Guild Wars 2

Robert Hrouda.1327:

must… resist.. urge… to sticky…

Good post. Just be patient with folks and educate

OR, you could give us an in-game interface that satisfies the same functions as GW2LFG, so we don’t have to rely on an external website to help match players and groups together.

You know, like your competition offers. Seriously, why promote an external website when this kind of functionality should really be included standard in modern MMOs? Why hasn’t it happened yet?

Burno.8431:

I’ve done CM Story mode in duo as a level 80 elementalist with another 80 elementalist. I personally find CM story to be one of the easiest dungeons in the game. There are no mobs which require any specific tactics, perhaps only some that need an order of killing to make it easier.

It’s actually possible to use specific builds and take advantage of leashing (which I feel is a ridiculous flaw in any dungeon) to solo CM story.

But that was never the point. It was never a question of whether or not it could be beaten, it’s a question of whether it’s fun versus annoying, whether its difficulty fits well with other story-mode dungeons. I don’t feel that it does.

And good luck with expecting a new group of 40’s to exploit the mechanics that way. There’s a difference between someone experienced entering the dungeon alone or with a smaller team and the intention of proving it can be done versus a group of random and inexperienced players who are just showing up because it’s the next chapter of the Destiny’s Edge storyline.

I believe challenging content should be reserved more for explorable modes, and that story modes were more focused on telling a story. Not necessarily a walk in the park but not leaving the player hating the dungeon either (otherwise, how does that encourage them to try the explorable modes later?). I thought that was the intention, at least. That’s why I’m fine with CS explorable, but not so much with CS story (which seems to be easily just as difficult, if not more so, than CS explorable).

If the level scaling was where it needed to be (level 80 characters scaled down to the dungeon’s level are still more powerful than a character who is equal to the dungeon’s level) this would likely be a non-issue. The latest patch attempted to adjust scaling to be more accurate but it still has a long way to go. Until then, I’m not surprised people are opting for companions with more raw power (although it is unfortunate).

ZBeeblebrox.4928:

Is this a troll post? CM story was incredibly easy. As others have already said, I did it right when I hit 40, with a bunch of other recent 40s, soon after game came out. After getting pwned by Ralena and Vassar in AC story for hours, the 30 minute walk in the park that was CM story was a total joke…

Honestly not a troll post. I have no problems with any of the paths of Caudecus Manor explorable mode. I think the difficulty in CM explorable is fine. I didn’t have a problem with the Lovers’ Crypt. They print the necessary information right under the mob’s portrait: “stronger when close together” (or something to that effect), so it was just a matter of separating them. At any rate, from what the patch notes say, this encounter was made even easier in the latest update.

However, we’re specifically talking about a story-mode dungeon here which is, really, supposed to be more about telling a story and less about leaving a bad taste in players mouths. CM story is, in my opinion, easily as difficult as CM explorable. It’s (again, to me) far too much of a difference in terms of difficulty from Ascalon Catacombs (any mode) for a story mode dungeon. Thus, as far as progression goes, I think it’s out of line with the rest.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

CM is a joke. I did story mode as soon as I hit 40 and was incredibly disappointed. After getting my kitten kicked in AC story I expected it to be just as hard if not harder. The first boss was kind of annoying, after that it was a complete joke.

See, my experience has been completely different. AC story was, to me, extremely easy. And I felt the first boss in CM story was the easiest thing there (other than its death laser that I apparently missed in the volley of special effects). Avoid that and its damage is tame enough to solo it.

Ojimaru.8970:

Just did this on a late Sunday run just to see how the Mansion was post-nerf.

Just to be clear, there were no listed nerfs to this dungeon in the patch notes (beyond players losing the ability to use waypoints to revive during combat in all dungeons).

Ojimaru.8970:

First of all, as a level 80, you’re downscaled to the stats of a level 40 in the dungeon. So in truth you’re no better than a level 40 with extra shiny gear.

This is actually not correct. A level 80 player in exotic gear downscaled to 40 is much more more powerful than a true level 40 character. This has always been the case (and problem, in my opinion), and while the latest patch thankfully took steps to reduce the difference, there is still a very significant one in terms of power.

Ojimaru.8970:

Next, as a level 80 Guardian, you all so many tools to counteract 80% of the threat within Caudecus’ Manor. Learn to use them.

Please explain, in step by step detail, the tools you would use to counteract 4 to 6 CM mobs focusing on you for the handful of minutes the team requires to kill them. Besides standing in the back and letting someone else get massacred in your place, I mean.

Ojimaru.8970:

There is visible warning. Just be a little less ignorant and put two and two together. Yes, I admit that attack, for its lethality, ought to be a little more prominent, but when you notice that you always die when it fires its laser…

I’m going to assume the tummy-laser attack is what killed me since it is the only attack of his I don’t recall seeing. I had to watch a video of the golem battle to get a look at it, so I will say this:

1) If you are in melee range and the beam is striking you, it’s about a meter long and likely obscured by your character model (assuming you’re not playing someone small).

2) The rather miniscule and not particularly impressive looking shaft of light effect is blue, like half of my guardian’s abilities that are firing off during a fight. The sound effect is rather non distinct and fairly quiet.

Put the two together and you have something that can leave a team scratching their heads wondering what just hit them. I find it odd that the most damaging attack that boss has is also its least advertised, while the fairly tame spinning flame jets and the fist launch can be seen coming a mile away.

I knew when making this thread I would get this type or reaction. People on these forums are ever eager to disprove any and every claim, but I stand by my statement. Like I said, I have never complained about any of the content in the game, except to complain that it is too easy. I quietly roll my eyes whenever someone else claims other dungeons are too difficult, so I know the deal. But CM seems, to me, overly hard for its level.

