Guild Wars 2

I’m well aware of the graphic glitches that can happen and have seen them a number of times, but this is a really, really, really silly change in my opinion. You removed some very useful and convenient functionality to cover a graphic glitch. That’s a horrible tradeoff to the people who are actually playing the game.

I think you’re misunderstanding. He’s not getting more people than allowed into his home instance.

A version of the Salma District physically exists on the Divinity’s Reach map, but entry into that area is normally (and intentionally) blocked by physical barriers. However, with some creative jumping it’s possible to enter that section of the map.

The question is whether or not players will get in trouble for accessing sections of the map that are normally blocked off by the map’s design. This question can apply to any map, really.

I suspect the answer is “no”, but with the caveat that we’re expected to report “flaws” in the map like this one so they can eventually be fixed.

As far as I can tell, the one-time reward at the end of each daily Toxx event is supposed to be:

- a frame unique to that daily event.
- 100 cogs
- your choice of 250 glue, or 250 stuffing

..and that’s it. If you have done all 3 days thus far you should have 3 unique frames, 300 cogs, and 750 units of glue, or stuffing, or some combination of the two.

They will be used as currency again as soon as she’s restocked (probably with a different selection of items). In the meantime people are free to continue converting unwanted items into commendations.

Unspecified.9142:

This really would be nice to know. I’m one of those with a few thousand commendations kicking around.

I admit it’s kind of my fault for not reading that part of the patch notes but still it’s annoying to be able to create 2,000 items with no use.

I just hope she actually has something that is worth a damn when she finishes “restocking” because if she comes back with the same stuff minus keys, for example, then no one in their right mind needs 2,000 commendations which makes the 80 trinket recipe kind of useless.

Braxxis.7062:

“Commendation vendor Lionguard Lyns is restocking her goods and is not accepting commendations at this time. She will begin accepting commendations again soon.”

That’s from the patch notes. At no point does it say she will be back during the Wintersday event, it just says “soon”.

The OP was referring to a forum post by a Dev PRIOR to the patch that said she would be available during Wintersday.

Edit: This thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wintersday/Captain-s-council-commendation-here-to-stay/first#post982985

I wouldn’t put too much stock in using that link as a defense since the response is, unfortunately, tied to a very specific question. That question being:

“Will the care package and the Captain’s council commendations stay ingame after the Wintersday patch or will these be removed?”

And while it mentions the commendations and the care package wrappings (which allow you to create commendations through the Mystic Forge), it says nothing about the stock of rewards that can be purchased with commendations. All we know about that part is that Lyns will be accepting the commendations as currency again “soon”.

I’m trying hard not to roll my eyes whenever someone claims the zones are “empty”. Do we have the same definition of the word “empty”? Because I’m hitting zones of all levels, and when an event starts and a dozen players swarm the space around me in a matter of seconds, I have a hard time describing that as “empty”.

Do some people seriously want to hear the population described as “there are so many players around me at any given moment I can’t even score credit on a kill”, because that’s exactly the opposite of what I want.

Orr being dead is pretty much working as intended.

Gehenna.3625:

If a commander is shown out of WvW you should just ignore it and get over yourself. In WvW it has a real purpose. Outside of WvW, it’s just a symbol on the map. At least you know there’s somebody else in the map with you.

For the rest, ah yeh, get over yourself.

Listen to what you’re saying. It’s a symbol on our map that you admit isn’t worth paying attention to, but happens to be obscuring symbols on our map that are worth paying attention to.

And you don’t see the problem with this?

It’s not about “getting over ourselves”. It’s about having the tools to keep our UI clean and only display what we want displayed there.

Vayra.3290:

Edge.4180:

This whole minority debate is silly.

What we are is a decent sample for opinion polling. Discounting the opinions here would be foolish. It’s that simple.

No. We are not a decent sample. Forumgoers are heavily biased in favor of those who have issues with the game. Casual players who are happy and enjoying themselves are far less likely to come here than those who have problems or are dissatisfied in any way.

I disagree. I came to this game with nearly two dozen friends, all of which never bother with the forums. For the most part they all have the same opinions about the game as I do. The only difference between us is that I voice my complaints on the forum, where as they voiced their complaints by simply leaving the game and taking their business elsewhere.

If anything, I’m the optimistic one for still being here. Do not make the mistake of assuming that everyone who doesn’t bother with the forums is playing happily without any complaints. I would argue that the forum is made up of players who are optimistic enough to believe that voicing their concerns might actually result in positive changes. Those that don’t visit either don’t have the time, don’t have the energy, don’t care, or have done this dance long enough to know that it’s pointless to try.

Whether you acknowledge it or not, we’re a decent sampling for polls; it’s as simple as that. You could apply your same flawed argument to political polling by saying only a certain type of person remains on the phone to give their opinions to a pollster. This is how polls are done – through a snapshot of people willing to have their opinion heard.

This whole minority debate is silly.

What we are is a decent sample for opinion polling. Discounting the opinions here would be foolish. It’s that simple.

