Guild Wars 2

Jonny.6013:

D/D Ele is still my first choice for messing around in open world and has been since launch. Once you get used to switching between elements and timing dodges etc it’s quite an enjoyable play style IMO, although very unforgiving st first!

D/D or S/D on Ele is a blast! Fast-paced and when you get good at those element swaps it’s pretty much the only class where you don’t end up mashing #1 waiting for CDs.

Whoever says elementalists just sit on Fire are talking about bad elementalists. Good elementalists use all elements (usually water being least popular when doing solo open world PvE). Staff elementalist is just……boring.

Rouven.7409:

Stupid idea perhaps, but do you have any use for laurels? You could turn them into T6 and sell those on the TP. Not a fast method per se, but it does not involve PvE for you and you might have a few already.

This is a great point actually. If you aren’t saving up your T6 mats or laurels then this is another easy way to add to your daily gold earnings.

nirvana.8245:

Its not there for me. I first recall seeing it missing on a low level character (10-15ish). But I returned on the character at level 70 and they are still missing, which debunked my theory that you had to be a certain level before you see those nodes.

EDIT: My next theory is that it is characters created after the patch that can’t see them as my other characters can see them, just not my character that was created after the patch.

Correct theory. New characters post-patch can no longer see nodes on the mini-map until a certain level, however they can still harvest the nodes as long as they have a pick/axe/sickle. Just no mini-map.

If you are good with your Ele, then your Ele. I prefer a well-geared, well-played Elementalist over a well-geared, well-played Warrior in my FoTM groups. They are just so darn useful and have amazing DPS.

Or run EoTM train. That makes pretty good money from selling loot/mats. I usually end up with quite a bit of ectos from a EoTM train session.

nagr.1593:

= Usually people with AP in the mid range are more skilled than those with too low or high AP (mid is between 4k-12k AP I would say). This is something I notice in PvE for harder content like Arah where too low or high AP players usually wipe a lot, but those with decent AP are better skilled and experienced.

I’ve never had an issue with someone with too high AP being bad. Maybe I’ve been luck. In fact, one of my normal dungeon/FoTM run groups I have the lowest AP (14k) and I can honestly say there is no content that we don’t faceroll through.

For things like FoTM30+ anyone under 7k AP I get a bit worried they won’t be able to hold their own. In some cases I’m pleasantly surprised. In others my fears become realized. But, the majority of players doing FoTM30+ will have at least 7k AP, so it rarely comes up, if ever.

kokiman.2364:

You can’t report them.. for what? Being afk? Sadly this game allows you to be afk and get as much rewards as other players (especially at world bosses).

We have to accept that there are a lot of leechers in this game, they don’t care about it, they play for their own fun, not because they enjoy playing with other people. Look at the claw of jormag event. People rather kill champions on the ledges instead of escorting the golems. Sometimes they even pull champs to the middle area so that the champs can destroy the golems. They drag out the fight just so that THEY get more rewards.

Other games have this problem aswell but in GW2 it’s more severe because loot/exp is shared and you basically just have to hit 1 event related mob to get the eventreward.

The people at world bosses aren’t actually AFK. They are just standing around after doing just enough damage to get credit for the kill. Which is one step worse than being AFK. Being legitimately AFK at a world boss will get you nothing.

oxtred.7658:

Speed runs and speedruns are a different things (in my words, at least) . Speedruns refers as getting the fastest time possible following a set of rules, whereas speed runs are just usual runs made fast by a good comp/knowledge of the dungeon. I never saw pugs posting their runs to gwscr, but maybe It’ll happen. The pug strats also differs from guild strats. Pugs don’t use them because we don’t always put what we do on social medias and they are not aware of it.

That’s a new one to me. Speedrun versus speed run.

I didn’t realize it was a normal thing to post your runs onto gwscr. Figured that was just the upper echelon of speedrunners measuring certain body parts.

A speedrun, in my opinion, is any run where the goal is to specifically get through as quickly as possible. As in, we will skip most of these mobs, we will all run to this corner, burn down this guy, then we all run through these mobs, etc.

Versus a normal run that is just done quickly, which is fine, I just call those fast runs, not speed runs.

Speedrunners will likely kick you if you have too low AP, don’t have proper gear, and/or don’t keep up with what they are doing.

