Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARCmAyKAA2DAAAgrHAAAAA-jQBBYfDRLBqIaslhFRjVhET7iIqWKA9UGB-e

This might be a solid option for you. I’ve been running it to great effect. It’s extremely flexible, allowing you to change your entire build just by swapping your weapons and/or major traits. It can be run with any weapons and offers optional support for meditations, consecrations, and shouts.

In other words, it’s a really basic offensive-balanced Guardian template.

Or they could make it not look like crap first. That’d be great.

Mikhail.4961:

I already have the pet I want: a white wolf called “Moon Moon”.

ewhalen.8604:

I second the tiger. I miss mine from GW1. And, I would like a griffon and a horse…Come to think of it, are there any horses at all in GW2?

Horses are mentioned in one of the books, but they don’t appear in-game, no.

Horses are extinct in Tyria.

Martial Mastery, which reduces the cooldown of the Ranger’s melee weapons by 20%, was and is a Wilderness Survival Master tier Major trait. This was perfectly acceptable when all three weapons actually had innate condition damage on one of their skills. Now that the GS has been reworked to apply vulnerability instead of bleeding, however, the placement of this trait stands out as remarkably poor . One of the three weapons does not benefit from the malice bonus of the trait line at all, while the other two have underwhelming-at-best benefits from condition damage.

Basically, consider moving this trait somewhere less un-synergetic with the weapons it benefits. Literally any other line would be a better choice than this one.

Phoenix is the only answer.

Nanashi.5704:

Toli Rosca.9041:

There are male armours that I LOVE but refuse to wear because my male sylvari looks like he’s wearing a dress.

T2 cultural heavy pants. I love the cultural clothes, I can bring myself to put my Sylvari warrior in anything else, but the pants just kill me. T1 looks like a mini skirt, T2 is a dress, T3 in pants are a sash type thing which isnt bad but they sit way to high and don’t flow with the T1/2 chest armors at all (and the rest of T3 is bleh)
Now I can understand where the design team was probably coming from, the armor is very leafy and flowery, very “Sylvari” but we need a pants pants option. Something manly and strong! I feel like I need to hike up my T2 pants when I go running its that girly.

I actually love t2 sylvari heavy cultural pants. They’re a nice change of pace from the rest of the heavy armor and give a sleek, elegant look that works perfectly with both t1 and t2 chest armor. More importantly, it’s one of the few armor skins that doesn’t suffer from any “skirt” effects or other proportion issues.

And the thread still stands.

Do NOT release ascended armor until you fix the male Sylvari skirt effect on it. We don’t want another skin ruined by this.

Just buff the active. It’s crap.

The passive is perfectly fine – if it is to be buffed, buff the trait instead of the baseline. We could use more reasons to speck into Virtues.

Guardian weapons are mostly solid, but they do have some minor fundamental issues that could be improved upon to improve their synergy with traits and increase their depth.

Mace

The Mace is awesome, but I would suggest one minor, but significant change:

Protector’s Strike
Added secondary activation to end the channel early and trigger 3 seconds of AoE protection with a whirl finisher.

Scepter

Smite
Now constitutes a Symbol. Renamed to Symbol of Punishment. Damages foes and grants very brief might to allies in the symbol (1 stack for 1 second with each pulse).

Sword

Zealot’s Defense
Now constitutes a Symbol. Renamed to Symbol of Defense.
Stand in place, sending out magical projectiles while channeling a Symbol that damages foes and grants pulsing Aegis to allies inside. Cooldown increased to 20 seconds.

Focus

Shield of Wrath
Cooldown reduced to 40 seconds from 45.

Focused Mastery (Trait)
In addition to the 20% cooldown reduction for focus skills, this now grants 90 Power while using a Focus.

Tarnished Coast into Ring of Fire.

Nike.2631:

I have to admit… I don’t get this.

Sure, I generally create and destroy a character 3-6 times in the starting instance to check every detail of the model under ‘real’ lighting before committing.

After that, that character is forever. I sure as heck don’t attach $10-$30 dollars of gear to a character I have doubts about…

I have multiple characters with the unlimited tools. At the end of the day, the rush factor of temporary sales can effectively “force” a purchase for a character that I think will be my main, even if I’m not entirely sure.