It’s not just T6 mats they’re farming. The prices have tanked at nearly every tier. I see them teleporting all the time in low and mid level zones.

Spending some of my time gathering crafting resources and selling them on the BLT is a big way I make my money (although not the past few weeks thanks to botters). I don’t try to play the market like so many do. I just try to earn a little money in the game legitimately and the botters are ruining it.

Do people like cheaper prices? Sure. But this is the wrong way to get them. Anyone in favor of what’s happening.. I don’t know, you’re sounding like those players who are willing to exploit a bug and feel justified in doing it. From an ethics point of view, there’s not much difference between personally exploiting and happily benefiting from one.

Talyjta.9081:

Olfinbedwere.5049:

I think you misunderstand how multiboxing works in this game. There is no follow, so a person just has to run several accounts on one pc controlled simultaneously.

If someone uses 1 keyboard and 1 mouse for 2 characters – then applies what you said, yes, and I think nobody will deny that this person is cheating, even not that person himself.
But is that the definition of multiboxing? I learned that multiboxing is being logged in at 2 PCs (each with screen, keyboard and mouse for it’s own) and 2 accounts at the same time. And that’s not so clear in my eyes, as it doesn’t provide so much benefits, maybe even more handicaps. And you have to pay for 2 accounts.

In this discussion, when they’re referring to multiboxing they’re talking about one person controlling multiple clients (often more than two) through a single device. Pushing the key mapped to forward moves the character on all clients forward at the exact same time.

I think it’s crazy that MMO companies tolerate this, but it’s sadly legal. I doubt I will really ever understand why.

I have done what you are describing before, however. I call it “an exercise in frustration”.

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

Edge.4180:

Sounds like it’s legal (usually is in most game). But I’m trying to figure out how making a single sweep across a map while farming resources nodes and ending up with twice as many (or more) in the same amount of time as everyone else (thanks to multi-boxing) isn’t an advantage. That’s one “non-advantage” I’m sure we all wish we had.

in this case you have exactly the same earning potential as someone who does it 5 separate times on 5 chars instead of once with all 5. sure, it takes you a fraction of the time, but you still need the nodes to reset.

Actually, no. And that’s why I specifically said “in the same amount of time” above. But for what you said to ever be true the players would have to be restricted to a single zone and they’re obviously not.

Most nodes take 30-60 minutes to reset. It seems to depend on the level of the zone. If it takes 30 minutes to clear a zone of nodes, and the nodes in that zone take 30 minutes to reset, you can go continuously without ever running out of nodes.

Even if you’re in a zone where the nodes take 60 minute to reset, if you deplete all the nodes you can simply move on to the next zone and have a fresh supply of nodes to continue on.

In the same time period, a multiboxer will always be able to gather more resources than someone playing a single character. This is usually not an issue in other games because nodes can generally only be tapped by the first character that uses them (until they respawn).

rgrwng.4072:

i am working on getting it, because my guild can never find me on the world map when i join their group. the “regular” blue party dot is REALLY tough to find on the map many times for me. they should make that pve party dot bright red.

at least this way they can probably find me easier.

Until everyone is sporting one. At which point the map/radar will be useless and everyone will finally agree something should have been done about this long ago.

There have been so many threads on this topic at this point. By now you’d think someone at ArenaNet would have just said “Hey, know what players would appreciate having? An option to control the types of clutter being displayed on their map/radar”.

Chillwinds.1290:

Does anyone have anything official they can point me to, like a quote from ANet on this?

If I remember correctly, there were a couple of links in this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Kill-credit-is-breaking-during-big-events/

Ahlen.7591:

I don’t think this is true.

I have literally gone to Jormagg/Tequatl/Shatterer, hit them a SINGLE TIME, and gotten Gold Medal + Chest.

Not sure about non veteran or non champion monsters though.

Well, there’s a difference between getting credit for participating in an event and getting credit for a kill to the point where you’re earning XP for the actual monster being killed and a chance at a drop off the corpse. How many times have you received credit for an event just because you ran through the circled area, or killed a different mob within the event area? Personally, I’ve lost count.

PowerCat.5738:

Tagging while in a party works differently: Your entire group’s damage is compared against the mob to see if you TAG it. That is to say if 4 players in your party do 500 damage, but one does only 100 damage, they’ll still tag it, because as a group, you did 2100 damage.

That sounds more like a popular rumor, and I would love to see an official source for this, because my observations indicate otherwise nearly every single day.

I do my Daily Achievements nearly every day in a group, with friends. Almost every single time we end up with a situation where we have different totals on “kill type” and “kill count”, despite all of us always attacking the same mobs. The results we see every day would simply not be possible if parties worked as you described.

In fact, the lack of shared kill credit while grouped was a complaint that frequently came up on the forums during beta, and as far as I can tell nothing has changed. During our Daily’s we are always having to ask one another “did you get credit for that one?” only for someone to answer “no”.

Someone will say there is no “tagging” in this game.

According to pre-launch developer interviews, players need to do somewhere between 5-10% of the damage necessary to kill a monster in order to receive credit for killing it.