If I have ~20-30min to play I focus on 5 dailies to get the laurel. If I happen to be close to a 6th daily then I’ll go for it. If I have ~1hr to play I typically go for 8 dailies. If I have 2hrs to play, I usually do WvW exclusively and that will typically get you 6-8 dailies just through normal play.

Daily Gatherer is always on there, so that should be a no brainer. There are some WPs where you can knock out daily gatherer in about 1min (Halvaunt WP in Wayfarer Foothills for example (NW section)).

Daily Kills is a pretty common one to rotate in, so if you are in a time crunch, go to a low level zone and just mow through everything you see. Even better if there is both Daily Kills and <region> Killer dailies. Just go to whatever region it says and you can pretty much knock out two with one stone. Same goes for Underwater Kills. There’s no reason to kill more than you need to, so if Underwater and Daily Kills are there, do most of your killing underwater. Lowest zone possible. Any daily requiring kills (veterans, champions, etc.) should either be done in a 1-15 zone or just hit up the EoTM train.

Which segues perfectly into Daily Events, which is another one that is usually up there. EoTM will have you finish that real fast, plus if daily veteran or champion is up, that will be completed while you run the train. Also if WvW Defender, WvW Camp/Tower Capturer is one, then that likely will be completed during your train as well. Daily Leveler is easy in EoTM as well since you get so much XP from events you will level several times in an hour.

Karma Spender is obvious enough, find nearest heart quest vendor (must be a completed heart of course) and just buy stuff.

Finally there’s PvP. Play 3 matches and you will be 99% guaranteed to finish any PvP dailies. If the PvP dailies are only daily captures and kills, then that could be done in just one match, but that is never guaranteed.

Once you get a good feel for where to go to for each category, the base daily (5 categories) is doable in ~20min, with 8-10 categories doable in 1hr.

Hope this helps!

EOTM in my opinion.

Ranger/Mesmer will be extremely difficult to get through to TA boss without dying.

I do not envy this task.

Your best bet is definitely getting a full group. TA is run pretty frequently, so if you create a LFG looking for people, you should fill up in no time and be on your way to TA set!

Ceesa.1350:

So perhaps I should be going about getting linen by gold farming from dungeons and then just buying the scrap on the TP, but I was up in iron hills killing mobs to get armor drops, which I then planned to salvage for the linen scrap. But all of the armor drops were level 75+. I was under the impression that the armor dropped would be commensurate with the level of the area, not the level of my character. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a better way to farm linen scrap?

All help appreciated. Thanks.

How much karma do you have? There’s a trick to turning karma into linen by buying certain items, throwing 4 of them in MF, then salvaging what comes out. It can be somewhat time-consuming/tedious, but if you have karma to blow, there’s no cheaper/faster way to get it.

Dragonite will take the longest but the easiest way to get dragonite is:

a) EoTM train. Keeps will give anywhere from 15-30 dragonite from what I’ve experienced.
b) World boss farming. The bosses spawn at specific times which can be located online. Dulfy.net has a good boss timer. To save time, the main bosses you want to hit are: Karka Queen, Shatterer, Golem Mk II. Just these 3 bosses alone will net you over 50 dragonite/day.
c) Dry Top buried chests. These things tend to drop a significant amount of dragonite, seemingly at random, but some chests have netted me 18 or so dragonite, so it is worth it.

The other materials you should get/have tons already. Empyreal fragments are 2nd hardest, but if you run EoTM train you will make hundreds/day.

oxtred.7658:

pugs and speedruns are a different thing by definition..

PUG= acronym for pick-up group
Speed run = doing a dungeon run as fast/efficient as possible.

You can have a PUG speed-run group. In fact, most speed-run groups I run are PUGs. So yes different in a sense, but you can be in a group that is both a PUG and a speed-run group.

nagr.1593:

For the first few months when I was starting out, I would mainly just run CoF P1 over and over again (this used to be a gold farm method, but it got nerfed). That’s probably the easiest dungeon, and most fun if you are starting out. Other easy dungeons are AC, SE, and TA.

OP, take this with a grain of salt as what he is describing is speed-running. If you are new to dungeons I wouldn’t necessarily suggest running them in the speed-run mindset. Those are the groups looking for “pro” players that basically know when to just run through tons of mobs and where to end up to stack and burn down content as fast as possible so they can get the reward chests (and money). Then they pick a new dungeon and do it all over again. It is not a good environment from someone who is new.

