Guild Wars 2

I don’t think it’s really fair to call it “a dress up game” in that way. Sure, players like seeing stats improve, but they get really, really upset if their newest epic drop doesn’t look cool. I don’t think too many would raiders in WoW would be super excited about receiving set drops that look like starting armor, for example, no matter how good the stats are.

Every MMO plays the dress up game. It’s why developers will release screenshots of their newest tier-2000 armor set but not mention any stats (and then players will spend the next month picking apart the design of the shoulder pads).

Metal.3826:

No idea on groups except that when grouped you can see them on the map. I haven’t grouped a whole lot to notice if there’s other benefits. I don’t think you should get credit and XP just by being grouped with someone.

Please explain why not? Let’s say you and I are grouped, and a pack of monsters attack us, and I damage and kill them all. You only damage a fraction of them, spending more time tossing out some support buffs and peppering the area around us with healing magic. Because of this, I get credit (and loot) for killing everything, and you only get credit for killing the few mobs that you managed to damage.

And yet, we’re a team. We tackled the encounter as a team. We used teamwork to overcome that challenge. We both pulled our weight in our own way. Why would you think you should not get equal credit for being a part of that effort?

As for AoE’ing down everything in an event, that does seem to be the smart move if you’re interested in credit and loot drops. And that’s a real shame. The other night we were escorting an event NPC and a huge pack of monsters charged in and attacked. Along with everyone else, I AoE’d everything down, managed to tag nearly everything, and got a lot of drops. But the escort NPC died in the process.

So, we revived him and I was determined to actually protect the escort NPC during the next encounter (since that was the whole point). I swapped my weapon set to something more control oriented and when the next large pack of monsters arrived I broke up their huge charge with a string of crowd-control abilities. As a result, the rest of the players were able to wipe them out before the escort NPC took any damage at all.

Pretty cool, right? I was certainly very proud of that move. Except.. I didn’t get any credit for that entire pack because I didn’t damage anything. So now I’m standing there weighing the loss of crafting material drops versus protecting an NPC on an escort mission (who can always be revived). Needless to say, I switched back to my AoE damage weapons. It’s just lame to feel like the only choice in these events is to do as much AoE damage as possible. And I think it sends players the wrong message.. mainly that teamwork is overrated and to focus on helping yourself and yourself only.

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

Untouch.2541:

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

Torcan.2314:

Just wait till you get level 80.

What’s going to change when I hit 80?

Nothing.
It’s still the same game, more bugs though.

That’s great, because I’M LOVING IT!

Yes, I don’t really understand the “wait until you reach 80” warning. Between 1-80 you’re (if you’re like me) enjoying an incredibly fun adventure that will likely only take you across a third of the zones the game has to offer, leaving more than two-thirds of the game world untouched. And, thanks to the scaling mechanics, you can visit those other zones after level 80 and continue advancing your character in other ways. You can (almost guaranteed) even revisit zones you’ve already been to and experience new content through dynamic events there. And, over time, new content will be added.

I’m struggling to see how this is a bad thing. In other MMOs I reach max level, grind gear to visit raid dungeons, farm them over and over again for more gear that will become obsolete in the next expansion.. I’m just not seeing that as being more fun. The “end game” in GW2 really does begin at level 1.

I’m not even sure why people want raids in GW2, because (going by dynamic events) if there’s one place GW2 seems to suffer it’s in large scale PvE combat. In my opinion, events are more fun when there are only a handful of people present rather than 20-30+ turning it into a spammy cakewalk.

Khono.6942:

Distributing rewards fairly is very difficult. If everyone gets the same regardless, then it rewards players to get into range of an event then go make themselves a sandwhich. Any system they implement will likely have ways of exploiting it. Again, I’m not saying the system is fine the way it is. It certainly needs work and I’m sure AN knows it. I just think it’s not as broken as I feel you’re expressing.

I don’t think distributing rewards fairly (for a group) is difficult at all. It’s really rather simple, and nearly every MMO manages to get it right. If you and I are within a reasonable range of one another, and we’re grouped, then the credit for the actions one of us take is divided equally between us both. Shared evenly. It is that simple.

