sort rather than (or in addition to) mastery points? I don’t know. I found myself enjoying the progression to unlocking them (despite how frustrating the XP gain was this weekend), but at the same time, I think they could have more flavour.

Actually, I suppose I’ll also give a thumbs-up to Revenant. I wound up enjoying the class far more than I expected I would thanks to Shiro/Hammer. Impossible Odds was pretty great both in-combat and out (even if I’d have preferred a copy/paste of GW1s for authenticity’s sake), and it’ll be a shame if it gets nerfed. Hammer was far more fun than S/S and Staff to me, though I didn’t give staff much of a go admittedly. Not surprising since I generally hate melee, but I was pleasantly-surprised at how effective it was.

Don’t feel like going into a lot of detail right now, so I’ll just hit on the most important issue…
Stance name(s) should be changed.

Either classify them by race or another characteristic, but be consistent.
Make Shiro “Legendary Envoy/Human Stance” or make the others “Legendary General Stance”, “Legendary Philosopher Stance”, “Legendary King Stance”, etc. (or similar, yet less terrible-sounding).

The current setup opens up more human heroes, but stands against any further Dwarves, Centaurs, or Demons down the line. If we’re going with one hero per race maximum (which I’m cool with), Shiro should be brought in line. If not, the others should be adjusted.

“Hey, which way to the outhouse?”

I’d still prefer the 3 game modes be sequestered from one another entirely, but I suppose that ship sailed prior to original launch. :-/

This is just more stuff I won’t be pursuing though and less motivation to collect stuff for me. It’s looking increasingly like HoT will basically be a one-time play-through of the story + maybe grinding the initial Maguuma masteries before I bail, though I suppose that’s fine.

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve come to expect the dulling down of the Dragons, but I’m still not fond of it.
I’d have preferred unintelligible, maddening whispers throughout the jungle and, in the case of story instances visual effects/hallucinations.

Dragons should have been more akin to lovecraftian gods than opposing army leaders. :-(

Difficulty now is debatable, but the problem is, how much fun do you think it will be several months in?
I could see a lot of the people lauding the challenge become annoyed with the mobs as time goes by.

While I like that there’s a difference for Sylvari (even if I’m still not fond of the whole Sylvari → Minions twist), I don’t like that we get a normal voicing saying normal things.

Still think the Dragon’s should have kept with the unknowable forces of nature thing, and any ‘voice’ you hear from Mordremoth should have been an unintelligible, maddening whisper that occurs randomly in the jungle(rather than accompanying any specific events).

Can I make progress by just helping random players in the open world as I happen upon them, or is it required to actively party with them or get them to add me to some kind of mentor list?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

New Medium armor

Yay… More pants…… :-(

Considering WvW achievements, I don’t believe it is even possible.

Randulf.7614:

I’m on the fence as to whether content should ever exist for the tower. I like the fact it has an air of mystery about it and has done since GW1

This is the stance I’d normally take, but I’d be less bothered by that at this point since they’ve already explained too much about what’s currently going on there, so it’s less interesting than it was in GW1 anyway.

Image looked like he was full of arrows.
Maybe he uses shortbow and just shoots himself to make him angrier?
Kinda necroish, but eh…

Eh. I guess I’ll just read some opinion pieces once people get into it.
Was going to potentially check out some streams, but if the zones capped to the same basic areas as the last ‘beta’, then not much point.

No interest in doing Fractals or Dungeons regardless of the prize (Beyond soloing the level 1 for the daily) .
Shoving this stuff in there kind of diminishes my interest in HoT, honestly.

Ah well, at least now I’m informed, so there’s that.

I would say a proper overload would just be a large buff for existing skills in an attunement until they burn out. I’d also still say it doesn’t fit ‘Tempest’ as well, but I think the ships already sailed on both those fronts.

Drooburt.
Because the only thing you’ve demonstrated is poor decision-making. :-(

Not a Tempest~~~

Silicato.4603:

Dont know how is it in NA, but since june 23rd, in EU you can prepurchase a boxed version of the standard edition in a lot of stores. And actually, it is cheaper than buying HoT from the offcial website.

So:

1.- you can buy boxed edition already
2.- it is cheaper to buy a boxed edition than in anet’s web.
3.- remember that you can upgrade any standard edition into deluxe with 2.400 gems (or in other words, less than 450 gold and of course: $0).

Nothing in the US yet, so those of us wanting boxes here are still holding out.