(Also, it was through gold -> gems, which has somewhat less value to me).

Are there any plans to add a gem store item that converts soulbound items into account bound ones?

I would really like to remake one of my characters and transfer his unlimited tools to the new one.

Svarty.8019:

TriggerSad.2597:

Maybe you shouldn’t have rolled a red-headed-stepchild-class.

Fixed it for you.

“…and guardians are fine”. LOL!

Do you honestly believe that Guardians are a red-headed stepchild class when Engineers exist?

Guardians get minor buffs and fixes almost every patch. A lot of the actual red-headed stepchild classes (Engi, Ele, and PvE Ranger) have to wait ages for any significant changes and still manage to get out-loved by Guardians on major patch dates.

Hell, Engis still have aesthetic issues and are still locked into kit builds just to pretend to compete with other professions.

Substance E.4852:

What the kitten keeps forcing anet to give sylvari males the poofy, poodle skirt effect on all our armors? This is getting ridiculous. It’s like the art team does an amazing job everywhere else and then they just fail to even try in this one area.

This. With the new hairstyles and the awesome new upcoming face(s), I was finally happy with my Sylvari again. And then they release an awesome looking armor that is ruined by this stupid skirt effect.

Demonts.4593:

its not small against another glass cannon… but usually the other team only has 1 glass build and he is way in the back

Then it’s not a small burst – it’s a durable opponent.

You shouldn’t be able to burst high armor foes. That’s the entire point of tank builds. They counter you and condition damage counters them.

Doggie.3184:

I like the light armor, except for the shoulders. closest thing to a normal top I’ve seen and the tiny skirt part actually isn’t poofy on my fashion cursed Sylvari.
http://imgur.com/b0BBd8H

The Medium body is cool, but unfortunately it’s skirt is gigantic on male Sylvari. /sigh.
The boots are a bit weird also, looks like you’re wearing 2 pairs.
http://i.imgur.com/IKxHFdK.jpg

The Heavy just looks deformed and fulla rolls. ;/ The pants are also huge.
http://imgur.com/WP9xdQh

Meow. I’d totally love to skin the light armor to my medium. .-.

Shelledfade.6435:

that’s how they get you to buy more transmutation stones…. which means more money, which means they don’t really care about making COOL skins.

That doesn’t work. There’s nothing cool to Trans anything to, unless I can trans it to my GW1 character’s armor.

Yeah, the medium armor would be fantastic if not for that accursed skirt effect.

Machiavel.6042:

Actually, if Anet was smart…

You could see the new hairstyles at character creation…but a little lock design on it, or a gem, whatever.

That way, you could see it and test it, without all the hassle.

Sigh

This exact suggestion was in the OP.

(And this also applies to the new hair colors that were added a while back).

It’s fine that these styles are locked behind a hair style kit/makeover kit, BUT there really needs to be a way to preview these things.

I would seriously recommend that you allow new characters to preview these styles in the character creation menu, but have them lock out the character from actually being created or prompt the player to spend the cost of a hair style kit to proceed with the creation (assuming the proper number of gems are available on their account).

Additionally, a preview button on Hair Style and Total Makeover Kits in the gem store would be an amazing feature – one that should have been implemented when they were first released.

Right now, you have to buy a kit just to see what your options are, how they would look on your character, and how you could redesign your character to fit the style. This should not be the case.

If anything, you would get more hair style/makeover kit purchases from the more accessible advertising a preview feature would create.

Warrior: Torch
Guardian: Axe
Ranger: Rifle
Thief: Mace (MH and OH)
Engineer: Hammer
Elementalist: Sword
Necromancer: Greatsword
Mesmer: MH Pistol

7/10. The gloves clash with the rest of the set.

Here’s my old look. Elementalist’s creed.

Maybe when they fix the overflow system to be more like Guild Wars 1 districts. Until then, absolutely not.

Absolutely not. I like the tool belt – it’s interesting. It’s the only profession mechanic in the game that is fully customizable.

Instead, they should improve tool belt skills and make non-kit utilities and main weapons actually relevant – because frankly, kits are too important.

Basically, this is a thread in which players can propose ideas for future living world updates.

Rules – Keep it within reason. Don’t throw in a new race at the same time as a dozen new features, for example. A new race may entail a new city, racial armors, personal story, etc, but you must specify whether these things will appear in the same update as them or will be added in a later update.