Your comment about party members making sandwiches is the counter that comes up to that suggestion all the time, and yet it makes no sense. Because the answer to that dilemma is quite simple as well: don’t be in a group with people who are taking advantage of you. If you choose to remain in the group, sharing credit with someone who joins the party, puts you on auto-follow, and then goes AFK to watch TV.. that is not a failing of any system mechanics. That is failing to use common sense and getting yourself out of that ridiculous situation.

And for groups made out of genuine friends, the outcome to such situations are usually different. If you and I are real friends, and we’re grouped, and you have to put me on /follow and go AFK for 10 minutes to let the dog out.. then that’s fine. I don’t mind remaining in a party with you and having you share part of the credit for everything I do. I know you can return the same favor when the shoe is on the other foot. There is nothing wrong with that, which is probably why most MMOs handle groups that way.

Blizzard seems to be aiming for a different audience with WoW these days (a much younger one) between the pokemon pet system and other changes with MoP. And that’s understandable as it is generally untapped. All of my friends recognize this and, after playing GW2, decided to let their WoW characters go and not even bother ordering the expansion.

Have fun with it if it’s still your thing, though! We’re all gaming to have some fun, after all.

And written at a length that will never be read. Oh well, at least I got it off my chest.

I have to agree with the original post. There are problems with the way parties and event credit is handled. I mentioned this elsewhere, but it applies here: a player who isn’t dealing damage is a player being penalized. There’s just too much emphasis on dealing damage and not enough on support and control.

A few days back I came across a champion mob that was tearing apart a handful of players. By the time I arrived only two of them were left standing and they were running around in a full panic. I was able to get the champion focused on me and “tank” it, but at the cost of sacrificing a lot of my personal damage output.

My actions bought the others the breathing room they needed to get the downed players back up and into the fight. It also bought my friends (who were further down the map selling at a vendor) time to arrive on the scene. I continued to keep the champion focused on me until we all defeated him.

I received a silver medal. That’s nice, but my friends (who arrived minutes after I did) received a gold medal. I guess, between keeping the champion focused on me and controlled, I just didn’t do enough damage to earn a gold medal (where as they all did despite being in the fight for less time than I was). The lesson I learned here is that I should have just brought out my big guns and joined the messy chaos with everyone else rather than bringing some order to the scene. I thought GW2 was supposed to be about teamwork, though?

Same problem with those defense missions where dozens of mobs come running up to a defense point. Attempting to break their charge with some crowd control is, apparently, a waste of time because it goes unrewarded. If you’re not laying down the AOE death along with everyone else, you’re not going to see any loot drops. No real encouragement for teamwork there either.

I would really like to see actions other than damage dealing to count for something, both in terms of medals on events and earning drops from mobs. I want to participate more in support and control roles, but not if it’s going to be a thankless job.

Handling parties better would at least alleviate some of the problem. As it stands, the way parties are handled create even more problems instead.

Example: Bob and Jane form a party and soon find themselves in the middle of an event. Now, Bob has designed his character around dealing damage quickly, where as Jane has focused on more of a support build at the cost of sacrificing some damage. As they find themselves surrounded by hordes of invading bandits, Bob cuts down two bandits for every bandit Jane defeats. He is, in part, able to do this thanks to the support heals and buffs coming from Jane that are shared across the group.

Jane sees another player who obviously focused on maximizing their damage output, but said player goes down. Thinking it is better to get him back into the fight, Jane kneels down to focus on reviving him. Her partner Bob helps out by killing any bandit that threatens to interrupt Jane.

By the the time the fight is over, Bob has killed 66 bandits, and Jane has killed 34 bandits and revived 4 players. For the sake of argument, let’s assume each bandit is worth 100 XP, and reviving a player is worth 50 XP. Thus, on the fight alone, Bob has made 6600 XP during the event, where as Jane has made 3400 + 200 = 3600 XP.