I finished the dungeon.. the run did not take very long at all, and I really have no reason (or desire now, which is part of the problem in my opinion) to ever run it again. Tweak it or don’t, in the end it doesn’t impact me, I just felt obligated to comment on my experience. I never said it was impossible, I just said the level of difficulty is out of line for where it sits in the chain, and the result is not particularly fun. Really, I would rather solo a number of bosses in AC explorable than do another run with a group through CM story (and I’m comparing the two because they are close to the same level, 35-40).

Ayanavi.1904:

I ran CM story with about 3 people – a level 80 guardian, level 62 ranger, and myself on a 55 elementalist. We ran it successfully with little problem, so I believe the issue actually is a matter of fighting correctly or getting the right tactics.

I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree. I’m not suggesting it’s not important to fight correctly or use proper tactics. It certainly is. And I’m not above asking “what needs to be done here?”and investigating the right ways to handle a situation.

It is not a question of being able to finish the dungeon. Whether you have two people or five, these dungeons can all be finished if you’re willing to put in the time, especially since the trash encounters do not respawn upon wiping (in other words, you can eventually win through attrition). The problem here is that this is the second dungeon in the game and it is night-and-day difference in difficulty from the dungeon before it. In fact, from what I’ve read, many people seem to think Caudecus’s Manor is one of the more difficult dungeons in the game, if not the most difficult. That’s a poor flow of progression if the intention is to increase difficulty gradually as you get higher in level.

As for the ambushes and patrols, they became obvious quickly. The only time they became a problem was when mob knockbacks were spammed and moved the team into areas they didn’t intend to be. Unfortunately, the knockbacks were spammed frequently.

Line of Warding (which I am well familiar with) lasts five seconds. That trash takes a lot longer to kill than five seconds, bunched up for AOEs or not. Perhaps the last time you were in this particular story-mode dungeon was before the ability was nerfed, when it lasted eight seconds? Also, please keep in mind that as of a few weeks ago (the Flame and Frost patch) leveled-down characters are not nearly as powerful as they used to be. So, if you’re not talking about a very recent run through this dungeon then you’re experiences are going to be different.

It’s odd that you mention the riflemen as they were one of the few things in the dungeon not giving us problems.

I stand by my statement of the trash not being melee friendly. When I can’t pull off a quick melee-channeled attack because standing still that long amounts to more damage than I have health, I see a problem.

As far as ‘tanking’, please note that I said “through a variety of moves and toggling abilities I’m able to “tank” the bosses in Ascalon Catacombs explorable mode with little difficulty”. The key words there being “a variety of moves and toggling abilities”. That means making ample uses of movement to an extent, dodges, blinds, blocks, etc. I’m not suggesting anyone can just sit there and soak everything up. However, there is a difference between what I’m describing and simply kiting while the rest of your team uses ranged attacks to wear down the mobs chasing you. No fight, in my opinion, should ever boil down to that “tactic” (which only succeeds because the AI is stupid enough to allow it).

If anyone reads the topic title and chooses to respond without reading any further, they’ve already missed the point.

I don’t think I’ve ever labeled anything in this game as “difficult”. In fact, I’m often complaining about content being too easy. For example, prior to the recent dungeon patches I thought the difficulty of Ascalon Catacombs explorable mode was on par for the challenge level GW2 content. If you had a group that worked well it was pretty easy. But, if you didn’t, it could be annoying. Now, post-patch, I consider Ascalon explorable to be too easy no matter which group you wander into the depths with.

Caudecus’s Manor (story mode) is the second dungeon experience players will likely be exposed to and, in my opinion, it’s far too difficult (especially compared to Ascalon’s story mode). In fact, if the goal here is to enjoy a good story, I would say the difficulty level is causing it to miss the mark. I enjoyed adventuring with Rytlock and Eir through the catacombs. However, I had a difficult time following (much less enjoying) my assault on the manor with Logan and Zojja because I was spending too much time watching our party get slaughtered. In fact, I think Logan and Zojja spent most of our encounters dead, as they were being downed nearly every other battle.

Worse, our group consisted of three 80’s (Guardian, Elementalist, Warrior) and two ~65’s (Thief, Mesmer), so we were actually above the level 40 range of the dungeon. While we were, of course, level-scaled.. we all know how generous scaling can be (even with the recent attempts to correct that). That said, we had a lot of trouble with this dungeon and I can’t imagine a party of level 40’s doing this while still having any semblance of fun.

It was not a question of figuring the fights/mobs out or developing the right tactics. It was more a problem with the sheer number of mobs and the amount of damage they could individually do. I (the Guardian, wearing a set of soldier-based armor and large investment in the vitality and toughness trait lines) felt like I was being defended by tissue paper.

About a quarter way through the dungeon I started questioning whether or not characters were supposed to melee in this manor, because anything other than the mobility of ranged seemed like suicide. If the trash mobs weren’t taking a quarter to a third of my life off per hit, they were constantly knocking you back or down. It does not really matter if you have stability defense in your utility tray (I did) when several dogs are chain-pouncing you, or packs of humanoid mobs knocking you back with kicks every few seconds. At one point nearly everyone in my group synced the comment “can’t get up!”.

The damage itself just seemed off. In fact, on the very first fight (with the golem “boss”), I was taking a few hits from it and thinking he seemed pretty tame. Suddenly I (and all the other melee) were dead. One-shotted.. no visible warning that I saw, just full health to dead in the blink of an eye. Is that golem boss missing an animation? After recovering and approaching the golem again, the same lame situation repeated itself. For the life of me I could not tell how our deaths were happening.