I would recommend starting with AC p1, p2, p3 (assuming you’ve done Story mode, if not, create a LFG for story mode, it’s worth it). Specify in your LFG that you are looking to do a casual run for players new to dungeons. Being clear in your LFG description is really all you need to do.

Charr and Norn are the only ones that have their own specific 15-25 zones that aren’t shared by other races. After that they are technically shared with at least one other race. For example Lornar’s could be argued is shared by humans (it borders LA, which is a filler between Gendarran). Dredgehaunt feels like it would be Charr/Norn/Human for some reason.

Pretty much after level 25, the zones become multi-race.

Condition removal is really the best way to combat this. Or Condition —> boon skills, or condition transfer skills.

Some classes are better at it than others so keep that in mind. Guardians are especially good at condition removal if specced for it.

Ken DeBoer.9268:

I am releveling a ranger and thought this was hilarious. Also, word of warning, don’t you dare try and do underwater combat at low level. You get no weapons or skills. GG

You get #1 skill, but no automatic weapon. You just need to go buy an underwater weapon is all. Think of it like any other weapon in the game.

Most of the people in EoTM, if they weren’t in EoTM, would not be in WvW at all. It isn’t affecting your WvW population. It is 95% PvEers leveling alts and/or grinding mats/money/WXP. Then of course the 5% of people that are waiting for BL/EB queue.

If they reduce the rewards, all we would end up with is a ghost town EoTM in addition to the lack of people in WvW you claimed to have seen. That’s just worse overall. Hopefully they don’t do that.

EoTM is one of the few activities I can do for hours on end without burning out.

Nube one one seven.7039:

I`m just gonna leave this here as a reminder:

http://strawpoll.me/2555336/r

Oh wow look,a little more than 1.5K votes, less than 10% happy. So let me ask you this Vayne, as an editor, did you ever have overwhelming feedback point to something being an absolutely horrible change/feature/ect? If so, what did you do about it? Did you simply ignore everything that the feedback was pointing to as being horrible? Did you ignore any and all suggested fixes, did you attempt to figure out what specific parts were so hated, and why? Or did you simply do nothing?

I think it’s fair to say that a majority of old players don’t enjoy the new player experience. We didn’t need a poll to tell us that. We also aren’t the group of people for which the NPE was designed. Might as well poll a bunch of blind people on their car preference while we’re at it.

Lodius.5392:

I know this sounds very “Conspiracy Theory” type stuff… but I think nothing is coincidence.

That’s an interesting perspective on life.

I’m trying to think what my life would be like if I believed nothing was coincidence.

I’d probably think a lot of people were following me lol.

“Hey Draknar! Boy, ran into you twice in one day! Haha, I didn’t know you shopped here for groceries!

“………sure you didn’t……sure you didn’t……” /evil eye “…I’m onto you….”

Rococo.8347:

Stop policing threads constantly and telling people their opinions are ‘wrong’ – you were on EVERY thread I read yesterday.

I’ve yet to see him say someone’s opinion is wrong.

I’ve seen him tell people their facts are wrong, or their facts are opinion, typically citing sources to back it up. But saying someone’s opinion is wrong? Have yet to see that. That’s forum no-no #1, and he’s a forum pro.

People throw around a lot of opinion as fact, he simply calls them on it. The level of exaggeration on these forums is absurd. I think we can all agree on that.

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

It’s like my friends/guild/social circle would deliberately give a bad opinion of a change for no reason, right?

If they have played it and are weighing in; sure that’s some useful input. If they are reading the forums then reiterating those comments to you; that is less useful.

Flashback to first release of DryTop and the commotion caused by the “forced jumping puzzles” in order to advance the story. Thread after thread of people saying it isn’t fair to force jumping, gaining sympathy for those with motor skill issues, refusing to participate in the content because jumping puzzles shouldn’t be required, etc etc. We all remember.

I had a guild member who had been able to play the update before I did. He isn’t a fan of GW2 to start with. He’s a once a month type player and loves to read the forums and nitpick on things here and there, but whatever it is his right to do so (loved GW1 but can’t stand GW2 for whatever reason).