And that is the problem. Bob and Jane were grouped together tackling the event as a team. What should have happened here (but doesn’t in GW2) is that XP for all actions (killing and reviving in this case) should have been split right down the middle for the two party members. Together, Bob and Jane generated 10,200 XP. And, as they are a team, that 10,200 should have been split in half – 5,100 going to Bob and 5,100 XP going to Jane.

This should always be the case provided players are a) grouped and b) within a reasonable range of one another. For a game that prides itself on systems that encourage PvE cooperation rather than competition between players, I simply can not understand why official parties are not dividing experience equally. I am not asking for the two players to receive bonus experience as a party incentive, I am only expecting the available XP to be distributed fairly and equally.

And for friends who enjoy leveling together this is a frustrating problem, and it is not one that becomes moot simply because GW2 is sporting a level-down mechanic. My friends and I like to advance together. We like to unlock advancement skill/slots/abilities/features at the same time. We become frustrated when we’re advancing at different rates regardless of what our “effective level” in an area is. And GW2 is (surprisingly) one of the few MMOs where this has become a problem. Rather than taking a step forward, it has taken an unappealing step backwards in this area.

Jnaathra.6549:

My lvl 80 character can go to low level zones and decimate everything around her. It works when your gear is not perfect and your only a few lvls above a zone. Once you max out though and are wearing all masterful or higher gear.. You make a mess of those mobs.

^ This is pretty much my point. If anyone thinks I’m overstating the disparity, you haven’t tested extreme level differences yet.

For everyone else, now imagine you’re playing your level 80 character and your level 15 friend asks you to come spend the evening adventuring as part of his group. You’re counting on the scaling to adjust your level 80 character appropriately, but it fails to, and you’re almost single-handedly steamrolling everything. How is that working as intended? How is that not ruining the experience for your friend? While that is the norm in most any other MMO, I would call it game breaking in this game because the scaling was specifically put in place to prevent problems like this from happening.

If it’s not.. wouldn’t that be a broken mechanic in need of further tuning?

Lctl.6198:

I have no problem with being more powerfull when downscaled.

What would be the point of lvling and gear then? Might aswell as remove levels and gear, and have people match the zones upon entering.

Part of the point of leveling is to gain access to more areas and thus more variety of adventures. You can play in more areas of the world without being instantly killed. Experience more of the story. Advance your crafting professions by more easily accessing advanced crafting resources. Expand your wealth. Etc.

If you’re looking a system where you can completely decimate anything that’s lower level than you in combat, then GW2 probably isn’t the game for you. This game was always supposed to be more about personal skill than gear. But if the gear/stats are allowing you to cut through lower level mobs like butter, than how does personal skill ever get the opportunity to matter? Every fight in this game is supposed to be a challenge, not just the ones that vastly out-class your character’s true level. Every fight, even the level 10 ones.

Lctl.6198:

I like to come back and feel slighty more powerful. The difference isnt that big, nor game breaking.

The problem is the difference is that big. While you are far from being immortal and unstoppable, you are also far from being just “slightly” more powerful. And I would argue that it can be game breaking. When difficult zone-events (that are supposed to be epic) are made trivial by the presence of higher level players who aren’t being scaled down nearly enough, that is game breaking from the perspective of the appropriate level player.

Lctl.6198:

Think the system is fine, even if sometimes it downscales me too much( makes me lvl6 against lvl 9/10 mobs. Oh joy :p).

That only happens when there are so many players present in an event that the difficulty of the event scales upwards. Even then, while you’re running around on a scaled down level 6 superhuman, imagine how the true level 6 players are faring against those same opponents.

TwistedWarrior.8613:

Lowbie mobs can still kill me. I like it exactly the way it is.

That’s because your health pool is small and this is not the type of game where you can just sit there and soak up multiple sources of damage. And that has nothing to do with being able to two-shot a mob as a higher-level-but-scaled-down character while someone at the correct level and same class is struggling through a 20+ second fight because the former character has way superior stats despite the scaling.

Low level mobs can still kill me too, especially during events when I foolishly stick myself out in front of everyone and then take a dozen+ hits in the span of two seconds from the next wave of mobs that came streaming in. That has less to do with level scaling and more to do with playing foolishly.

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.