You can also show support for other players’ LW concepts by listing the title of their update in a post.

I’ll start with my first one, Ocean’s End

Sayeh al’Rajihd requires aid

Trahearne’s Largos contact, Sayeh, has petitioned for Pact aid in defending a Tethyos encampment on the Tarnished Coast.

New zone – Ocean’s End

Located in the Tarnished Coast below Metrica Province.
Permanent zone.
Level x. Always scales your character up to 80, even after the conclusion of the update.
Includes a world boss – a champion of the underwater dragon.

New Living World Achievements

Completing the meta event will award you with the wings of the underwater dragon champion as a back item.

A Prelude to Future Cooperation

Continue to defend the Tethyos Houses and they will send ambassadors to Lion’s Arch in a future update, allowing players eventual access to a playable Largos race.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Copestetic.5174:

ilr.9675:

Not even Dragons seem to have the power to prevent Ghosts from haunting an area where their traumatic deaths may have occurred. …this seems to tie in with the Mists and ‘the Rift’ itself. There’s a chance we might get more answers on it if the Thaumaneuva Reactor actually gets some rich back story to it, but I wouldn’t hold your your breath on that. The Living Story team seems more interested in hawking cash shop items than selling us reasonable explanations and plot.

….Bear in mind that we’re not even Ascended heroes or chosen and we’re definitely not Weh No Su in this new continuation so all the Phantasmal entities we see are manifest through their own means, not ours.

That’s a good point. Kind of makes you wonder what’s the Mursaat up to these days.

Only 3 Mursaat survived the onslaught of the War in Kryta, and it’s unlikely that they reproduce, since they aren’t sentient beings. Chances are they’ve all died off some way or another by now, or all 3 fled to the Isle of Janthir where they originally came from.

What? The Mursaat were/are sentient beings just like any other race. They were one of the original 5 races (alongside Forgotten, Jotun, and others) who fought off the Elder Dragons the last time they appeared. They filled the role of the Asura, as the most intelligent and magically-inclined of the races of their time.

Forestnator.6298:

Remove HGH trait and replace it with a new trait which grants the effect also to your nearby allies.

I suppose channeling for both self and thrown elixirs would be awkward.

What if thrown elixirs became an object that you could target, with a rotating, effect-denoting symbol over them. When they reach the effect you want, you can attack them (one shot) to release that benefit to allies. No need to remove HGH.

What if, instead of being random, Elixirs involved rotating images over your characters head when used, requiring a second activation to choose your effect and use the skill. The process would be similar to the “Pick a Card” skill used by Twisted Fate in League of Legends.

Step 1
Removed random effects from Elixirs.

Step 2
Reworked the way Elixirs function. When you use an Elixir skill, you hold on to the Elixir, “cooking” it like a grenade. Images rotate over your head, signifying which effect(s) will be created.

Step 3
Significantly buffed Elixir effects to compensate for the increased channel time and increased skill requirement.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Condition specs are already ridiculously overpowered: can have both vitality and thoughness while still dealing massive damage. Conditions can be removed, but this is compensated by the fact that they ignore armor, protection and most traits and signets that reduce damage. They are the last thing in the game that need a buff.

Here is where the folley of your statement lies – Ascended Gear is not available in platforms in which condition builds are typically favored. They are not available in sPvP/tPvP at all. Condition builds are not overpowered in zerg WvW play (on top of balance being irrelevant in zerg WvW play to begin with). Conditions are disgustingly underpowered in large scale PvE and in any other PvE scenario with more than 2 condition damage dealers and comparatively weaker than Berserker builds even in optimal PvE scenarios.

This leaves only one scenario in which your argument holds any weight – solo/small group roaming/dueling in WvW. Is this really worth balancing for? Is this really worth such a large oversight as new gear that greatly buffs one damage type while doing absolutely nothing for the other? I say that it is not.

Nova.8021:

If we do the underwater dragon then they better release the quaggan with that, I can’t think of a better time to put them in.

Obviously if they go with the others then the Tengu would be acceptable, however I don’t get the appeal of playing as Big Bird from Sesame Street.

Why would anyone want to play as a human? I don’t get the appeal of playing as Justin Bieber.