Anyway, I finally get on and ask him if he wants to join me for the new LS. He declined citing that he hates jumping puzzles. I asked him, oh there are jumping puzzles? He says that in order to get through the new LS you have to do so much jumping it may as well be a jumping puzzle so he gave up on it. He also didn’t hide his opinion in guild chat when people got on asking how the new update was. “It’s great if you don’t mind doing Jumping Puzzles to progress” he would say. A smattering of guildies would express their hatred of jumping puzzles and would continue on with comments like “ugh that sucks, why would Anet do that! I hate jumping puzzles! I guess I won’t be doing LS this year, wow Anet sucks so bad.”

Then a new person logs on and asks “Hey how’s the new update!” Now two people chime in (first guy, and second guy he told) along the lines of “great unless you hate jumping puzzles, because there’s tons of jumping puzzles to get through for the LS.”

Naturally I assumed he had played it and then quit when he came to all of the jumping. No big deal, I love jumping puzzles. So I play through the LS. It took me two days, and each mission I would expect the next mission must be the one he was talking about. Finished the LS. There were no jumping puzzles. There was one mission with 3 jumps. Three. And not jumping puzzle type jumps, we’re talking, jump to this obvious ledge type jumps.

So naturally I ask him in guild. “Hey which mission is the one with all the jumping?”

His response, “Oh I dunno, I never actually played it, I read on the forums about all of the jumping and I hate jumping puzzles so I didn’t want to do it.”

^^^ That’s how guild members can give poor input. They clearly believe what they are saying, but they could very well kittenoing sentiments from other sources rather than speaking from first-hand experience, which, if the forums are their sources, is pretty useless information.

Just an example from my experience.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Draknar.5748:

Most of the ones screaming about how terrible these changes are have not actually played the changes themselves.

Source please?

You’re doing the same thing you’re accusing other people of – assuming.

I, uh, quoted the guy specifically saying it….if that doesn’t count as source then I don’t know what you are asking. Do you want source code?

I guess the “most” part of my comment would be the assumption; but I clearly cited an example of what I’m claiming. Versus, you know, saying something is terrible and then admitting you’ve never even tried it…

XiniX.3208:

… It apears my Guild Wars 2 game has been replaced by the “Press 1” simulator 2014. started up a new character just to get back into the feel of the game, I have several lvl 80 from last time I played, but I felt like starting anew… and what the hell?

You should have unlocked all 5 weapon skills by level 10. Getting to level 10 is roughly 75min play time at a normal pace.

While they increased the levels certain skills are unlocked, the speed at which you reach the levels were increased accordingly. You will unlock skills at roughly the same pace (with the exception of your Elite skill). I am of course referring to Utility skills mainly as getting to level 10 (which unlocks all weapon skills for all weapons) is doable in one sitting for every type of player (casual or hardcore). Most people who are complaining about this change are complaining about Utility skill unlocks and F1-F4 skill unlocks, rather than weapon skill unlocks.

I guess if you want to say that your first 10min of playing the game is a Press 1 simulator, then yes, you are correct. Anything beyond that is exaggeration to try and make a point.

To put into perspective: Took me 4hrs or so of playing Destiny to unlock all of my weapons. And here we are complaining that the weapon skills in GW2 are unlocked a little over an hour into playing the game…

Can’t please everyone.

While I agree the new leveling up isn’t how I would have done it; having leveled a character through it, it’s not a big deal. It’s actually more rewarding to level up now, in my opinion, than it was before, and you level up significantly faster 1-15 than you did before. For a veteran player, sure it might be frustrating, but as a Veteran player you know where to go and how to level (hopefully) so it should be even faster leveling passed those “tutorial” levels. Heck, go to EoTM and you will hit 20 before the end of the day.

Rognik.2579:

See the purple stars on the map? That’s your fast-forward button. When you replay a chapter, you can skip to any achievement-filled instance without having to do the entire story. (Doing the story is an option, though, if you wanted to view the vision in Omadd’s machine while under a potion…)

Correct. The purple stars are where you need to go. They start specific missions. You can jump to any one you want.

If you switch characters, then yes, you need to do the story all over again.

born in black sky.8162:

Greetings
some achievements are impossible to done it ,that make the game frustrating .
for journal story why not make a lot differents difficulties so every one choose what he want and enjoy the game .
some times i get stuck for weeks to finish 1 achievement so frustrating especially jumping puzzles >_< .
please dev team add choices to ppl so every one can enjoy the game the way they want .