And here I was thinking that, even at lower-to-mid levels, the maps are too darn crowded with players. I feel like I spend more time on an overflow server than my home world. Obviously the population for the first half of the game can’t be that bad, but I’m sure it depends somewhat on the server.

Completely justified. Awesome work, guys!

Pandaclysm.4625:

you’re right in events that is troublesome. in every other aspect they are fantastic.

When you say “every other aspect”, I wonder what you mean. What makes them a poor choice in events is the number of players around and the short lifespan of most monsters. We can also say the same situation usually applies in most PvP encounters.

Conditions (assuming you’re the one dealing them) only begin to excel during encounters where you’re generally fighting alone and opponents are staying alive long enough for the condition to have its full effect. How often does that really happen in this game? Not very, in my experience.. certainly not enough to be saying “every other aspect” in any meaningful way.

If anything, we’re far too powerful when our level is scaled down.

Even stripped naked, I do not have the stats of (example) a true level 5 character when my level is scaled down to 5 from a higher level (say, 20). In my test my stats were closer to the stats of a true level 9 character, even though I was being scaled down to level 5.

Obviously that’s going to make me overpowered for the area I’m in. It makes fighting a reasonable amount of opponents a whole lot less entertaining because the encounter is not nearly challenging enough. It also makes higher level characters who are scaled down unwanted in events because they’re two-shotting mobs and throwing off the balance of the encounter for everyone.

If you get attacked by several mobs at once, you’re probably going to die because your smaller health pool just can’t compensate for the amount of damage coming in. But that has less to do with being scaled down and more to do with just playing unwisely. You should never be taking on a swarm of opponents at once.

I really wish they would revisit the entire scaling down system and tone down the power levels of higher level characters who are being scaled. This single feature is one of the biggest draws to the game for me, and it’s just not working as well as it should be.

I would like to be able to tell when a guild member logs in or out (so that, for example, guild members are aware someone in the guild has logged in and can offer greetings) or joins/represents/leaves the guild. You might consider adding one when the guild message of the day changes also.

Most games handle this with notification messages in guild chat. “Your guildmate, Bob, has entered there world.” , for example. Right now the only workaround is to add all your guildmates to your friends list, which is really not practical nor the point of that particular list.

I’m aware that this is not always everyone’s preference, which is why (if added) it should be added as an option in the chat-tab management section. “Show guild announcements”, for example.

Very simply, I would like to see the option to rebind more of the game’s functionality to alternate keys. Specifically, I have my own eyes on: pinging/drawing on the radar/map (currently shift+mouse button click/drag), and hiding the user interface (currently ctrl+shift+H). However, I’m sure players would appreciate being able to rebind the revive, loot, and use functions to alternate keys, as well as a number of other functions.

A personal example: from various other games I’m very used to using the “shift” key as a dodge/roll button. For me, it’s very natural as my pinky rests there next to my WASD keys. And so, I tried to do this in GW2, and while it worked there were a number of unfortunate side effects.

First, because other functions use the shift key, I roll every time I ping a location on the radar for my group, or draw a line/route on the map. That’s annoying, especially when you need to ping the radar during a fight and don’t want to unintentionally roll around wasting endurance. It can also be quite deadly during a jumping puzzle. Second, I roll whenever I try to hide the UI to take a screenshot – which is pretty annoying after you’ve taken a moment to set up the perfect shot of a scene and then press the shift key to hide the UI.

In the end, I had to remove my binding of “shift” from the dodge function because there are no options to rebind the radar/map ping, the radar/map drawing tool, or the option to hide the user interface. Why?

Thus, the request is pretty much this: if there is a key/mouse pressed used to activate a function within the game, then there should be a matching option to rebind said function in the keybinds section. Everything should be included, assume players will want to rebind any and all keyboard/mouse commands. Really, nothing should be hardcoded to a key permanently.

Very simply, I would like to see the option to rebind more of the game’s functionality to alternate keys. Specifically, I have my eyes on: pinging/drawing on the radar (currently shift+mouse button), and hiding the user interface (currently ctrl+shift+H).