As there are only so many “5-10%” slices to go around, it should be obvious that once you pile more than X players on the same target, someone is going to lose out.

This was a huge problem during the Ancient Karka event. Many players received almost no loot during the entire 2-3 hour battle. Others were receiving drops consistently. In a recent AMA on Reddit, ANet claimed that was a “bug”.

Sounds like it’s legal (usually is in most game). But I’m trying to figure out how making a single sweep across a map while farming resources nodes and ending up with twice as many (or more) in the same amount of time as everyone else (thanks to multi-boxing) isn’t an advantage. That’s one “non-advantage” I’m sure we all wish we had.

neon.4863:

You don’t need to report bots if you don’t want to or don’t have the time. I don’t think anyone can blame you for that. You’re quite right in saying it’s not the community’s responsibility to sit around reporting bots.

That doesn’t mean someone else can’t go ahead and do just that, though. I just posted the info for anyone who does want to try it. If you don’t, that’s fine.

Point is, I frequently run across several of these hack users in any given play session. That’s without even trying.

Unfortunately, if you’re not sitting there trying to actively catch them, it can be difficult to tell if you’re observing a legitimate player or not until it’s too late. When I suddenly notice someone next to me at a resource node, my first inclination is that I just wasn’t paying attention, or the camera was pointed the wrong way at the wrong time, or whatever. It isn’t until I see them suddenly vanish that I realize a hack user probably just teleported by. And by then it’s too late to do anything about it.

Resource prices on the BLT have been sinking like a stone for the last few weeks as it becomes flooded with hundreds of thousands of excess units per entry. It’s ridiculous. This is clearly not something that can be thwarted effectively on our end.

I made a post complaining about this last week.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Report-tool-ineffective-vs-new-type-of-hacker/

I read the “War on Bots” article that was released today and that infamous image of the Iraqi Information Minister popped into my head. They’re kidding themselves if they think the drop in reports means less botting. All it means is less success at reporting bots as they change their tactics.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

Just checked.

Fort aspenwood.

Everything except Lion’s Arch is empty.

Everything that can be contested is contested. (especially dungeon entrances)

Outmanned buff in every map in WvW.

And yet, somehow, we’re “full”

…

Trying to figure out how you “just checked” and confirmed “..everything except Lion’s Arch is empty”.

Really? Because it seems like that would take the better part of the day to really check everything, and even then.. how could you ever be certain the map you just left didn’t fill up behind you?

juno.1840:

Ultimately it’s not the Player Community’s job to sit around reporting bots. I will if I can, but I’m definitely not going to camp resource nodes trying to catch some (although at some level it can be satisfying). I say this because personally I have a few hours a week to play and I try to be efficient (i.e. do stuff that’s fun).

I hope that ANet has hired some interns to do this very job. Then use the data from their reporting as “pure” data for bot detection algorithms.

Agreed.

And I have to wonder what those investigating the reports make of them in the case of these “teleporting” resource node hoppers. Are they just dismissed if they themselves don’t catch them in the act?

I don’t think there’s been much of an improvement as much as there has been a shift in the way the bots are operating. Now they “teleport” from one resource node to the next and gather resources with ease, and then flood the marketplace with them.

The fact that player reports has decreased is not because there have been fewer sightings, but because it is much more difficult for players to report these hack users because they appear and disappear within seconds. There have been dozens of threads complaining about this problem in the past few weeks.

If anything I see more bots now than ever before. They’re just better at getting away with it. The recent article tells me there is a serious disconnect between what ArenaNet feels they are accomplishing and what players are actually seeing in the game.

Just so everyone is clear, receiving unidentified dyes from plant harvesting nodes is nothing new. It’s been that way since launch.

I want to update this thread since the following article was released today:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mike-lewis-on-the-war-against-the-bots/

In the article it talks about the importance of players reporting bots, and states:

“Moreover, we have observed a serious decrease in the population of bots in the game – and so have you, our players. The number of bots reported every hour worldwide has dropped from more than 2,000 in October to a much healthier 20 as of this writing.”

I read that and am struggling not to let out a deep sigh of frustration. The reason for that being simple: I am completely not surprised that the number of reports per hour have been dropping for the simple fact that players are finding it next to impossible to file reports on the newest form of hack users – the ones “teleporting” from resource node to resource node.

There has been thread after thread on the forums lately complaining about this, and yet the article is painting a picture that things are improving. I disagree. If anything I see these hacks being used now with much more frequency than I ever did in the past when they were just teams of bots running around shooting anything that moved.

The number of reports being filed is not dropping because the problem is getting better. It’s dropping because the current tools for reporting these bots are ineffective against the new type of exploit they’re abusing – which was the entire point of this thread.

It’s completely understandable for people to get annoyed with you if you’re displaying your commander title in PvE environments (especially during events) because your icon is displaying on their minimap and obscuring other important icons they may be trying to locate. Example: a cog icon showing an item they’re supposed to defend, a shield icon showing an NPC they’re supposed to defend, a flag icon showing a point they’re supposed to defend, a crossed-sword icon showing an important NPC they’re supposed to intercept, a skull icon showing a boss they’re supposed to kill, etc. Then, outside of events, you have waypoints, tradeposts, merchants, etc.. all icons your commander icon can obscure.