With the exception of WvW achievements (like Yakslapper), none of the achievements are impossible. Especially the Jumping Puzzles. They just take effort. There are some JPs I’ve taken over 50 attempts to complete. That’s part of the achieving.

It has been widely accepted that it is better worth your time and money to just outright buy the precursor you want than to try your hand at the MF.

On a plus side (if there even is one), typically if you spend 500g in MF with rare GS, you should make ~200g back in exotics. So you aren’t out the entire amount at least.

Either way, save up your money for the specific precursor you want rather than save up for RNG. Sucks but its true.

sharkstein.2109:

Grinding achievements you have no hold on (Mad Court Victory during Halloween) to progress the story. This was my final nail in the coffin back in October 2013, I dumped this game never to return again. Looks like I was right on my money, GW2 has been doing downhill ever since.

Wait…you quit the game a year ago and you’re STILL on the forums??

I always assumed the ones that quit and stayed on the forums to high-five other people that quit were recent quitters, not people that quit a year ago.

I have to admire your dedication to the game. I can’t think of any game I’ve quit that I care enough about to post on the forums a year later lol.

Well done. :P

/15char

Arikyali.5804:

To cut Anet some slack, I will admit it’s not that bad. I understand, if someone has never played an MMO before, this new system would be helpful. And I only messed around for about 2 hours on a brand new alt to get to lvl 6. I wasn’t pushing it.

The system removes the confusion of “what to do next?” Fine, that’s great.

But what did that translate to? I have to grind hearts and monster kills to unlock skills and armor. No offense, but how is this supposed to be different from every other MMO where you need to do quests to level up? Kill X amount of enemies. Gain exp. Level up. Dynamic events? Nevermind those, they didn’t give me enough exp to level up.

Um, Anet? You shot yourself in the foot here.

2 hours to get to level 6. wut…? Even the old system didn’t take that long to get to level 6 and that was playing casually. What are you doing, killing ambients to level up?

Honestly I get that culling is important for performance, that’s perfectly understandable. What I don’t understand is why the culling would cause me to not see my own personal mini-pet. That’s like play model culling not letting you see yourself on the screen.

Clearly this was not what they intended. If it was then dear lord what is the logic. Why even have mini-pets if you can’t see them? I don’t care about seeing other people’s pets (on some level I do but I can sacrifice that), however there’s no logical reason that culling needs to hide my own pet.

Scaulder.5782:

I’ve seen this game go from something challenging

Are we playing the same game?

Not saying there isn’t some challenging content in this game, because I honestly believe there is, but as someone who has played practically every MMO on the market, GW2 is one of the easiest to get into and do decent in while having very little gaming skills/experience. It’s a very forgiving game for new players. That’s always been the case. Now it’s simply more “hand-holdy” for the first 10-15hrs of your play time.

I don’t believe so. I’ve always been under the impression it was to come back after the Halloween event.

MikaHR.1978:

Actually 30 and onwards.

But you see, vets lerning new stuff….2 years from launch.

Just more proof it was warranted.

I’m pretty confident Rare armor doesn’t start until level 35. I based my whole alt gearing process on this fact. If there is level 30 Rare armor available on the TP I will eat my hat.

winterchillz.2564:

I still haven’t tried out the new leveling system but the hundreds of posts about it plus the videos I’ve been watching create an image of something very tedious in my head.

This is the exact problem with the forums. Most of the ones screaming about how terrible these changes are have not actually played the changes themselves. They just read what other people are posting (who also have not played the changes) and then regurgitate it. I have a feeling Anet knows this. It’s probably one of the reasons they don’t put too much stock in what people say in the forums.

Alice.8317:

Vegeta.2563:

Its never going to happen so not like it matters.

That’s what everyone thought about the level gating.

We did? Considering level gating was already in the game from release (utility skills/elite skills/traits/weapon swap), I highly doubt anyone was saying they never thought level gating was going to happen…

….you know….since it already existed in game…

I think you meant to say nobody expected there to be additional level gating.

Paradox.1380:

Sadly, every where I have posted this I have been ignored. What do I have to do? Make a video that disproves the other one? That will probably get ignored too.