For example, from various other games I’m very used to using the “shift” key as a dodge/roll button. For me, it’s very natural as my pinky rests there next to my WASD keys. And so, I tried to do this in GW2, and while it worked there were a number of consequences.

First, I roll every time I want to ping a location on the radar for my group, or draw a line/route on the map. That’s annoying, especially when you need to ping the radar during a fight and don’t want to unintentionally roll around wasting endurance. It’s also deadly during a jumping puzzle. Second, I roll whenever I try to hide the UI to take a screenshot – which is pretty annoying after you’ve taken a moment to set up the perfect shot of a scene.

In the end, I had to remove my binding of “shift” from the dodge function because there are no options to rebind the radar/map ping, the radar/map drawing tool, or the option to hide the user interface.

The request is pretty much this: if there is a key to activate a function in the game, there should be a matching option to rebind said function in the keybind section. Include everything. Assume players will want to rebind any keyboard command. Nothing should be hardcoded to a key permanently.

I can’t help but feel that perhaps they ran out of development time on the Asura and Sylvari. If you look at the Charr, Norn, and Human zones.. they each have their own exclusive maps that will almost take them all the way to level 80 without ever having to move away from their respective regions. The Asura and Sylvari, on the other hand, are left sharing a zone once they get to level 15, and then using every other races maps from level 25 onward. You can chalk it up to them being new arrivals on the world and not having spread their influence as far as the other races, but it sure looks like an unfinished job.

That said, I run into the problems you’re describing all the time in any number of zones. For example, I helped the cyclops in Kessex Hills reclaim his cave from ettins this evening and he led me to his treasure stash as a reward. When he revealed it the chest was already open and could not be interacted with. Unfortunately I run into this sort of bug with event chests all the time on a number of different maps.

The battle for Beetletun farms in Queensdale on my server (Tarnished Coast) seems to always be broken. The farmer has all the sprinkler pieces he needs but won’t get to work until all the centaurs are cleared from the field. Meanwhile the counter shows zero centaurs remaining, no centaurs occupying the fields, and the event is just stuck with the farm fields on fire until the server resets.

The mission to destroy the separatist catapults and roadblock in Plains of Ashford also always seems to be stuck at certain points, almost never recognizing when the catapults are destroyed and the attack is beaten.

The list goes on. I wish there was a way to know which problematic events they were aware of.

You pretty much answered your own question in the original post. They’ve stated before that trade was left out in favor of the instant-mail system in order to cut down on scamming. They also felt that it was a waste of their development time to implement a trading system that requires multiple layers of anti-scam checks.

Not saying I agree with the decision, but there it is. Personally, I dislike that the mail solution makes bartering with strangers pretty much impossible. Want to trade your rare plate chest drop for my rare leather tunic drop? Sure, you mail me first.. >.>

That said, most of the time I would use the mail system to make trades because I like that I can send something off without being held up by how quickly the recipient can interact with a trade window, or meet up with me somewhere.

I just mark them as “scamming”, since ultimately their goal is to acquire your credit card number and other personal information.

Playing some alts this evening, I was having all kinds of party problems that I don’t usually have. The other member of my party couldn’t join my personal story instance; they were just never given the option. We tried reforming the party, logging in and out, attempting it while on our home server, attempting it while on an overflow server, etc. Nothing worked. We were also having trouble (no feedback from the UI) attempting to join one another on different overflow servers several times; nothing would happen after choosing the option to join.

In addition to that, the heart-task monitor that sits next to every portrait (it lets you see your party member’s progress on the heart-task in the area when you mouse over it) was just missing. It just wasn’t there next to the portrait at all, no matter which heart-task region we were in. That was very unusual.

And on top of those problems, my party member couldn’t see the pings and scribblings created on the radar map by me (and visa-versa). Also unusual as this normally works.

The game was pretty much treating it like we weren’t grouped up. We could see party chat, however.

Our home world is Tarnished Coast, but (as I mentioned) we were also seeing this problem on overflow servers. This was in Kessex Hills, in a two person party. We hadn’t run into this problem before tonight (not since the improvements that were made post launch, anyway).