Why not just turn off your icon and not cause grief to others, and thus spare yourself the annoyed whispers?

Frankly, I think it should only display in WvW and nowhere else.

Fook.3914:

its a bot, look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcsUA5eGc-8

ArenaNet, why does your game have a vulnerabilities that makes this possible, and what are you doing to fix it?

Please don’t forward us to a topic involving your efforts against botting. Catching the people abusing it is like focusing on the symptom instead of the problem. Fix the vulnerabilities that makes it possible in the first place.

I’m in the middle of leveling up another character and am just not seeing the population problems described in this thread. Maybe that has something to do with the server I’m on or the time of day I play, but merging servers will just make my sessions uncomfortably crowded.

There’s at least a few people at any heart-task region, event, vistas, etc that I visit. I still come across players out in the “wild”, although now and then when I’m out in the space between “camps” I won’t see other players – but that’s fine. Preferred, actually. Always having other characters fighting within spitting distance of me makes me feel like the world is too small.

Even when nobody seems to be around, within seconds of an event starting other players come streaming out of the woodwork. I’m not going to try and suggest the population is the same as it was at launch, but frankly it was way too crowded back then and I’m glad things have thinned out some.

I’m trying to figure out if this is a bug, or by design, and would appreciate if this could be cleared up.

If you look at the karma gear available through heart-task vendors in zones like Bloodtide Coast and Sparkfly Fen, how customizable they are seems to depend on the race of the character wearing them.

For example, I buy the heavy armor boots for this set from a vendor in Bloodtide Coast on my Asura, and I can apply up to 3 different colors on it. When attempting to do the same thing on my Human or Norn character, I can only apply a maximum of 2 different colors on the boots. It is the same item, and yet the visually smallest representation of it is allowed to be detailed with 3 different colors while these big ol’ boots on the Norn can only sport 2 colors.

I suspect the options the Asura have are the correct one, as this is a set of armor that is frequently found on NPCs (including humans and Norns). And in those cases the individual armor pieces have three different colors on them (as opposed to being limited to just two), regardless of the race of the NPC.

So, to me it seems like the bug is on the Human/Norn side (and perhaps other races; for the purpose of this test I only tried Humans, Norn, and the Asura). The heavy armor leggings, tunic, and gauntlets from this set have the same disparity. The helm and pauldron, on the other hand, are consistent across the races.

Bug, or just the way it is? If it’s a bug, any chance we can bump the Human and Norn versions of these armor pieces up from 2 colors to 3?

I’m probably going to catch flack for saying this, but I certainly wouldn’t mind TC’s population splitting into two servers: one for players who just enjoy role-playing as if their character is part of the game’s world, and one for players who would probably be more happy being actors on Broadway.

Really not trying to be offensive.. just (as a long-time MMO fan) very sad that the former type has become such a rarity on RP servers. It’s so rare to find people who don’t care about rolling without a preconceived script. And if that describes you, OP, take comfort in the fact that you’re not missing much.

Was fortunate enough to have an absolute blast with a fellow Asura and a broken keep door a couple months back, though.

TWMagimay.9057:

You seriously believe the skill>gear thing? Like, for real? I’m not sure if you are delusional, naive or just new to MMOs. The only reason people get exotics in the first place is because it matters. Gear will always make a difference if it gives stats. Same with skills. If they don’t make you stronger than those who don’t have them…what’s the point in getting them?

Serious question: where have you been? This is what much of the rage surrounding Ascended gear was about. Yes, I think it’s safe to say that most players bought into the promise of skill mattering more than gear. It’s a philosophy that has its hands in so many different areas of the game for a reason. I’m not sure why you bring up exotics because they’re accessible to everyone at that level and so everyone can be on equal footing (until you factor in personal skill). Where as you can’t claim the same about a high level character in a low level event.

TWMagimay.9057:

Really? I spent 50% of my time in CF(as a lvl 80 staff ele in full exotics) and till now only got “ty for helping” and a few lowbies asked me if I needed a staff, cause they just dropped a lvl 5 one(that was rly cute xD). Been reading these topics for a few days now and still waiting for someone, anyone, to complain that I ruined their experience(from what I’ve seen MMO players aren’t just too polite or shy to say when smth annoys them).

I also don’t think you’re likely to find anyone griping to you in the game that you’re ruining the challenge for them. Most (like myself and my friends) will just complain about the an event being spoiled privately, over voice chat amongst ourselves and leave it at that. I think it’s also safe to say most people would prefer that their character not die when things hit the fan, and so external help (when needed) in that area is always going to feel welcome – but you don’t need to be a max level character swooping in in order to render assistance. It’s like you’re suggesting people are thanking you for attending these lower level events on your maxed out character because it’s a maxed out character, when they’re likely just thanking you for lending a hand regardless of your level.