Problem is, the forums are full of people that have already decided they dislike the game, and now they want everyone else to dislike the game as well. They don’t play regularly, most have already said “so glad I quit” or “now I’m never coming back”. They aren’t players. They are angry ex-players that are bored with their old MMOs, are bored with this one, are bored with all MMOs, and want to make sure everyone else feels the same way.

They also don’t typically play the content they complain about. They read other people complaining about the new content and nod their head in agreement, followed by a regurgitated version of the posts they’ve been reading.

They do read the contradicting posts but say to themselves “pfft, fanboys… it isn’t like that at all, they will defend anything, those stupid white knights, it’s really like what these other posters are saying which happens to be exactly in line with my current view of GW2 as a whole.”

I rolled an alt so I could have an informed opinion. While I can admit that it was slightly more frustrating not having everything unlocked as early as it used to be, the fact is, in ~two hours of play time I already hit 15, and I still have some Personal Story left that I can do for more levels. They seemed to have accelerated the leveling to the point where I would suggest that your overall playtime to unlock the skills has not changed, just the number next to your name…

Heck, I would even suggest that you unlock your skills in less overall play time, even though the level req is higher, but there would be no way to prove that, so it is a baseless claim, do with it what you will.

Mesket.5728:

Maybe easy is all they know… it takes ideas to make something hard not using the most obvious variables (damage and hp).

You mean things like:

AoE in various sizes in various areas that require actively paying attention to avoid and not die
Multiple adds
Various conditions caused by boss or adds
Some kind of shield/invulnerability that requires something beyond tank and spank to remove (i.e. have to kite into an AoE field)
Maybe a boss that can only be damaged by a crystal that requires charging it via a major attack that hits a random party member
Maybe a boss that must be fought on the move because they destroy sections of the ground during the encounter

I could go on of course….

Yea GW2 doesn’t have any encounters outside of smashing bosses with high HP, if only they could get creative with fights for once…

SkiTz.4590:

heck no, there will hardly be any new players wanting to try out this game now with the forums full of complaints and hardly anything positive coming out of this patch, for both vets and new players alike… both parties were damaged here…

Luckily the vast majority of players, both old and new, don’t get on the forums. That’s why all of our speculation about what new players think or will think or may have thought at one point mean nothing. The new players that get on the forums will likely see all of the complaints and could possibly choose not to play because of it. But honestly, how many people do you think that is? Since you’re on the forums, clearly you are a forum dweller, like I am, so you may get on the forum of any new MMO you play, like I do, but if you are like me, you don’t base your opinion on other peoples’ opinions. You read them, consider them, and then make your own bloody opinion after playing the game.

Negative comments on the forums will have little to no impact on the majority of people playing the game.

All it will do is cause us forum dwellers that have similar opinions to band together and attack the evil forum dwellers that have the opposite opinion.

We see it every day here on As The Forum Turns.

I recently had my brother join the game (he bought it when it was on 50% sale), he plays roughly 3hrs/week (he’s active Navy with his 2nd kid on the way). He’s played maybe 3 hours total so far. I’m curious what his take on it is. Last I saw him he was level 8, and that was before the feature patch, so he’s right in the midst of what would be considered the most affected group.

He has no loyalty to GW2 (he is/was a WoW player), he doesn’t read the forums, he doesn’t really have the time for an MMO, he just got sick of paying a sub for a game he can barely play (again 3h a WEEK) so he wants to try GW2.

I want to hear his feedback. Not the feedback of people with multiple 80s who now feel leveling up yet another alt is more tedious. This isn’t for us, it’s for completely new players who don’t know the previous system. Sure you can claim something is more tedious, but as someone with 9 level 80s, I can say it was never tedious to begin with. So when we veterans are talking about this being more tedious, we have a reference point already and so we can honestly say it is more tedious. Because, yes, technically it is more tedious than zero tediousness.

Whether a new player (who does not go on the forums—this is the most important) will feel it is tedious to begin with is what is important.

For all we know completely new players will just play the game and not know one way or the other.

He’s an example of a completely new person picking up the game and starting out fresh. No pre-conceived notions, no haters or fanbois trying to build up or put down the game. Just a regular guy, who has MMO experience, playing a new MMO he’s never played before.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Yes, this.