Tengu must be first. They deserve the addition more than any other race because of their long history with the series, distinctive culture, varied appearance potential, and large aesthetic difference as opposed to any other race. They even have an established racial city.

Largos also have clear potential, but they are an unpolished race. It would be interesting to see them fleshed out and developed over time as Anet improves underwater combat and brings us to the fight against “Bubbles,” the underwater dragon. While this would shift them late into the race addition order, they’d still be sure to win playable status.

With Elona, centaurs and djinn would become potential candidates for playability.

Cantha unfortunately seems to be rather lacking in sentient, cultured races that would qualify for playable status – what with all of the xenophobia and ethnic cleansing.

Wolf.5816:

I hope the Tool Belt ability is this-

Rev Chainsaw Kit: Root yourself while channeling for 1 second to rev your Chainsaw. Granting 1 and a half second of stability and 5 seconds of might. Cool down: 1 second.

You could in theory sit there and pump yourself up… And it would look amazing.

Could you imagine how annoying that would be in Lion’s Arch?

Direksone.3867:

Some good, some bad.

I would not do Rifled Barrels like that as the Elixirs trait also gives +20% damage to Elixir Gun and FT. Think 30% would be quite much, but that’s my view.

Also isn’t a 10 sec CD on Armor Mods quite short? Don’t know how it is with other classes though.

Rifled Barrels is a range bonus, not a damage bonus.

I thought the 10s cd was actually pushing it as a tad too long, but I don’t know. I view the current 25s cd armor mods trait as useless because it’s only one random, uncontrollable block every 25 seconds.

With my Firearms rework, I’m aiming towards build diversity. A combination of trait compression and reworks allows for more traits to be added. Most of the changes will have little effect in boosting the engineer’s tangible performance with any given weapon, but will diversify the weapon types used. Boosting the Elixir Gun’s performance through traits was a particular goal of this rework.

Firearms

Minor Traits

No changes.

Adept Majors

Torment the Weak
(New)
Apply 1 stack of Torment (3 seconds) when you hit a foe who is below 50% health.

Rifled Barrels
(Buffed)
Now effects Flamethrowers as well.

Hair Trigger
(Combined with Fireforged Trigger.)
Rifle, Pistol, Flamethrower, Elixir Gun, and Harpoon Gun skills recharge 20% faster.

Sitting Duck
(Unchanged)

Infused Precision
(Unchanged)

Precise Sights
(Unchanged)

Master Majors

Improved Ammunition
(Reworked from Coated Ammo.)
Pistol and Elixir Gun shots pierce targets. Rifles, Pistols, Elixir Guns, and Flamethrowers deal 10% extra damage to targets behind the first.

Rifle Mod
Unchanged.

Juggernaut
Unchanged.

Go For The Eyes
Unchanged.

Grandmaster Majors

Modified Weapons
(Buffed from Modified Ammunition)
Now applies to all weapons and kits.

Condition Specialist
(New)
Inflicting bleeding also inflicts one second of burning. Inflicting burning also inflicts 3 seconds of bleeding (1 stack).
Notes – This applies once per skill. IE: triggering crit bleed procs on a pistol shot will only burn the foe for one second, not two or more.

My thoughts on Elementalist trait lines met with good reception, so I thought I’d give my thoughts on my other favorite profession, the Engineer. I’ll address the lines one by one, giving my thoughts on each.

I’ll just start with Tools for now, and will add the others later.

With your feedback, I may change and/or shift traits around.

Tools

As the Engineers unique line, Tools comes across as situational, albeit strong with certain builds. The goal here is to fix bugged traits, move traits around, and create more universal traits.

Minor Traits

Adept – Adrenaline Pump
(Unchanged.)

Master – Inertial Converter
(Unchanged.)

Grandmaster – Static Discharge
(Moved from Adept Minor.)
Mechanics reworked / bug fixed. All skills now launch the static shock directly at your target (or straight ahead of your character without a target). With this, all utilities should be useful with Static Discharge themed builds.
Damage possibly buffed to compensate for the move.

Adept Majors

Static Discharge and Kit Refinement reworked and moved to grandmaster tier traits (minor and major respectively). Deployable Turrets has been combined into an inventions trait, as it just doesn’t warrant placement in this line or its state as an individual trait.