I was having all kinds of party problems tonight that I don’t usually have. The members of my party couldn’t join my personal story instance; they were just never given the option. We tried reforming the party, logging in and out, etc.

In addition to that, the heart-task monitor that sits next to every portrait (it lets you see your party member’s progress on the heart-task in the area when you mouse over it) was just missing. It just wasn’t there at all no matter which heart-task region we were in.

And on top of those problems, none of the party members could see the pings and scribblings created on the radar map by the other members of the party.

The game was pretty much treating it like we weren’t grouped up. We could see party chat, however.

I have to agree with the original post. A player who isn’t dealing damage is a player being penalized. There’s just too much emphasis on dealing damage and not enough on support and control.

The other day I came across a champion mob that was tearing apart a handful of players. By the time I arrived only two of them were left standing and they were running around in a full panic. I was able to get the champion focused on me and “tank” it, but at the cost of sacrificing a lot of my personal damage output.

My actions bought the others the breathing room they needed to get the downed players back up and into the fight. It also bought my friends (who were further down the map selling at a vendor) time to arrive on the scene. I continued to keep the champion focused on me until we all defeated him.

I received a silver medal. That’s nice, but my friends (who arrived minutes after I did) received a gold medal. I guess, between keeping the champion focused on me and controlled, I just didn’t do enough damage to earn a gold medal (where as they all did despite being in the fight for less time than I was). The lesson I learned here is that I should have just brought out my big guns and joined the messy chaos with everyone else rather than bringing some order to the scene. I thought GW2 was supposed to be about teamwork, though?

Same problem with those defense missions where dozens of mobs come running up to a defense point. Attempting to break their charge with some crowd control is, apparently, a waste of time because it goes unrewarded. If you’re not laying down the AOE death along with everyone else, you’re not going to see any loot drops. No real encouragement for teamwork there either.

I would really like to see actions other than damage dealing to count for something, both in terms of medals on events and earning drops from mobs. I want to participate more in support and control roles, but not if it’s going to be a thankless job.

kostbabis.8791:

The thing is that we cant expect that the population will drop in the starting zones (<30)
The game is new and there will be enough amount of people for events to never fail for months..

I think this problem is only going to get worse over time, not better. The down-scaling that occurs when a high level player enters a low level area is not severe enough stat-wise. Despite the down-scaling mechanic, there is still a ridiculous difference in power between a level 80 player fighting a level 5 event mob and a level 5 player fighting that same mob.

That alone is really a problem because it messes with a few philosophies GW2 is supposed to be built on. We are, for example, supposed to be excited when more players arrive on the scene rather than frustrated. But when really high level characters (who are down-scaled) join a fight they turn a potentially challenging encounter into a joyless cakewalk. That’s not fun. That makes me wish they weren’t there.

We’re also supposed to feel like the entire world is potentially end-game content. That’s difficult to sell when you return to lower level zones on a high level character and are two-shotting every mob (despite being scaled down).

I’d rather keep my screen clear of unneeded text clutter. I like that titles only show up when I click on an individual. Because more information is displayed at that point, it allows me to focus on that individual and his or her title (rather than the title and character name being lost in a sea of text in crowded areas).

I would suggest that there be an option to display titles on other players always, never, or only when targeted, and allow each player to choose their preference. But players who want other players to see their titles (whether they want to or not) rarely like that compromise.

Right now I can’t even see my own title outside of my hero panel. Trust me when I say seeing my own title is way more important to me than seeing yours. I suspect most players probably feel that way.

I have not seen anything to cause me to believe there is an anti-farming mechanic in place for loot drops in GW2.

Lysidian.4653:

Edge your experiences seem to be vastly different from mine and the 200+ folks posting here ( http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/zjxcn/is_the_anti_bot_protection_in_gw2_going_too_far/ )

That thread you link states this:

“If i farm more than 50 of one particular item i am prevented from receiving any form of loot for what seems about 30 minutes.”