It felt like a free world. Like, you know… a second life. An adventure, where your choices were all that mattered. You could do content above your level if you were good, and fail if you were not. You wandered around the world and enjoyed that “living world” with dynamic events and tons of stuff to explore.

Now you log in, press [F], hit 1, get a cookie for it and are directed by large arrows to the next press [F] and hit 1 on the map. You know, like those linear Crysis, Need for Speed and browser flash games.

Oh, exciting!.. not.

You realize the arrow is for people that are so new to GW2 they literally have no idea where to go. At no point do you have to go where the arrow tells you. Think of the arrow as a guide for where to go to continue your tutorial. If you have played the game before and know what to do, how about don’t follow the arrow?

Unless you are suggesting that you cannot progress from 1-15 without following that arrow…

nexxe.7081:

Yes, i have tried it, and the speed still doesn’t change the fact that you are locked out of skills. Engineers will still have to wait for unlocking their kits at lvl 13, and professions that use sigils.

Hmmmm, I must test the new leveling, because they way people are making it seem, the average player will hit 15 in 2 days (1-10 on Day 1 in 2hrs play time, and 10-15 on Day 2 in 2hrs play time). That’s….not very long at all….

I mean…4 hours play time….how will people cope with that….

Most of these threads seem very knee-jerk. But, will test later and see for myself.

khulse.4896:

Draknar.5748:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Ok, the point the OP was trying to make went over your head. Completely.
Np

Wasn’t the OP’s point that for starters he felt he got ripped off due to purchasing xmute stones before feature patch, but beyond that he’s most upset at the lack of communication from Anet? (i.e. he got no response from them; the “echoing silence” as OP stated)

So Vayne here linked a post from Anet (on these here official GW2 forums) that said basically if you are unhappy with items you’ve purchased due to a change in the way they are now implemented, you may request a refund, because they understand that it would be frustrating for someone to buy something on gem store and then a week later have that item’s functionality change. (which ironically is the exact thing that the OP wanted Anet to say and all would have been peachy, according to OP)

Therefore it wasn’t Anet that failed to communicate to OP, but OP not taking it upon himself to follow up on Anet’s offer for a refund? I know it’s risky siding with Vayne on the forums, but I think he understood the OP just fine.

All it comes down to is that OP didn’t see that message, didn’t inquire about a refund, and then made the decision to quit based off of that. Who knows, after seeing that Anet did in fact do what he wanted them to do, he may very well come back to the game. Or his pride will get in the way.

OP did see that message at the time. OP’s understanding of that message was part of the reason OP was unhappy.

You see, they listed several specific items. Stones were not among them. That would be fine, if I was the only person to bring it up. I wasn’t. They did NOT say that you could request a refund on any item you were unhapy with. They said

Gem refunds for items you are unhappy with due to changes in the way the item functions:
• Tonics that used to be Town Clothes that were purchased in the Gem Store
• Outfits that used to be Town Clothes that were purchased in the Gem Store
Duplicate Gem Store Purchase Refunds:
• Duplicates skins that were purchased in the Gem Store
• Duplicates of Tonics/Outfits that were purchased from the Gem Store
Dye Refunds: (list of dyes excluded for brevity)

So no, they didn’t do what I wanted them to do. But that’s ok. Judging by the changes I’m seeing for the next major patch, this isn’t a game I’ll enjoy anymore anyway.

Thanks for the discussion, everyone. It was stimulating, if nothing else.

I get that the stones weren’t on the list (I previously thought they were, I apologize for that oversight), but if it were me, personally, I would have thought to myself “Hmmm, but what about the stones? Maybe that was overlooked, I’ll shoot them an email to find out since I’m not sure if they just forgot or what.” That likely would have been it.

They clearly took the time to explain to their customers that they realized their changes may have affected people negatively that had purchased specific items right before the new changes and that they would do what they could to rectify the situation. Just because they didn’t list your item specifically doesn’t mean their hearts weren’t in the right place. They very well may have simply forgotten to list it, or more likely, didn’t even think about that one.

I mean, did you attempt an email to clarify if you were eligible? Like Vayne said, they stated that if you weren’t sure, to contact them. I’d like to think you took that step like most consumers would have. If you did contact them and they said you were SOL, then that’s messed up and I would have probably quit too.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

So might I ask, why do you not want to see my AP’s yet allow me to see yours? Because that is what an optional check box would do. Could you please tell us what benefit this would bring to the game by you turning off another’s APs?