I don’t know.. through a variety of moves and toggling abilities I’m able to “tank” the bosses in Ascalon Catacombs explorable mode with little difficulty. But the regular trash in Caudecus’s Manor story mode had me spending more time than not running for my life. Between their damage output, over zealous use of control abilities, and numbers, I just feel that the story mode of Caudecus’s Manor is poorly tuned in terms of difficulty.

I just want Trahearne to put on some armor besides the gauntlets and pajamas he’s wearing. I feel like he shows up to every battle having just woken up and not really taking the campaign seriously. At least attempt to look inspiring. I can’t believe they developed this main character and dressed him so lazily.

At least Logan looks like he’s ready to rumble.

What’s with the footprints anyway? Is that supposed to represent the masses following in the footsteps of a hero who owns a legendary weapon?

Seriously, I don’t understand the point of them nor do I really even like them. I feel someone walked through a puddle of paint and is now tracking his mess all over the floor.

I’m pretty sure the last time my character ran across the in-game snow he left footprints. At least those make sense (although I think only the owner can see them).

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Edge.4180:

Honestly, I think the Fiery Dragon sword has some scaling issues. It’s just too large for a one-handed sword. Not only does the flame extend too far beyond the physical blade, the particle effect at the tip is too large rather than shrinking to a point.

And the grip is far too long to the point of looking comical and unwieldy. The entire item badly needs to be shrunk down. As is, you could easily wield this sword two-handed without anything looking odd.

Example:

I don’t understand. Isn’t this a good thing? It’s an extremely large blade, but it’s not “comical” because the sword is probably insanely lightweight.

I just don’t get why you guys are trying to make what is my personal favorite weapon less noticable and less flashy. It’s not like HOM rewards were incredibly easy to get, they at least took some time.

And also, why would the flame shrink to a point? It’s a raging fire, it’s going to go in every direction.

I think I take a lot of offense to these suggestions purely because the FDS is in my eyes the weapon that seems like they put the most time into it, barring legendaries.

In my eyes, Jormag’s breath should be scaled UP in size, but leave the particle effect alone. The way I see it, the FDS’s particles spread out wide because it’s fire, blazing in every direction, where as JB’s particles are directed forward, and icy, less unpredictable.

The real problem lies in the fact that in GW1, IDS was just a reskinned FDS, where as in GW2, Jormag’s Breath has an entirely different model than the FDS (completely different dragon head and texturing.)

Let’s look at a few pictures again (attachment below) and I’ll try to be more specific. On the left we have some pretty cool concept art of Rytlock holding Sohothin, the weapon the fiery dragon sword was modeled after. Notice how his hand is holding the grip near the guard. Now, note the screenshot of the GW2 female in the center, and how she is holding the grip much closer to the pommel. Not only does it look horrible, it’s just wrong.

The grip in the concept art on the left is about 2 1/2 – 3 hands wide. The grip in the center screenshot is about 3 1/2 – 4 hands wide.. it needs to be shrunk down. The dragon head representing the guard is also much more reasonably sized in the concept art of Rytlock.

As far as the physical “blade” of the sword goes, it’s about the same size as other one-handed swords in the game. But the flame effect extends much further beyond it, to an extent where it clips through the ground when sheathed at a character’s hip. And because it is so dense and bloated at the tip (unlike the concept art) it makes the remainder of the sword look far larger than a one-handed sword should. Additionally, the fire effect not narrowing to more of a point is that it ends up looking more like a club or a torch than a sword. While the flame effect in the GW2 screenshot is very similar to the concept art, in the concept art the brightest/hottest part of the flame narrows to a point to sell the illusion.

I’ve also attached an image on the right of the FDS from the original Guild Wars. The inferior graphic quality aside, I feel it looks better because the scale is smaller and more reasonable, the character is holding the grip much closer to the guard, and the flame effect (as minimal as it is) at least narrows to a point.

I’m fine with just being his commander. And while I agree that his voice acting puts me to sleep, I think it fits with the Sylvari.

That said, I would like him a whole lot more if I felt he was taking his role seriously – which means putting on some cool looking armor for a change and looking inspiring instead of showing up at every battle looking like he just ran up in his pajamas.

That’s not my character, just an image grabbed from the web. Human males have a similar problem, though.

Honestly, I think the Fiery Dragon sword has some scaling issues. It’s just too large for a one-handed sword. Not only does the flame extend too far beyond the physical blade, the particle effect at the tip is too large rather than shrinking to a point.

And the grip is far too long to the point of looking comical and unwieldy. The entire item badly needs to be shrunk down. As is, you could easily wield this sword two-handed without anything looking odd.

Example:

jingseng.2150:

Actually, it’s quite a good change overall – for one, (generally) you now know if there is an item worth going out of your way to get (if, say, you died or if it is in the middle of massive aggro).

I strongly disagree. I think chests are much more difficult to notice, particularly in the crowded scenario you’re suggesting. I have never had a problem noticing a corpse, however. I have, a number of times, had to have friends point out these new little chests to me as I completely missed them – a problem I never had with corpses.

jingseng.2150:

Perhaps more importantly, chests stay put. Corpses disappear… and sometimes rather quickly at that.

I have seen no evidence that chests remain longer than corpses. I have never had a corpse vanish “quickly”. It usually remains for a number of minutes giving the player ample time to run past it and loot (even while fighting; usually nobody should be remaining in just one spot anyway).