In my experience that statement is just nonsense. Recently I need over 200 units each of several types of crafting drop (/sad sigh). We’re talking nearly a 1,000 units total. I tackled them one at a time (blood, then scales, then bones, etc), in each case farming the same tight location very quickly. In some cases the area would also host a particular event every 15 minutes or so (which I participated in as that would obviously boosts my drop rate).

At no point did I notice any deviation from what I considered the norm or the average.. certainly no case of all drops stopping for 30 minute periods.

Lysidian.4653:

Khaldar.7486:

Edge.4180:

I just keep farming because there is no anti-farm script from what I’ve been able to tell.

There is a script that reduces XP and Karma gained from events if you keep doing the same one over and over in a short time frame.

Dont know if you have noticed it or not but it also gets activated if you kill the same mob type repeatedly (sigh why is there only one mob type in Orr….)

I’ll use the same example I mentioned elsewhere in a similar topic.

I can (example) farm bats at a location and initially get no drops for several minutes straight. Following that period I begin getting blood drops every few kills. Following that I’m getting blood drops every kill. In such an example you can see that my drop rate is improving over time, not becoming worse. I’ve also seen behavior that appears to be the opposite, or even fairly average across my entire farming session. Random is random, nothing more.

If anyone actually has a comment from an official source (dev post, interview, etc) discussing anti-farm code in GW2 (not GW1), by all means feel free to share it. Until then we’re just jumping at shadows. Personally, I have done a ridiculous amount of farming for crafting material drops (trying to maintain 8 different crafting disciplines) and have never, ever seen any kind of drop behavior that would indicate that it boils down to anything more than the odds and dumb luck (assuming, of course, you’re farming the correct mob for the drops).

Khaldar.7486:

Edge.4180:

I just keep farming because there is no anti-farm script from what I’ve been able to tell.

There is a script that reduces XP and Karma gained from events if you keep doing the same one over and over in a short time frame.

The original poster is talking about loot drops drying up, not XP and Karma.

I just keep farming because there is no anti-farm script from what I’ve been able to tell.

Freakiie.8940:

Edge.4180:

While it existed in the original GW, I don’t think there’s been any mention of an anti-farming code here in GW2.

You sure about this? Since I hear it mentioned in like every second topic about farming.

What I mean is that I haven’t seen any mention of an anti-farm code from an official development source. There will always be player speculation, sure. It really only takes an encounter with an anti-farm system in one MMO to get people wondering whether every MMO has it.

Derpinator.2894:

And I can’t prove it, but I’m certain that there is anti-farming code in place. The drop off in crafting mats from respawns is insane. First group of bats (8 mobs, 4 blood). Respawns 1 in 8. Third set of respawns and forward 0-2 blood. Farming, I feel, is a complete waste of time if you stay in one small spot. Clearing an entire mine or something over and over might work, but just standing on a hillside farming for mats has never worked for me.

My experience has been completely the opposite at times. I can farm bats at a location and initially get no drops for several minutes straight and then 30 minutes later I’m getting blood drops every kill. Random is random, nothing more.

If anyone actually has a comment from an official source (dev post, interview, etc) discussing anti-farm code in GW2, by all means feel free to share it. Until then we’re just jumping at shadows. Personally, I have done a ridiculous amount of farming for crafting material drops (trying to maintain 8 different crafting disciplines) and have never, ever seen any kind of drop behavior that would indicate that it boils down to anything more than the odds and dumb luck.

Masterpyro.4310:

I have been in Orr and surrounding zones killing tons of undead off and on making sure I’m not getting screwed by anti-farming code or anything, but still not a single rare drop since I hit 75-80.

While it existed in the original GW, I don’t think there’s been any mention of an anti-farming code here in GW2.

Outside of an instance, you’re not going to be able to see your friends cutscenes (which, is a real bummer if you’re investing all this time helping them with their story). The complaint was brought up during beta, and even acknowledged by the developers, but the responses made it sound like they felt it would take too much work to iron out the potential kinks. I can’t say I was thrilled with that answer. It used to be that you could at least see the text from the cutscenes being dumped into the chat box, but now that doesn’t even seem to be working anymore.