I am fairly confident that he meant to hide his AP from other people as well as hiding their AP. Basically he doesn’t want to see AP values or have anyone see his.

This is my assumption based on his initial post. It wouldn’t make a lick of sense otherwise.

Some people can be elitist and gauge skill based on AP. I have been guilty of this on occasion for higher level fractals. I mean, when 4 out of 5 of us are 13k+ AP and our PUG 5th member is at 1500, it certainly raises eyebrows. I can tell you I’ve never kicked someone because of their AP, we always play with them to see how they do. In this particular case the PUG 5th member was a good player. We had no issues at all running a FoTM30 with him in our group.

Works both ways too. If our PUG 5th member who joined had 15k AP, we’d all be relieved and expected them to be really good. But I’ve personally seen that not be the case as well.

All AP really tells us is generally how long someone has been playing. 10k+ means they’ve most likely been playing since the beginning or close to it. 3k or less and they are likely new players, within a year at least. Both can be good or bad players, AP means nothing really.

I would support hiding AP.

KarlaGrey.5903:

Ok, the point the OP was trying to make went over your head. Completely.
Np

Wasn’t the OP’s point that for starters he felt he got ripped off due to purchasing xmute stones before feature patch, but beyond that he’s most upset at the lack of communication from Anet? (i.e. he got no response from them; the “echoing silence” as OP stated)

So Vayne here linked a post from Anet (on these here official GW2 forums) that said basically if you are unhappy with items you’ve purchased due to a change in the way they are now implemented, you may request a refund, because they understand that it would be frustrating for someone to buy something on gem store and then a week later have that item’s functionality change. (which ironically is the exact thing that the OP wanted Anet to say and all would have been peachy, according to OP)

Therefore it wasn’t Anet that failed to communicate to OP, but OP not taking it upon himself to follow up on Anet’s offer for a refund? I know it’s risky siding with Vayne on the forums, but I think he understood the OP just fine.

All it comes down to is that OP didn’t see that message, didn’t inquire about a refund, and then made the decision to quit based off of that. Who knows, after seeing that Anet did in fact do what he wanted them to do, he may very well come back to the game. Or his pride will get in the way.

Morsus.5106:

What does League of Legends have to do with GW2? The devs already said that they aren’t working on it.

/whoooooooooooooosh

Devildoc.6721:

The only bad part about Tequatl’s roll out is that you have a 150 person PuG.

The problem was not the fight mechanics at all, the fight mechanics were great, it’s the fact that it was on an open landscape zone rather than an instanced dungeon.

Expecting 100+ people who just randomly join the map to be on voice communication and work together in teams is a bit of a stretch.

Except Tequatl was never meant to be a zerg fest world boss where everyone shows up at the last minute and hopes to win.

It was supposed to be a pre-planned event, much like a raid, where you prepare ahead of time, establish roles for groups, get on voice chat, etc.

When it was released everyone kept trying to treat it like it was Svanir Shaman or something and complained it was too hard and needed too much communication.

Ask anyone now that actually does Teq and you will know that it is extremely easy to do withOUT voice chat communication. You just need to get in a properly organized map. Look in LFG for taxis to Teq some time. You will be pleasantly surprised how easy the encounter is.

Every class has a way to slow/immobilize/knockdown. If you can’t kill them before they escape, then they escaped. That’s it. You are still alive as well, you’re both back to even. Move on.

If anything, him running away is better for your team because he probably left a teammate behind and/or left a control point for you to capture.

This isn’t CoD where you are trying to perfect your K/D ratio… You need to think strategically. If he wants to run away, don’t be stupid and chase him. Let him run while you continue to hold your point. Cowards only help your team. You should be praying for more bad warriors to join the enemy team.

Zardul.3952:

can we have some hard and challenging content please.

after all this Dumbing down the whole game, i would like the option to play as i want to play ( like it was advertised 2 years ago)

i like to play hardcore, challenging things.

i dont want butterflys and unicorns prancing around giving me an easy time.

i want demons keyboard smashing my dead corpse 1000 times before i kill them.

sort yourself out Anet, lets have some actual real MMO action

Have you considered the Dark Souls franchise? Sounds right up your alley.