Since the big Flame & Frost patch, I have (despite playing regularly in the evening every day since) received a total of two green items as drops, and no rares (or exotics). I won’t comment on the chances of receiving rares or exotics as random is random, but I will say that I do enough PvE killing to normally come away with several masterwork items every evening. Thus, to only have recovered two masterwork items since the patch seems.. unusually unlucky.

I’m well aware of the change in the patch introducing tiny loot chest containers, although I’m confused as to why this change was made in the first place. Personally, I prefer to go up to a corpse and hit “F” to get all my loot. It’s simple and I like to keep it simple. There is no doubt in my mind that I’ve missed at least a few of these little loot boxes since my friends are often the ones pointing them out to me after the fact. I feel this change made things unnecessarily complicated, and I simply can’t see anything wrong with looting ALL items straight from a single source (the corpse) – unless this is a very non-elegant solution for some sort of loot list conflict.

That aside, I will say this: both green items I received were straight from corpses. Of the (very few) tiny boxes on the ground I’ve looted since the patch, all of them rewarded me with some type of white item (like a moldy bag, which then either had coin or some type of crafting resource in it). None of that is working as advertised, unless I am completely misunderstanding the wording in the patch notes.

So, one way or the other something appears to be broken here. I would like to start receiving masterwork and better items as drops again as normal, please, so can someone look into this?

It’s a genuine request. The thread title is just a byproduct of overly restrictive title size limits. Can be difficult to cram something into 45 characters.

I think Jormag’s Breath is fine. If anything, the Fiery Dragon sword needs to be adjusted (toned down). Despite having access to that skin for the entire game I have never wanted to use it because it’s just too big. When sheathed at the hip the fiery effect clips horribly with the ground – it just extends out too far past the physical blade.

Since the big Flame & Frost patch, I have (despite playing regularly in the evening every day since) received a total of two green items as drops, and no rares (or exotics). I won’t comment on the chances of receiving rares or exotics as random is random, but I will say that I do enough PvE killing to normally come away with several masterwork items every evening. Thus, to only have recovered two masterwork items since the patch seems.. unusually unlucky.

I’m well aware of the change in the patch introducing tiny loot chest containers, although I’m confused as to why this change was made in the first place. Personally, I prefer to go up to a corpse and hit “F” to get all my loot. It’s simple and I like to keep it simple. There is no doubt in my mind that I’ve missed at least a few of these little loot boxes since my friends are often the ones pointing them out to me after the fact. I feel this change made things unnecessarily complicated, and I simply can’t see anything wrong with looting ALL items straight from a single source (the corpse) – unless this is a very non-elegant solution for some sort of loot list conflict.

That aside, I will say this: both green items I received were straight from corpses. Of the (very few) tiny boxes on the ground I’ve looted since the patch, all of them rewarded me with some type of white item (like a moldy bag, which then either had coin or some type of crafting resource in it). None of that is working as advertised, unless I am completely misunderstanding the wording in the patch notes.

So, one way or the other something appears to be broken here. I would like to start receiving masterwork and better items as drops again as normal, please, so can someone look into this?

Gaile Gray.6028:

Why thank you, I Love Root Beer, that’s very kind… even if I’m not a dude.

Edge, you’ve presented information about which I was unaware. I spend my forum time here, in the Account Support Forum, and therefore have not been aware of a reported issue. I am writing this late at night, having served Jury Duty today (and perhaps for a few days to come) but I will send an email tonight to ask the team to route this to the appropriate parties. Thanks for providing those details.

Update: Email sent.

Thanks for forwarding it!

Hey folks. I’m looking for a screenshot of a Human Male holding in his hands, not on his back, either the hammer “The Colossus” or “Magmaton”.

Google/Youtube is turning up a few images of Norns, Asura, and females holding these weapons, but I’m specifically looking for a human male (holding the hammer in his hands, not on his back).

If anyone can provide a screenshot that fits the description, I’d appreciate it!

Honestly, as a setting I preferred Elona to Cantha. I enjoyed the assassin class very much, but the theme of that area just never really seemed to tie together very well with the Prophecies content. If it wasn’t for the Mhenlo connection I wouldn’t have felt a link at all. I’m not saying Cantha was bad; I actually enjoyed it very much. But, in many ways it felt like it could just as easily have been its own separate game with no ties to Tyria. I didn’t really get the same strong fantasy-vibe from it that I did with Prophecies.

I would really prefer development time be spent fleshing out the remainder of the continent Tyria. Crystal Desert, Maguuma Jungle, etc.

Gaile Gray.6028:

This happened to another player a few days ago. For him, it was simply a matter of doing a complete restart on the computer. (And to tell the truth, I did that a few days ago at the office.) I don’t think this is a major issue, and could you kindly try that as the first step in looking into this issue? Please post back with the outcome.

Thanks.

What’s likely occurring here is a problem that players have been trying to get the developer’s to acknowledge since the Flame & Frost prelude patch was introduced.

Since that big patch, GW2 often fails to close down properly. When you normally exit the game the patcher/login window pops up on your desktop, and you can either re-enter your login credentials and re-enter the game, or just close down the launcher to continue your shut down of GW2. However (since the patch), what is often happening is that the main client fails to properly shut down, which then prevents the launcher window from popping up after returning to desktop. So, when you attempt to run GW2 again using (example) your GW2 shortcut icon, the game will insist the client is already running even though there are no obvious signs of that anywhere.

You should always see the launcher pop up after exiting the game and returning to desktop. If you don’t, then the main client has failed to shut down properly. You can verify it’s still running by going to your task manager and seeing that there are two “GW2.exe” entries instead of one (one is the main client, one is the patcher waiting its turn to display), with one of them (the main client) using nearly a gig of memory. If you kill that particular task the launcher will immediately pop up on your desktop and you can then close it as normal (at which point everything will be properly shut down).