Believe it or not, some people prefer challenges. It keeps things exciting and prevents them from becoming bored with the game. I stopped playing SWTOR because that need was incompatible with the completionist in me. It put me in a position where I was trying to complete every quest on every planet along my path, but the end result had me always facing grey-con mobs that were too low level for me. I couldn’t even earn XP off of them anymore. And because of the level difference the fights were stupid-easy and boring.

So, GW2’s scaling system is a breath of fresh air. And while I can (and did) take steps to keep myself from feeling overpowered, it only works so far. While leveling my character up in GW2 I only crafted (and wore) gear appropriate for the level of the zone I was in, rather than the level of my character (which always seemed to be ~10 levels ahead of the curve). If I was a level 50 character working on level 40 heart tasks, I only allowed myself to spend trait points that a level 40 character would have rather than all the ones that were available for me. This was stuff I felt I had to do to maintain any semblance of a challenge because the scaling mechanic is just too forgiving.

So, yes, I took steps to help myself, but (again) that doesn’t protect me from players like you. If I’m working really hard on a level 20 character to beat a level 20 challenge and you waltz in half-way through with your level 80 character and turn my little epic battle into a joke of a fight, don’t think for a moment that I’m excited by your arrival. But I will turn to you and say “thanks for the help” all the same because I suspect your intentions, at least, were good. That’s just me being polite. But then I’ll make a point of moving in the opposite direction of you and hope I can get back to having fun.

Lutharr.1035:

YOU think its broken dont mean everyone else does. A few may agree but since its only a vocal FEW that feel its broken we all know ya wasting ya breath.

When a game is heavily advertised to favor skill over gear, but gear differences are allowing one person to dominate compared to the other, how can you claim “working as intended” when that’s not the advertised intention? And I’m not talking about a case where one character is wearing junk that is not appropriate for his level, but instead about two characters wearing gear appropriate for their level but one of them being so much more powerful because the scaling mechanic that is meant to put them on roughly equal footing is failing to come reasonable close to that.

The developers love to discuss how every feature in their game is aimed at making you excited to have other players around (rather than dread their competitive presence). Whether it’s resource node sharing to events scaling according to population, you’re supposed to be happy when another player shows up. But the fun that many associate with challenging gameplay is easily ruined when someone (or a bunch of someones) enters an event and their overpowered nature turns that challenge into a cakewalk. Again, how can you claim “working as intended” when that’s not the advertised intention?

And, finally, the whole concept of us earning rewards that are appropriate for our actual level (even when we’re playing a max level character in a zone aimed at players half our level) is based on the idea that the precious balance of “risk versus reward” is being maintained. And yet, a max level character can decimate low level content so much more easily than someone of the appropriate level, and yet still earn rewards appropriate for his true level. Do I really need to explain why that’s broken? Because this is basic game balance I would think any MMO player would be familiar with.

Lutharr.1035:

As for a lvl 5 needing to work hard to kill lvl 5 stuff. If thats the case its more l2p issues since world mobs are plain squishy as hell unless its a champion.

He needs to work hard compared to a high level character in his situation, who can basically two-shot the same content.

And yet, the high level character is receiving better rewards for his actions.

What exactly are you afraid of here? That you’ll visit a level 20 zone on your level 80 character and find it nearly as challenging as the level 20 players playing around you? I hate to break it to you.. but that’s pretty much how it was supposed to work. And, no, that’s not an opinion. Maybe you’re just not familiar with the design (and that would certainly explain your point of view).

Lutharr.1035:

and you complaining about soemthing that doesnt need fixing is helpful in what way? So you want the game changing for your wants and nevermind everyone else because yes. You are the whole player base and as such your word is gospel. Dont know how to break this to you. But your the very tiny, minicule, insignicant few that actually see a non issue as an actual problem. A problem you dont need to effect everyone else with.

People aint going to these areas because they have completed them or stuck in LA. Its got nothing to do with how the down scaling works.

This game is built around the level adjustment mechanic. And anyone who doesn’t want to play in a game designed around this particular mechanic has plenty of other MMOs to choose from.

Agreeing or disagreeing with the merits of the design doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it functions correctly, and right now it doesn’t seem like it is. High level characters are still too powerful when down-scaled – not because of any personal philosophy of individual players who think it’s necessary, but because results are simply not matching the intentions of the philosophies this game was built on.

• Skill is supposed to matter more than gear. That is a hard pill to swallow when a down-scaled level 80 character is easily two-shotting mobs in a level 10 event while a level 10 character is struggling to survive. Broken.

• Players are supposed to be happy, not frustrated, when other players show up. Explain that to the player of a low-level character trying to enjoy challenging content when a high-level character strides onto the same battlefield and starts turning a challenging event into a joke with his presence. Broken.

• A level 5 character fighting level 5 content has to work hard to earn rewards appropriate for his true level. That’s the concept of risk versus reward at work. And the whole reason we, as level 80’s, can go back to a level 5 encounter and earn rewards appropriate for our true level is because (in theory) down-scaling maintains the precious balance of risk versus reward. In reality, that balance looks very much out of whack when we’re both earning rewards appropriate for our level, but the level 5 characters has to work so much harder to do so. Broken.