Speedy Kits
(Unchanged.)

Always Prepared
(Unchanged.)

Adrenal Implant
(Moved and Reworked.)
When you dodge, restore 10% endurance and deal 10% more damage with your next attack.

Gadget Mastery
(Buffed.)
Gadget Utilities trigger Tool Belt benefits (ie: Static Discharge, Adrenaline Pump, and the new Armor Mods). Gadgets recharge 20% faster.

Kit Master
(New.)
Gain bonus power and precision while wielding a kit.

Weapon Master
(New)
Weapon skills recharge 10% faster. Stacks with specific skill recharge traits (ie: Hair Trigger).
Note – Only effects Rifle, MH/OH Pistol, Shield, and future weapon choices. Does not effect kits.

Master Majors

Power Wrench
(Unchanged.)

Packaged Stimulants
(Unchanged)

Leg Mods
(Unchanged)

Scope
(Unchanged)

Grandmaster Majors

Kit Refinement
(Moved from Adept Major and reworked/buffed.)
Internal cd is now individual rather than global. Effects rescaled or entirely reworked around the reworked cooldowns and new trait status as a 30 point trait.

Armor Mods
(Reworked.)
Gain Aegis for 5 seconds when you use a Tool Belt skill. (10s cooldown)

I enjoyed using Grenades and Bombs together with a Rifle while leveling up. By chaining Big Ol’ Bomb with Fire Bomb into Jump Shot, you can deal a large amount of AoE damage, burning, and a knockback/knockdown while also gaining 3 stacks of might and a Fire Aura. Works exceptionally well against most mobs.

Also gives you access to a smoke bomb that blind locks foes for a short time.

Becomes much more effective at level 30+ when you have Supply Crate.

Just a few concepts I’ve been brainstorming. Numbers are mostly left out of this, as fan-made balance numbers are arbitrary at best.

Wall Turret (Utility)
Build a mobile wall turret. This turret obstructs opposing pathing and reflects enemy projectiles.
Subskill – Move
Command your wall turret to move to the target area.
Tool Belt (While Placed) – Detonate Turret
Tool Belt (While Not Placed) – Bullet Attractor
Attract projectiles aimed at allies to you and neutralize them. Duration – 3 seconds.

Notes – Benefits from all turret traits. Rifled Turret Barrels increases the reflected damage.

Elixir A (Utility)
Consume Elixir A to gain 2 random auras. (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Magnetic)
Tool Belt – Throw Elixir A
Throw Elixir A to bestow one random aura on allies in the radius.

Binding Device (Utility) (Gadget)
Throw a device at the target location. After a brief delay, it shoots out hooks that grapple foes. Grappled foes cannot exceed x distance from the binding device. Lasts x seconds.
Subskill – Pull
Pull the target and any attached foes to the binding device and immobilize them briefly.

Saw Drone (Elite) (Gadget)
Throw a drone at the target foe. If it hits, it sticks to them for x seconds, turning them into a mobile damage field that deals hefty damage to them and foes near them with each pulse.
Subskill – Buzz Saws
The Saw Drone releases a spray of Buzz Saws that deal damage and bleeding in an area. Low cooldown.

Reaper Turret (Elite) (Turret)
Build a mobile Reaper turret that chases your target (changing targets with you) and attacks them with vicious scythe blades that inflict damage and Torment with each hit. High health and movement speed.
Subskill 1 – Fear the Reaper
All foes in the area of the Reaper Turret are feared for a duration.
Subskill 2 (Available while Subskill 1 is on cooldown) – Self Destruct
The Reaper Turret explodes, dealing massive damage to foes in the blast zone. Constitutes a Blast Finisher.

Notes – Benefits from all Turret traits.

ProxyDamage.9826:

I genuinely wonder who the kitten at ANet thought this was a good idea… as is conditions already dominate the current meta, as they rely on a single stat for max damage (Condition damage) and ignore armour while power requires 3 stats (power/prec/crit dmg) and can be mitigated by armour.

The end result is that for PvP condition damage builds are almost always the way, as you get good dmg output while being tanky.

This set particularly is overkill. Not only does it carry full offence for conditions, but also full defence, similar to Soldier’s.

The Dire set wasn’t announced for SPvP, where conditions actually dominate, however.