On the other hand, if you’re talking about not seeing your friend’s cutscenes while in an instance, that sounds more like a bug. Usually you can. In fact, I did a personal story instance with a friend last night and when the cutscenes started I didn’t see them. They had the movie icon over their head while I retained complete control of my character. A few minutes later there was a second cutscene and the same thing happened. Since it was clear that it wasn’t working, we both aborted the mission by running beyond the instance boundaries. We then broke group, reformed, and went back into the mission (starting from scratch, of course) and this time I could see all my friend’s cutscenes. So, clearly it was supposed to work that way but bugged out.

If that’s the problem you’re running into, try fixing it that way and see if it works.

Perhaps they’re for people who are concerned about space and storage. Sometimes I make equipment for alts before they reach the level where they can use them, and having their set packed up and taking up only one slot of storage space could be handy. Or, maybe some players just prefer buying the whole set from the tradepost for one price rather than facing a less appealing price by purchasing each piece separately.

In short, you may be paying extra to craft it because the item is more convenient.

All the classes can be made equally difficult to put down in their own unique ways. At the same time, players may be more used to certain standard methods of dealing with incoming damage, and thus don’t recognize other methods as readily. Guardians, for example, seem to be able to stand there and take it on the chin fairly easily (which is something we associate with being sturdy, or tanking). However, it might surprise many players to know that Guardians are one of the classes in the game with the lowest health pool.

Ralcore.9354:

I feel like I have less mobility than my guardian, but I can definitely take more of a beating.

I actually hear the bit about Guardians having more mobility than Warriors all the time, and despite having played both classes I can’t figure out what people are talking about. I feel more rooted when playing a Guardian than I do with my Warrior (who tends to be all over the place).

I wear a title myself, but really.. I would rather not have the extra text cluttering the screen above every character’s head. Because of that I appreciate the fact that it only shows up when you target a specific player – it allows you to focus on them and thier title rather than a sea of titles.

I would suggest having it as an option – allowing players to choose whether or not to see titles all the time, only when a target is selected, or never – but I suspect that’s not going to make you happy if you want everyone to see your title (regardless of whether they actually want to or not).

I would be happy if I could just target my character and see my own title for a moment.

I’ve been trying to log in to the support section of the website to check on a ticket, and despite entering the correct login details I keep getting the following error:

“The username or password you entered is incorrect or your account has been disabled.”

Is the support page down currently?

shambo.3842:

it does indeed work with teamspeak.

This feature was explained during the beta, so I was aware of what it did. However, I have never noticed it working with Teamspeak. I have it set at the default position (in the center), having no idea which direction minimizes or maximizes the effect since the bar isn’t labeled. But I have just never heard the volumes of the in-game sounds drop any lower whenever someone on TS3 is speaking.

Tradewind.6913:

draeath.8536:

Keeping in mind all the time and bandwidth you’ll waste doing that.

I can only think of maybe 3 or 4 places in this world where that may actually be a problem?

The United States being one of those places.

Thanks for clearing that up, PaulMarden!

GaileGray.9587:

Keep in mind the team can disable your authentication, but then you’re unprotected, so you need to think that one through and determine how best to proceed.

I also submitted a request to get email authentication removed from my account and am still waiting on a response from support to resolve the issue. What irritates me is that I never asked for email authentication to be enabled in the first place. What I did do was update my email address from an old retired address to a new one for this game (as was suggested to us by Arenanet). But the process of doing that apparently activates email authentication automatically without asking the user if it’s something they actually want.

My ISP uses dynamic IP addresses, and because of this I’m usually having to wait for ~15 minutes for an authentication email to arrive whenever I have a little time to play the game. That is just not an acceptable security solution for me. If you’re really interested in providing additional security for us, then please consider selling a physical authenticator like your competitors do.

The GW2 folder for a beta-updated-to-retail client is 16.4 GB in size. For a retail DVD purchase, the installation is only 14.1 GB in size, which is quite a bit smaller. Both of these installations are fully patched up.

Why the significant size difference? Is something missing (higher resolution textures, for example) from one install compared to the other? Or is that just bulk in the beta client that is obsolete and no longer being used? If so, why not trim it through the updates?