I (and other players as well, from the complaints I’ve read) have never had this particular problem prior to the last big patch, but now I’m running into it more often than not whenever I attempt to exit the game. If you’re not paying attention when you exit the game (and not one of those people who reboots often) you can have a GW2 task chewing up nearly a gig of your memory while you continue to do your everyday business outside of the game, without any obvious sign that GW2 is still running. And you will not be able to re-enter the game (because the launcher will never load) unless you reboot or kill the GW2 executable through the task manager.

At this moment I’m actually much more interested in hearing how the original poster managed to clearly bypass the overly stingy and incredibly frustrating restriction on the length of thread titles.

I have seen these chests twice (friend’s drops, not mine). One had a “green” (masterwork) weapon in it. The other had a “yellow” (rare) crafting item in it.

I would love to hear an official explanation on why this loot couldn’t just remain on the corpse. Those chests are much, much, MUCH harder to see than the corpses and I can’t even begin to imagine how many I may have missed since the patch (seeing as I finally happened to notice my first one last night and have been playing every day since the patch).

Xennon.7568:

I for one disagree with these changes because:
(1) What’s wrong with being more powerful in lower level zones? After putting in the time, effort and money to level my character I feel I deserve to be rewarded by actually BEING more powerful in lower area

There’s nothing unusual about your desire and it’s certainly the case in many MMOs. But not this one. And ArenaNet has made no attempt to hide their Dynamic Leveling feature. In fact, that is how they promote it, as a feature.

In this game your reward for leveling up is being able to access more cosmetic options, more gameplay, and more areas of the world to adventure in. Without that, you would be confined to the likes of Queensdale and Metrica Province, simpler event mechanics, and low level outfits, and that would get old fast.

Personally, I love the Dynamic Leveling feature and it is one of the main elements that attracted me to Guild Wars 2. I only wish it did a better job at scaling a level 80 character down to the same level of power as the area you’re in, as I currently feel it’s still far too lenient (even with the recent patch).

I stopped playing SWTOR mainly for one reason: it was impossible for me to enjoy the game’s content to its full extent without out-leveling said content in the process, and I find the act of face-rolling through gray-con mobs (NPCs that are too far below my level to be worth XP) to be completely non-challenging and boring. It tanked my interest in that game. I totally love the fact that I can take my level 80 GW2 character to a zone I’ve never visited, even a low level zone, and find challenging content easily.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with your opinion.. but there are plenty of MMOs that do it the way you prefer, and really only one that doesn’t (GW2), and I prefer it stay as is.

gillius.2856:

Just do a dragon, it’s amazing the amount of people that go down, achievement done really fast

You could, instead, just focus on helping to keep those people from going down in the first place.

But, I guess that wouldn’t help get your Daily Healer achievement done. Part of my beef with this particular task. It rewards players for waiting for people to die.

Animando.7956:

it’s a tiny % so please stop complaining about everything in the game. And lots of people in my guild actually love this reminder. Maybe they will put the option to remove it one day but it’s the thing I care the least about.

GW2 UI is ultra clean VS …

You know that’s not WoW’s default UI, right?

P.S. Why are you against people having options in the area of what to display on their screen? If you’re happy with the monthly tracker and I want the option of removing it, why argue about it? You already have what you want.. do you just not want other people to have what they want, even when it has zero impact on your enjoyment? That is, of course, assuming your enjoyment doesn’t stem from seeing other people frustrated.

Gisei.5749:

There’s a limit to the number of Passiflora I can gather in a day. Roughly 15 or so nodes, but it is Per Character, not account.

I wouldn’t doubt the same system applies to all nodes.

Not doubting you, but I am curious how you came to this conclusion. Were you gathering Passiflora, and then suddenly around the 15th one all the remaining Passiflora nodes on your minimap vanished right in front of your eyes? Or are you just having a hard time finding more than 15 nodes to begin with?

Poledo.3256:

Edge.4180:

Vorch.2985:

…you don’t realize just how simple it is to level, do you?

No, it’s not a cash grab. They introduced laurels that make dailies even more rewarding. Taking a hit on experience ( i think it’s a 45-50% decline, btw…not 80%) is more than fair when you are now able to gain exotic and ascended gear from normal or slightly changed gameplay.

I think you’re ignoring the fact that daily tasks now require more “work” than they used to.

I wholly and completely disagree with your statement. I complete the daily without even noticing most days. It’s rare that I am about to log and off and realize I need to complete a part of it still.

I’m going to have to call nonsense on this one. The new Daily has all the same tasks that the old Daily did, many of them could be completed concurrently. The new Daily also adds in an additional task (5 tasks instead of 4). So how could the old Daily take longer or require more work?

The new Daily also inserts additional tasks that can potentially require more time because they require players to spend time doing things (or doing things in places) they might not normally do, such as killing veterans, scoring underwater kills, heading to town to craft, reviving people (you’re not working on any other elements of the daily while you’re crouched observing that revive bar, you know), etc.

To claim the new Daily is quicker/easier is simply wrong. People are just paying more attention to it now because a laurel is involved. I’ve done the Daily nearly every day since launch and could stamp out the old Daily in under 15 minutes.

Poledo.3256:

On the other hand, this is then first time I have ever tried to complete the monthly

I suspect that probably has more to do with the lack of a PvP element (for the first time) and less to do with the UI. That said, I’m happy people can track an achievement (which is meant to be completed over a month’s time) that occupies their screen for the better part of a month. However, we should have the option of not seeing it if we don’t want to. It wasn’t there before and I managed to play GW2 just fine with out it. I don’t need it there now.