In PvE, condition damage is just bad because of the stack limitation and lower overall scaling as opposed to direct damage. This set will help bring conditions up to par there.

In WvW…. well, who cares. It’s mostly a zerg anyway. Roaming fights are the only ones that might be affected by this.

Venoms have potential, but they’re just a bit lackluster as is. Namely, they suffer from having no innate stunbreaker and a low share radius.

Venomous Aura
Radius increased to 350 from 300.

Ice Drake Venom
It’s currently lackluster compared to well…. all of the other venoms. As such, it now inflicts Burning and Chilled instead of just Chilled. Renamed to Drake Venom.

Quick Venoms
Added effect – Venoms now break stuns. 20 second cooldown.
~ Note – Cooldown only triggers if a stun is broken.

I say keep it on the Necro. It will fit them better thematically while giving you a better weapon. Necro Warhorn is viable with all mainhands and provides some useful utility, while Warrior Warhorn (as powerful as it might be) tends to shaft you into a select few builds.

Also, transmuting it would no doubt remove the unique stat-changing mechanic of legendary weapons as well as probably remove the (perhaps unlikely) chance of gaining an account-bound legendary weapon should they ever change legendaries from soulbound to account bound on equip.

Unleashed.6195:

Aberrant.6749:

I’m 100% fine with cash shops supporting games as long as they don’t sell power. A-net has done a very good job of not doing that.

I’d add “as long as they don’t sell power and also do not employ exploitative monetization schemes nor alter game design with the gem shop in mind.”

This game has done an excellent job with first of those three, but is consistently allowing the last two to happen.

It’s all subjective. You’re seeing exploitative monetization schemes and altered design where they may or may not actually exist. I’ve personally never seen a more reasonable, less invasive cash shop. And I’m satisfied with just knowing that 1) I can earn everything in it by trading gold for gems (and at a rate I consider reasonable) and 2) That nothing in said gem shop is required for me to play or enjoy the game.

At the end of the day, content isn’t being designed to be dysfunctional without the cash shop. Even election participation was easily done without any use of the cash shop. As for RNG – who cares? It’s skins. It’s always been skins – and skins that you can buy from other players via the tp at that. Skins are irrelevant towards actual game design even in a horizontal progression game. Why? Because tastes are subjective and there are a multitude of skins that appeal to various tastes available through pretty much every method of play.

Arkham Creed.7358:

lakdav.3694:

After making the freaking gloves able to hide, i am not surprised by any of the priorities ANet seems to have.

You’re serious? When did they do that? And who wanted that? My god that seems like a waste of…well, everything. Time, money, effort, brain-cells….

To be fair, hiding gloves is a reasonable feature that I don’t doubt some people have happily made use of.

It’s still disappointing to see the Engineer’s aesthetic issues unfixed a year in, however.

1 – Tengu Race
2 – More weapons, skill, and traits for all professions.
3 – Buffs or reworks to currently under-performing traits, skills, and weapons.
4 – LFG tool.
5 – GvG or MOBA-style pvp.
6 – Personal Story journal that lets you replay personal story missions for different rewards.
7. Dailies now roll over (max 1 week’s worth). Also counts for dungeon rewards and other daily time-gated content.
8. More faces and hairstyles.
9. Removal or rework of Defiant/Unshakable buff on bosses.
10. Improved targeting.
11. Better dynamic event rewards.
12. Hard mode dungeons. Hard Mode button for the open world that gimps yourself but increases magic find.

The thing about invasions is that, while suitable temporary content, they aren’t a healthy form of long term content. No, I’m not referring to inflation, but rather to more of a core gameplay issue.

Invasions, you see, lead to a particular playstyle – that is zerging one map for 30-45 minutes, taking a break until the next invasion, and repeating the process over and over. The map that is being invaded becomes a clustered mess of players mindlessly spamming 1, while most other maps become even more of a barren wasteland than they were beforehand.

In the end, all regular content suffers while an invasion goes on. The content of non-invaded zones doesn’t get done nearly as much, while dynamic events in invaded zones are only done if they happen to involve killing enemies in the crossfire of damage aimed at the invasion mobs.

So, yes, I’m concerned that these invasions will be the worst possible type of content to make permanent. They aren’t fun, interesting, or challenging with their current design and older, better content will inevitably suffer as a result of their prolonged inclusion.