When a mechanic is broken, you fix it. If you want to convince the developers to remove the mechanic altogether, feel free to start that topic in a thread of your own. Simply put, the intention of this game mechanism is to keep content challenging for everyone involved regardless of who is participating. However, in reality that isn’t working very well and it could use tweaking. Again, whether you like the system or not to begin with is simply not relevant. It’s the equivalent of suggesting a bug should remain in place because you dislike the idea of it working correctly.

Lutharr.1035:

Edge.4180:

Lutharr.1035:

there is no issue with the downscaling. if u want it to be more diffcult turn up in blues or something jesus

It’s really disheartening how many people waltz into this thread and offer this pointlessly flawed “solution” without thinking it through. As if nobody else was capable of coming up with this suggestion in seconds, or that it wasn’t promptly dismissed for legitimate reasons. I would honestly be too embarrassed to operate this way in any discussion.

You mean its pointless because you dont agree. id be embarrased to open my gob too if all that came out of it was waaaaaaa over pointless crap but hey if thats your thing then you go with it cupcake.

Well, if you had read the thread before joining the discussion (a practice everyone should do, in my opinion) you would have an explanation already. Your recommendation was made a number of times, and it was also explained why it solves nothing a number of times.

Lutharr.1035:

there is no issue with the downscaling. if u want it to be more diffcult turn up in blues or something jesus

It’s really disheartening how many people waltz into this thread and offer this pointlessly flawed “solution” without thinking it through. As if nobody else was capable of coming up with this suggestion in seconds, or that it wasn’t promptly dismissed for legitimate reasons. I would honestly be too embarrassed to operate this way in any discussion.

This game is built around the level adjustment mechanic. And ayone who doesn’t want to play in a game designed around this particular mechanic has plenty of other MMOs to choose from.

Agreeing or disagreeing with the merits of the design doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it functions correctly, and right now it doesn’t seem like it is. High level characters are still too powerful when down-scaled – not because of any personal philosophy of individual players who think it’s necessary, but because results are simply not matching the intentions of the philosophies this game was built on.

• Skill is supposed to matter more than gear. That is a hard pill to swallow when a down-scaled level 80 character is easily two-shotting mobs in a level 10 event while a level 10 character is struggling to survive. Broken.

• Players are supposed to be happy, not frustrated, when other players show up. Explain that to the player of a low-level character trying to enjoy challenging content when a high-level character strides onto the same battlefield and starts turning a challenging event into a joke with his presence. Broken.

• A level 5 character fighting level 5 content has to work hard to earn rewards appropriate for his true level. That’s the concept of risk versus reward at work. And the whole reason we, as level 80’s, can go back to a level 5 encounter and earn rewards appropriate for our true level is because (in theory) down-scaling maintains the precious balance of risk versus reward. In reality, that balance looks very much out of whack when we’re both earning rewards appropriate for our level, but the level 5 characters has to work so much harder to do so. Broken.

When a mechanic is broken, you fix it. If you want to convince the developers to remove the mechanic altogether, feel free to start that topic in a thread of your own. Simply put, the intention of this game mechanism is to keep content challenging for everyone involved regardless of who is participating. However, in reality that isn’t working very well and it could use tweaking. Whether you like the system or not to begin with is simply not relevant. It’s the equivalent of suggesting a bug should remain in place because you dislike the idea of it working correctly.

Volomon.9147:

Strip down naked and use only weapons you pick up from the environment. Problem solved.

So, if I’m playing on a low level character attempting to enjoy challenging gameplay and high level characters (despite being scaled down) are turning what should be an epic boss battle event into a sad joke, how exactly does your solution help me? Are you suggesting we say “Please, high level characters, would you remove some of your gear so you’re all not ruining this event for lower level characters like me..” ? Because I’m seriously doubting that’s going to turn out the way you’re implying.

This is pretty much the problem with all the arguments above that are suggesting people can solve this problem themselves by donning worse equipment. You’re approaching this from a very limited view and not considering the fact that overpowered characters cutting through events like butter may be spoiling the fun for players attempting that same content with characters of the appropriate level.

It’s also pointless to debate whether or not characters should be scaled down in the first place. GW2 is built around this feature. If you don’t like it, there are other games out there that do this differently. All that matters, and the entire point of this thread, is that the feature be improved to work better. The intention of this mechanic is to keep content challenging for everyone involved regardless of who is participating. However, in reality that isn’t working very well and it could use tweaking. Whether you like the system or not to begin with is simply not relevant. It’s the equivalent of suggesting a bug should remain in place because you dislike the idea of it working correctly.

Mercucial.6759:

What level 5 zone are you going to that has anything even remotely worth it for a level 80?

Queensdale. Plains of Ashford. Metrica Province. Caledon Forest. Wayfarer Foothills. Pick one.

I swear I’ve read this same thread with this same title a couple months ago.

Xolosheep.1649:

Downscale more? Then whats the point of getting better gear?