Halanna.3927:

I don’t know. I mean they can add something in the future to allow you to hide it, but it’s really just a green star and the word Monthly next to it and a %.

How distracting is it really? Not very on my screen. What size monitor you using? I don’t even notice it.

My Personal Story takes up way more room then the one line for the Monthly.

It is the cumulative effect. The personal story tracker + local event tracker + monthly tracker.. the amount of screen space chewed up by trackers adds up. In the screenshot above (which is on a character that doesn’t have a personal story step to track, or it would be even larger) it’s a total area that’s about 75% of the size of the mini-map below. I would simply rather not have it there at all.

The more space on my screen where I can see the game world and not text, the better.. and the better it looks. The developers know this. That’s why nearly every screenshot and game trailer they release has the UI elements hidden.

..because it seems like that’s the only way to reclaim the blank screen space the update stole with the Monthly (and Daily) status tracker on the upper right corner of my screen.

If you’re going to add non-critical UI elements to the game, can you please (in the same update) provide the players with a way of disabling said elements?

There was a statement from Colin Johanson given in an interview recently, where he said: “One of the strengths of Guild Wars 2 is that the UI is really clean and streamlined, it’s not overwhelming, it’s easy to see what’s going on, so one of the challenges we’re going to have is we don’t want to lose that capacity to easily look at the screen and understand what’s going on. We really don’t want people to spend their time looking at the edges of the screen watching progress bars move up and down in all directions. We want them drawn to the middle of the screen and watching the action and watching the things that are going on in game. So if we did a system in the future that lets you see more and more of what’s going on, we have to build it with those things but keep in mind that we don’t want to just cover the screen in UI everywhere.”

I agree. It seems like we’re on the same page, and yet your implementation takes a step in the other direction.

Please fix.

skullmount.1758:

I’ve been wondering about the lack of tiers. You used to get exp each time you completed a daily tier (ie. do 1 event, then 3 events. each one giving exp). Do you get the saame amount of exp doing the one tier as opposed to finishing the X (3 in terms of the event one) tiers from before?

No. The extra XP has been removed.

Red SuperGiant.8653:

Revolution.6301:

Red what legs are those?

Honour of the Waves legs

They’re actually from Caudecus’s Manor.

Kasama.8941:

It was more the way it was set up. You’d finish killing 15 mobs, then it turns out you’d have to kill 30 mobs. You’d kill 30 mobs, then you’d have to kill 30 more. Now I can see all I need to do, and can decide if it’s something I want to spend time on, or not. Often I do the daily, sometimes I can’t be bothered. Before it had no interest to me.

Except you earned an XP reward after killing 15 mobs, and then again at 30 mobs, and then again at 60 mobs. A total bonus of 9% of your level. Now you earn only a bonus of 3% of your level for killing 50 mobs.

Either way, you’re killing 50-60 mobs. After you’ve done it once under the old Daily it’s not like you’re not aware of where the goal line is. And, I think, if you can stomach killing 50 mobs, you can stomach killing 15, then 15 more, and then 30 more (or, as I look at it, 60 total). I always approached the daily thinking “I need 60 kills”.

Kasama.8941:

You also have to consider that the daily is not just there to award you for playing the game, but also to encourage you to find new ways/places to play.

I like my current way of playing. That’s why I play that way. If I were interested in finding new ways and places to play, I wouldn’t need a Daily to entice me into doing that.

For the record, the original purpose of the Daily (as explained by the developers closer to launch) was to provide quick, obtainable, rewardable goals for players that didn’t have a lot of time to play. Now they have been changed from that to what is essentially a “busy-work” mechanic for end-game gear. I think we had enough of those already, and in the process we lost the original valuable design that is lacking from the game now.

Kasama.8941:

Basically, what it comes down to is whether or not you enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy the daily for one day, then just don’t do it. There’s absolutely nothing you can buy with laurels that you need to have, in order to play the game.

What is now only apparently your ticket to laurels and the items that can be purchased with them, was (to me) a way of earning karma, experience, some additional coin, and possibly items from the BLT (like Black Lion Salvage Kits). So, you’re right.. I don’t need laurels, but I sure would like to have hung on to the other things without the system getting messed with.

On the other hand, you didn’t need laurels from the Daily. You’ve gotten through the game all this time fine without them.

Kasama.8941:

Edge.4180:

No, the problem is what you’re suggesting used to work a whole lot better with the old Daily, but not so much now with the new one.

First of all, in the past there were only 4 tasks to complete, where as now there are 5. More importantly, those four tasks meshed together very well. In the process of completing one aspect of the daily it was very easy to naturally complete another. Completing Daily Events, for example, could easily complete the Daily Kills requirement, and you were likely to finish Daily Gatherer in the process of finding those events. The flow was much more natural.

With the broader range of event types available now it can take much more time to complete the daily than it used to. I’m not saying the steps are hard (and they weren’t previously either), but they are much more time consuming now, and there are more tasks per day to complete, and they do require you to go more out of your way to nab them all. Without traveling to specific locations you are not likely to complete Daily Healer, Daily Aquatic Kills, and Daily Crafter in the same pass, for example.

You probably aren’t going to solve them all by just playing, but you are going to solve most of them.

The old daily took a lot longer time for me, because I had to do a lot more of each task. I rarely bother to do them. But now that I only have to kill a few mobs underwater, and maybe craft 20 items, it’s a lot easier for me. They each literally take a few minutes to do, if not seconds.