If you must make these things permanent…. slow them down. Ideally, a rate of once every few hours (at most) should help preserve standard content and make that invasion feel like something important rather than something with a 50%+ up-time and no storyline significance.

Ashen.2907:

For what it is worth variety in tactical options is a form of power even if none of the individual options is superior to any of the others.

This was the point. A team with a larger variety of champions to pick from has a tactical advantage over the other, even if the “balance” of characters is within reasonable parameters. There’s synergy between picks, counter-picking, and other factors to consider.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

I will play you right now. You can pick any 6300 champ, I will pick a champ that costs less than 450. Show me how much more powerful 6300 champs are. I will even use my smurf, who has almost no runes and I’ve not played for awhile.

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/32179239#history

lolking for smurf, I will log in now.

Oh, I’m sure you would beat me, considering I stopped playing League at least 6 bloody months ago. After playing since Season 1 the game got boring.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

iFocus.3781:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

There’s a bit more to it. In multiplayer games, the players themselves are part of the content of the game. It is important to have a strong, vibrant community in game, both to play with and to play against. The player that sticks around for the game and isn’t mean spirited is adding to the quality of game, making it more appealing to the public at large and making buying the game a more attractive investment. Players who don’t buy a thing from the gem shop are contributing to the profits of the game indirectly in this manner, both with new sales and with making the game enjoyable enough for players to want to spend gems in it.

You don’t pay for gems, do you?

Sure, everyone contributes in some manner. But, you lurking about isn’t going to pay for Anet’s employees unless you actively recruit friends to join.

I have played this game since BW3, and frankly I find large parts of the community antisocial and alienating – especially the elite community – who just happens to be the one’s complaining about having to pay for things.

I buy gems every month. Yes I contribute real cash to the game. Why in the hell would I recruit friends to this game. I did it one time, and I’ve felt guilty about it ever since. I play right now because I genuinely hope that things change. What kind of horrible friend would I be to recommend this game though? That’s like telling my friend to buy a car, if it doesn’t run well. Sure I might hope it starts working well, but that would just be really bad of me to do.

I wanted to give GW2 a year to see if it could pull even with GW1. I think anyone who played then remembers how things with GW1 were at first (aside from gwen burning us all to death =P ) The year has come, and sadly gone,

If you want proof of my purchases I have no problem showing what I can, though I don’t know how to show my gem purchase history.

Anet should have taken lessons from Riot. They produced a game that in 3 years has surpassed everything else, they’ve beaten SC, WoW, and everything else. They’ve done it on a completely free to play system also. You can get everything except the absolute cosmetics just by playing. Not getting lucky, just play. There you don’t unlock a skin for a single game, you unlock it for your account. There are differences, but there is so much Anet could have learned from Riot.

Oh, and yes LoL is an mmo. It’s not an mmorpg though. In some ways you could argue neither is GW2.

I’m sorry, but I must say that you haven’t even played League of Legends if you think League’s business model is at all more reasonable than Guild Wars 2’s.

Just comparing cash shops – everything Guild Wars 2 has is aesthetics, convenience, or services (slot space, name changes, etc.) League of Legends sells champions – which in a game based largely around team composition equates to power selling, albeit not in the traditional sense (especially when one factors in that buying champions with real money makes obtaining runes faster and easier.)

Nothing in the Guild Wars 2 cash shop is required to get the most out of the game. With the ever-increasing supply of max-price League champs, a new League of Legends player will find it more and more difficult to get the most out of their game with each release.

The worst complaints that can be derived of the Guild Wars 2 cash shop is an overuse of RNG for OPTIONAL SKINS (most of which can be bought from other players via the tp anyway). Riot games, on the other hand, legitimately broke their promise during beta and Season 1 to release new champions at all price levels.

Even comparing currency gain rates, Guild Wars 2 wins out. The average 800 gem item translates to roughly 40g, which can be gained in a day or two of proper farming. Obtaining the average 6300 champion varies based on play habits, but tends to take the average player 1-2 weeks or more per character – now multiply this by over half the cast of 100 characters and the essential competitive requirement of multiple rune pages.

Guild Wars 2 (structured/tournament) PvP allows players to bypass all grind for competitive purposes. League of Legends is pure PvP and still contains massive IP grind along with arguable power selling.