In this game, the point of getting better gear is to survive tougher challenges as your level increases and thus gain access to more areas of the game to play in. It is not so you can more easily lay waste to the opponents that are lower level than you. Games like World of Warcraft may be more in line with your expectations if you were hoping for the latter.

I thought we were all aware that GW2 was supposed to depend more on skill than gear, but I guess that memo didn’t get out everywhere.

A level 5 character fighting level 5 content has to work hard to earn rewards appropriate for his true level. That’s the concept of risk versus reward at work. And the whole reason you, as a level 80, can go back to a level 5 encounter and earn rewards appropriate for your true level is because (in theory) down-scaling maintains the precious balance of risk versus reward. In reality, that balance looks very much out of whack when you’re both earning rewards appropriate for your level, but the level 5 characters fights for his life to do so and his scaled down level 80 companion is two-shotting those same opponents.

To suggest that’s fine is ridiculous.

Few threads on this already:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Report-tool-ineffective-vs-new-type-of-hacker/

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Resource-node-botters/

(among others)

It’s really playing havoc with the supplies on the trading post.

Vortex.5146:

Sorry, that’s just not true. The Plinx chain doesn’t take long at all and the karma/drops/etc are vastly superior to what I’d get in a low level zone, even after the nerf. And there are plenty of other events to run, especially in Straits of Devastation. So I get more karma, higher level loot, t5/6 crafting mats, etc. that I wouldn’t get otherwise.

I will say this, I think we should not have to choose between having what you call fun and having to grind. I think Orr is a grind. I do not enjoy being there as much as I enjoyed many of the other maps. The mobs suck.

But I have goals for my character and reaching those goals is more fun for me even if I have to endure Orr to get them.

No, it’s quite true.

A typical level 80 Orr event is ~18k XP, 378 karma, 1 silver 86 copper.

Meanwhile, I just completed a level 45 event on a level 80 character and earned ~13k XP, 257 karma, 1 silver 27 copper. Yes, as I pointed out earlier the rewards are lower, however it took me only 1 minute and 7 seconds to complete that event from start to finish. And that was the second part of a two part chain, the prior event earning me similar rewards and only taking 27 seconds to complete. Just over a minute and a half of events earned me ~26k XP, ~500 karma, ~2.5 silver.

They’re worth a little less, but not a lot less, and they can be completed very quickly.

Parisalchuk.9230:

Anet has continuously shown their favoritism to Euro. NA gets Daily resets in prime time, get server maintenance prime time, start of events (especially one time events) occur during business hours… Its quite sad.

If the problem (for NA) is that they are favoring EU, then I’m struggling to understand why they won’t perform updates for EU at the best time for EU, and updates for NA at the best time of NA. They can’t be done at the same time for each community without irritating the heck out of one of them.

A level 80 character scaled down to level 10 has much higher stats than a true level 10 character. Some of the difference in stats is coming from traits, some is coming from gear (level 80 characters have equipment with three stats on them where as level 10 characters only have access to equipment with a single stat on it). Sure, all those stats are lowered (made up example – 100 vitality only translates over as 10 vitality), but those little numbers add up quick. A level 80 scaled down to level 10 in a level 9 map-region ends up with stats roughly the same as a character who is truly level 16-20.

Which is odd for a game that’s supposed to value skill over gear.

You would think there would just be a hard cap put in place.. high enough that you won’t run into it when you’re at your true level, but low enough to help with the scaling problems we’re having now.

@Light: a level 80 character completing a level 5 event receives a little less money, karma, and experience than he would have received had he instead completed a level 80 event, but a) the difference isn’t that much and b) you can complete several level 5 events in the amount of time it takes to complete a single level 80 event. In the end, you actually earn more karma, money and experience in the lower level zones from event rewards.

You are, of course, likely to earn more money in general from a level 80 zone because you’re always receiving level ~80 items as drops, instead of a mix of level ~80 items and lower level items. That’s a small price to pay for having the whole world as your playground instead of just Orr.

One of the main characters in the Guild Wars 2 novel “Ghosts of Ascalon” used a two-handed axe as his weapon of choice. I was disappointed not to see that weapon available within the game (the irony being that the character from the novel is).

Light.8253:

@Edge, you missed the point entirely. Aside from map completion or helping a friend, there is no reason at all for a level 80 to hang out in a low level zone. The rewards aren’t as good as the high level zone.

And your above statement tells me you missed my point entirely. When did having fun with the content stop being its own reward? I was under the impression that’s why some people play computer games to begin with.

I can go on and explain that a level 80 character downscaled to a level 10 zone can obtain reward drops appropriate for a level 80 character, and that the XP, monetary, and karma rewards for events are all scaled appropriately for a level 80 character.. and so (unless your goal is to obtain crafting supplies appropriate for your true level) it really doesn’t matter where you choose to play.

But, again, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. All those features, however, just make your claim seem all the more odd.

Vortex.5146:

Nuka is correct, there’s no reason to go back. It takes maybe an hour or two (at most) to complete a low level map as an 80. Once that’s done, there’s no reason to go back.