Please explain how the old Daily took longer for you to complete? There were four tasks to finish (with multiple rewards along the way), where as now there are five tasks to finish (with only a single reward at the end of each task).

Daily Kill Variety is now 13 types of enemies, where as it used to be 15 types.
Daily Kills is now 50 kills, where as it used to be 60 kills.
Daily Events is 5 events now, and was 5 events then.
Daily Gatherer is 20 gatherings now, and was 20 gatherings then.

So, 2 more mob types and 10 more kills was the deal breaker for you? At the same time:

Daily Healer didn’t exist back then.
Daily Dodger didn’t exist back then.
Daily Veteran Slayer didn’t exist back then.
Daily Aquatic Kills didn’t exist back then.
Daily Crafter didn’t exist back then.
Daily Combos (if it ever returns) didn’t exist back then.

And some of those don’t exactly mesh well with one another and aren’t quickly completed.

I used to finish the old Daily in 15 minutes, usually no more than 30 minutes if the events were being stubborn (read that as “broken due to lack of recent server reset”). I’m not sure how that is too much time. I can spend 15 minutes now just tracking down and fighting 5 veterans, much less travel back to town to do some crafting, and find some people to revive in the process.

Kasama.8941:

The problem is you’re going out of your way to try and “solve” the daily, instead of just playing the game like you normally do.

No, the problem is what you’re suggesting used to work a whole lot better with the old Daily, but not so much now with the new one.

First of all, in the past there were only 4 tasks to complete, where as now there are 5. More importantly, those four tasks meshed together very well. In the process of completing one aspect of the daily it was very easy to naturally complete another. Completing Daily Events, for example, could easily complete the Daily Kills requirement, and you were likely to finish Daily Gatherer in the process of finding those events. The flow was much more natural.

With the broader range of event types available now it can take much more time to complete the daily than it used to. I’m not saying the steps are hard (and they weren’t previously either), but they are much more time consuming now, and there are more tasks per day to complete, and they do require you to go more out of your way to nab them all. Without traveling to specific locations you are not likely to complete Daily Healer, Daily Aquatic Kills, and Daily Crafter in the same pass, for example.

JackDaniels.1697:

Edge.4180:

Huh. How are you completing kill-variety, gatherer, veteran-slayer, and crafter in a dungeon?

Telling people to go do a dungeon isn’t helpful if that wasn’t in their plans. Telling people to go to zone-X and milk a particular event isn’t helpful either.

There is plenty of kill variety in a dungeon, and that includes a lot of veterans, so idk why you would say that…guess you don’t play dungeons much.

By “plenty of variety” you mean 4 or 5 mob types, maybe? And mobs don’t count as veterans for the purpose of the daily unless they have the word “veteran” in their title. Not seeing a lot of those in dungeons.

Before this thread gets very large, someone will probably point out that there is a test server.

At which point you can change your question and start asking why its existence and those participating on it are not amounting to the expected result. Maybe the participants are failing to do an adequate job, maybe the developers are not listening to the feedback.. who knows.

Vorch.2985:

…you don’t realize just how simple it is to level, do you?

No, it’s not a cash grab. They introduced laurels that make dailies even more rewarding. Taking a hit on experience ( i think it’s a 45-50% decline, btw…not 80%) is more than fair when you are now able to gain exotic and ascended gear from normal or slightly changed gameplay.

I think you’re ignoring the fact that daily tasks now require more “work” than they used to.

First of all, in the past there were only 4 tasks to complete, where as now there are 5. More importantly, those four tasks meshed together very well. In the process of completing one aspect of the daily it was very easy to naturally complete another. Completing Daily Events, for example, could easily complete the Daily Kills requirement, and you were likely to finish Daily Gatherer in the process of finding those events. The flow was much more natural.

With the broader range of event types available now it can take much more time to complete the daily than it used to. I’m not saying the steps are hard (and they weren’t previously either), but they are much more time consuming now, and there are more tasks per day to complete. Without traveling to specific locations you are not likely to complete Daily Healer, Daily Aquatic Kills, and Daily Crafter in the same pass. So, nerfing the experience to add a reward of 1 laurel was not (in my opinion) really necessary as the amount of work/time required had increased and was more than enough to compensate for the additional laurel reward.

More importantly, the entire point of the Daily was to provide short achievable goals that gave equally achievable rewards, so players who didn’t have a lot of time to play could still hop on and feel like they got something done and were rewarded for it. That was more true with the old Daily (where you would earn rewards from the Daily for just completing a single event (and three, and five)) compared to the Daily now where you will only be rewarded after completing five events.

It’s more about turning away from the original point of the Daily than it is about the experience loss. However, I will point out that I managed to level one of my characters to level 80 completely through the old Daily achievements alone, so the complaints about the XP loss are certainly valid ones.

The past few days I’ve been complaining about this in other threads. Prior to the patch there were multiple tiers for each category. For example, you received 3% of the XP required for your level for completing 1 event, 3 events, and 5 events. For kill variety there were 4 tiers, the rest had 3. That allowed players without a lot of time to advance more easily.

Now we just receive 3% of the XP required for our level just once per category. Completing the old daily used to award players with 42% of the XP required for their level. Now it’s down to 18%.

Revolution.6301:

Silver.8023:

Here’s mine:

Armour
Visionary’s Helm
Dark Shoulders
Dark Chestpiece
Protector’s Gauntlets
Dark Leggings
Protector’s Footgear

Weapons
Seraph Mace
Krytan Shield

Dark pieces being the karma vendor armour from Orr.

imo you so far has the best look. Other then the helm but everything else seems like it could be one set.