The $60 box price of Guild Wars 2 is quite reasonable when you compare it to the hundreds of dollars it would take to own the ever-expanding LoL roster (or even a significant number of champions).

iFocus.3781:

I agree with you Advent. It is very nice to be able to take a few days, weeks or months off without feeling guilt. However, the reality is that cash must flow. And in order for it to happen, people have to realize that there is plenty of honor in paying rather than farming. Sure, farming proves dedication – but paying shows loyalty.

Someone who buys gems with gold is contributing just as much to the financial success of the game as someone who buys gems with real money? Why? Because:

1) Gems are never free – they’re bought by someone else for real money and then traded to you. You’re supporting Anet/NCSoft by proxy.

2) Gem prices go up with more players trading gold for gems. This encourages other players to spend real money on gems to sell for the better exchange rates. In this way, one of your supposed non-contributors is actually fueling another player’s purchase.

As for your subscription proposal…. keep it out of my game. I’ve bought my game. I deserve to enjoy and play it. When I decide Anet deserves my cash in the gem store, I spend money on gems. When I want something from the gem store but don’t feel like blowing money, I trade gold for gems and support Anet through the two above points. It’s a perfect model. It benefits the players in virtually every way, and I’ve NEVER complained about gold to gem exchange rates – in fact, they could be considerably higher and I wouldn’t complain. High gem prices are healthy for both Anet/NCSoft’s finances and for the discouragement of gold sellers.

marnick.4305:

Shiren.9532:

The Living Story is littered with female empowerment plots, unfortunately one of the most commonly used ones is the poor portrayal of male characters as a mechanism to make the females look good. I like it when stories have powerful female characters, but I resent when it’s done at the expense of male characters.

For two thousand years a book with male empowerment plots has dominated our culture. Now there’s a story with a few females in the lead, and suddenly all hell breaks loose?

You only perceive it to be that way because you’re not used to females in power, neither in stories nor in real life. Magnus is the leader of LA, and last time I checked he was still male. A lot of dungeon bosses are males (eg Adelbern). The entire Sons of Svanir plot revolves around male empowerment. Where were you with the personal story being all about males succeeding? The dungeon story is about destiny’s edge and that’s mostly about Rytlock and Logan reconciling. Logan looks far more masculine in that story while Caithe is the love sick girl. Did I hear you complain back then?

Just cherry picking a few in the Living Story doesn’t make this a bad thing. Maybe the next plot is all about a man rescuing an 8 bit princess in distress. I’m waiting for your thread complaining about that story having male supremacy themes.

Which is portrayed as a bad thing and is therefore a point in the favor of the OP’s argument, not yours.

Knote.2904:

I’d be curious as to what sylvari hentai would look like.

Probably more pleasant than the “Everyone, come!” of Risen hentai.

I like the use of portals in jumping puzzles – it’s what I’d consider an example of positive community interaction. A Mesmer helps out other players, and the other players may thank them, tip them, or outright pay them for their services. It’s not like farming exploits in which one party suffers for the gain of the other, resulting in needless rage – with portals, everyone benefits and everyone gets what they want out of the interaction.

Devildoc.6721:

frostyraziel.1854:

It’s a matter of opinion. I like the update and the Lost Shores is in my top 3.

The reason why Lost Shores was bad was because it was extremely laggy, a lot of people got bugged out and disconnected and had massive framerate issues because of the number of people that were in the area. If you were on a lower population server it may have been good but on somewhere like Tarnished Coast or Jade Quarry it was a mess.

So many people crashed that anet had to go out and hand out rewards in the mail to make up for people crashing and dc’ing. So people who got the complete event done managed to get multiple rewards.

One friend of mine got completely turned off from the entire game because he crashed at the beginning of the last phase of the ancient karka fight and didn’t get the reward and for some reason it didn’t get counted by anet and he didn’t get a reward in the mail, so to him it was 3 hours of lag and slideshow and frustration with culling all for nothing.

And then there was the issue of the bugged scavenger hunt and the event chest handing out precursors at a rate that infuriated the community – a lot of people got them for little effort while the rest felt ripped off.

When you put all the issues together, Lost Shores was easily the worst release the game has had – especially when one factors in the kitten addition of Ascended Gear.