This is such an odd statement.

Maybe this little detail is being lost on some of you, but for many of us the process is simply this: Pick up MMO, play it, note that we are having fun, continue to play it.

I did not pick up Guild Wars 2 and start my low-level adventures thinking “Well this is utter crap, but I must slog through it to reach GW2’s highly vaunted end-game”. Quite the opposite, actually.

So, there I am having a blast adventuring in Queensdale. I eventually reach 80 with my preferred character and find myself considering that I’ve never adventured in the Plains of Ashford and the Ascalon regions. But, according to you and a few others, there’s no reason to visit these lower level areas.

Seriously? How about because playing my character through new GW2 content and adventures is just plain fun? You know.. the same kind of fun I was having in Queensdale when I started, and on my whole way through 80. It is certainly more fun that revisiting Orr for the umpteenth time.

Do you know what kills my fun, though? Combat that I can sleep through and still win because it’s entirely not challenging. And that’s exactly what happens when the game fails to downscale high level characters to the proper levels of power when they’re participating in a low-level zone. One of the core ideas GW2 was built around was the downscaling mechanic. And while it works “ok”, there’s clearly has room for improvement when my scaled high-level character is two-shotting low-level opponents – something he could not do when taking on that content at the recommended level.

Now, for players who want to take their high-level characters and trot through low-level regions like gods, there are plenty of MMOs that allow that. GW2 is not one of them. It was made abundantly clear by the developers how things would be in this particular area all throughout the game’s development, and all of you bought into this product with that information available to you. There should be no unpleasant surprises here, no complaints about being down-scaled, and no ridiculous threats to quit when people make requests to fix the system so it’s tighter.

Mercucial.6759:

No. Take off your armor if you want more of a “challenge.”

That’s not a helpful solution, especially from the perspective of the lower level character whose challenge/experience is being ruined by the presence of some uber-hero tearing through the event.

One of the main draws to Guild Wars 2 for me has been the mechanic that adjusts your character’s effective level downward to one more suitable for the area you’re in. It essentially makes the entire world “end game content”. It also removes the fear of out-leveling content simply by playing the game normally (which leads to ridiculously easy combat, and eventually boredom), a problem I’ve experienced and come to loathe in several MMOs lately (I’m looking mostly at you, SWTOR and TERA).

Needless to say, I’m a big fan of this system. The problem I’m having is that it doesn’t seem to be working very well. And while I know there are players who dislike this entire system, when it comes down to it this is one of the core mechanics of GW2, it’s not going anywhere, and since it’s going to be around it should at least be working.

If you compare two characters in the same area, both stripped naked of equipment, one at (example) level 5 and the other at level 20 (but with an adjusted effective level of 5), the latter has much higher stats despite the adjustment. This is mainly due to traits the other character doesn’t have access to. Add on to that superior equipment with multiple stat modifiers, access to higher level skills, etc, and it just makes the problem worse. Even naked the down-leveled character is much more powerful than his counterpart, never mind when fully equipped.

There’s just a huge difference in terms of challenge (and thus, in my opinion, fun) between playing a character that is at the proper level for an area and a character who is down-leveled to the proper level for an area. We’re supposed to be (for example) excited when we see more players arriving to help with an event, but instead I’m discouraged because when I recognize that many of them (even myself) are higher level characters that have been artificially down-leveled, I know they’ll still be wiping the floor with monsters in said event with very little effort, thus turning what could have been an epic battle into a circus-style cakewalk. It just completely spoils the fun.

The developers have always said that even with the level scaling, higher level characters would be a “tiny” bit more powerful than normal, but in my opinion this is far from a little difference in power. And while I appreciate the effort, I think there’s definitely room for tweaking to bring this mechanic closer in line with its intended purpose.

I would like to ask why server maintenance and patch rollouts are generally performed on North American servers during what is largely considered NA “primetime” hours.

I think every MMO I’ve played with NA servers has generally considered the late-evening/night hours in North America to be the point of peak server population in this region. Is that somehow not the case here in this game? Or is ArenaNet instead calculating peak population for NA and EU combined? And, if that’s the case, why have two different server hub communities but force both to use a single time slot (whether it be for patching/maintenance or server events)? I think, if you want to be viewed as a triple-A MMO title, you have to be prepared to pander to each audience in a way that is most convenient for their specific region.

Last night you performed a server maintenance which prevented players from logging in for several hours. My best friend and I finally got some sync-time to play GW2 together after more than a week of busy schedules preventing us from gaming together, only to waste most of that time struggling to log in. That was pretty disappointing. And I wish I could claim it was a rare occurrence, but we find that with this game in particular our gaming sessions are frequently interrupted by planed patch updates and downtime scheduled smack in the middle of primetime. Worse, my DSL is on the slow side, and thus I sometimes spend nearly an hour downloading some of these patches (which pretty much chews up most of our available gaming time).

I’m used to MMOs that take care of this business during the early hours of the morning, always explaining that specific period is their point of least usage. Why is ArenaNet’s NA maintenance window scheduled differently?