Cmon someone topple this person with another great look set!

I would prefer you didn’t look like me.

Here’s my advice (which you can take or leave) – head to the Mists and visit the PvP banks there. There will be tabs for nearly every armor and weapon in the game. You can right-click on the ones of the appropriate armor type and select “preview”.

Do this until you find a tunic you like, a set of pauldrons you like, some greaves you like, etc. Put together something that blends well; they don’t all have to be from the same set as long as you’ve got a look that matches nicely.

Create your own unique look this way, track down where the PvE variants come from, go about collecting them, and then smile a little whenever you see yourself (and hopefully only yourself) in it.

JackDaniels.1697:

Edge.4180:

The “24 hours to get it done” argument is pointless if you only have an hour or two in the day to play.

Oh, and, by the way.. those players without a lot of time to play are the ones the daily achievements were specifically designed around, originally.

That’s funny, because the other day I spent like an hour in a dungeon and completed all but one task in my daily…so yea you can actually do it in one or two hours just playing around. Oh by the way.

Huh. How are you completing kill-variety, gatherer, veteran-slayer, and crafter in a dungeon?

And if you wanted to log in and spend your hour working on just your personal story? Tough kiddles, I guess?

Telling people to go do a dungeon isn’t helpful if that wasn’t in their plans. Telling people to go to zone-X and milk a particular event isn’t helpful either.

The whole idea of daily tasks was that they were something people could accomplish and earn rewards for just by playing normally – whatever was normal to them. When the daily was only “kill total”, “kill type”, “events”, and “gathering” it was obviously easier to accomplish just through normal open-world PvE and WvW play.

More importantly, there were multiple tiers for each category. For example, you received 3% of the XP required for your level for completing 1 event, 3 events, and 5 events. That allowed players without a lot of time to advance more easily. Now you just receive 3% of the XP required for your level just once per category. Completing the old daily used to award players with 42% of the XP required for their level. Now it’s down to 18%.

The daily has gone from its original tool of rewarding casual players with short, achievable goals to busy work for end-gamers.

JackDaniels.1697:

You have 24 hours to complete your daily. If you go about yourself doing events and such, you will get it done without even knowing it.

It is your choice to go and stand around waiting to rez someone, so it’s nobody elses fault that you choose to play like that.

So just go about your business and you’ll complete your daily.

The “24 hours to get it done” argument is pointless if you only have an hour or two in the day to play.

Oh, and, by the way.. those players without a lot of time to play are the ones the daily achievements were specifically designed around, originally.

Indoles.1467:

The culling is on your end, not theirs.

This is just incorrect. The developers have made it clear this is a problem on their end and that they’re working to resolve it. Nobody is immune to the culling issue. If you are not seeing it, keep in mind that’s kind of the point. It’s difficult to tell when the scene isn’t rendering something vital unless it’s in the process of killing you.

IndigoSundown.5419:

If it looks like I can get them up more quickly by killing the mob to get them a rally, I do so. If that daily is active, I revive them, no matter what.

And the former is, most likely, always the case outside of a veteran or champion encounter. Too bad a rally assist doesn’t give credit.

I’m trying to understand why players would want others looking exactly like them, after going through all the trouble of coming up with a unique look in the first place.

mattbnh.9247:

Giant at Nageling, diessa plateau. Plenty of npcs and players to rez. Every 20 minutes or so. Also a separatist event with lots of bodies. only downside is no chest.

So many posts like these and I really think they have no place in these discussions (no offense meant). What they amount to is this: if you want to complete this step of your daily, go spend your time in some spot you otherwise likely have no interest in being.

And that (at least originally) was not supposed to be the point of daily achievements. Daily achievements were supposed to be small, quick, achievable goals players could accomplish effortlessly through normal play during their limited schedules.

If you’re suggesting that someone go to a particular location or do a particular task to accomplish a step in the daily achievement, that’s the furthest thing from what the daily is supposed to be. I’m glad players are figuring out “the best spots” to grind out the daily achievement, but that is so not the answer.

Kalbris.3902:

Thats what they said a decade ago.

I don’t think anyone outside of FFXI had this problem a decade ago. Now GW2 has it, Tera Online has it, Vindictus has it.. I’m sure there are others. Odd has this has taken a step backwards. I think it has, unfortunately, just become more accepted over time (and thus more prevalent).

Frotee.2634:

I believe the important point is: Do you still rezz dead or downed players even when you already completed your daily by rezzing NPCs?

To be perfectly honest, no. Since being introduced into the daily I find that I ignore downed player/NPC markers unless I still need them to complete my daily. And, should the latter be the case, I abandon everything else (even allowing multiple mobs to beat on me in the process) just to make sure I get a resurrection opportunity in. But, as I see it as a chore to be completed now, once I’m done with it.. I’m done with it.

Heck, I used to go out of my way to save battling NPCs who appeared to be close to death. Now I wait for them to die so I can resurrect them and get credit in the daily for it. This is a complete change from how I normally used to play the game, and I hate how it has altered resurrections in my mind. They have gone from a means of helping other people to a repetitive task I have to complete almost daily.

In normal open-world PvE play (which is where I spend most of my time) I don’t normally run across a lot of downed players/NPCs. I just don’t. I used to make an effort to keep player characters and NPCs alike alive, making resurrections unnecessary. Now I find myself hoping PCs/NPCs around me die. Adding this requirement to the daily was a mistake, in my opinion. Maybe had the requirement been “revive 3” instead of 10, I’d stress about it a lot less and find it fitting more naturally into the game.