Guild Wars 2

I think that selling the Core game bundled with the HoT expansion is a good idea. I think that it will cut down on confusion and help new players to get into the game. However, I think that there should be some perk for already existing accounts.(Maybe a couple of choices from a pre-selected list of gem store items?)
And I think that everyone should be getting an extra slot: new class = extra slot. The GW1 games did it, and it was the right thing to do. So the base numbers of slots shipping with GW2/HoT bundle is 6 for new accounts, and already existing accounts get 1 slot added. I think this would have avoided a good bit of the unpleasantness that we’re seeing in reaction to the HoT pre-order bundles.(Certainly not all of it, or even most of it. But a good bit of it)

re: “putting words in other people’s mouths” – The subject is: “From the eyes of a veteran.” And the OP opens with the sentence: “I’m just going to give you all my opinion on the “veteran entitlement mentality” as some people have called it, and the overall price of the expansion+ what comes with it.”
(I added the bold for emphasis) Clearly the OP is not trying to speak for anyone else. Also note that the original post has not been edited, so the wording has not been changed.

re: Dueling would be awesome in Guild Halls./some classes are weaker/stronger in PvP – In GW1 guild halls were considered a PvP area – PvP versions of skills were in effect, etc… So this might not be the solution you’re thinking it would be, if Anet does GW2 guild halls the same way.
Maybe people should ask whether guild halls will be considered a PvP or PvE area, before they decide that they want it or not.

I myself do not want Anet spending time and resources to further try and balance traits and skills for 1v1. And I can see it causing further issues if they don’t split skills and traits into PvE, PvP, and Duel versions.

This is a good question. The skill and trait line changes will be rolled out before HoT, in “The next content update.” We don’t know when that is, except before HoT is released. But we don’t know if trait unlocks will be fixed when the skill and trait changes happen, or with HoT.
And the trait change was not part of the NPE. So if we’re told there are going to be changes to the NPE, that would not necessarily include trait unlock changes.
I’d really like to know this as well. Because I don’t think that players should have to pay for a fix to the trait unlock system. And before people in pale armor start jumping on me insisting that the trait unlock system is not broken:
When you tie trait unlocks to bugged/broken events, over-leveled events, and event chains that groups of players will derail for selfish reasons, then yes, your trait unlock system is broken.
It would be nice to get a response from an Anet employee about when trait unlocks will be changed.(with skill & trait changes, or with HoT, not an actual date)

If you’re talking about the Vista in Dredgehaunt Cliffs, (and you’re in NA) there’s a map clearing zerg that runs maps, and that’s one of them. They have Mesmers porting a lot of the Vistas. The Guild is Zealots of Shiverpeak, [ZoS] and you don’t have to be in the guild to run the map clearing zerg with them.

I will wait until we’re at that point before I decide how to level my Revenant. If the NPE is still much the same I will likely level to at least 20 with tomes, probably more than that. If skill acquisition is not significantly improved, I will get around as much of that as I can. IMO, Anet seriously damaged the leveling experience with those changes. I hope that they are being carefully reworked for HoT.

I’m all for more choices for everyone. If you wish, you can choose to level your character instantly with tomes, scrolls, and money you have on your account already. Or if you wish you can choose to do it all step by step, as if it was your first character. Or you can choose to do some of each method, at your option -doing things you like, skipping things you don’t like.
We need more choices for players, not less. Never less.

Sorry, mine was just a hypothetical “If they had done it this way from the start.” kind of thing. I agree it has been far too long. IMO it has been poorly handled. They should have had a plan for the restoration of LA, before they destroyed it. As I said, my choice would have been for it to be a part of Living Story Season 2.
I certainly don’t want the expansion delayed at this point.

re: People with lots of money just buy matts on the Tp to get around the time gate.- You still have to grind for the stuff to make Vision Crystals, and Lesser Vision Crystals. And like I said, some of the things they do don’t make sense to me. But they will probably not change the time gate significantly, if at all.

I agree that a more gradual change would be better form a story/role playing point of view. Yes, it would require more time and other resources on Anet’s part. But if they make new events and quests to involve the players in the process, that would be new content and would add to game lore. It wouldn’t matter so much that the expansion was a little later, because we would be getting new content along the way. I think they should have made the rebuilding and defense of devastated LA part of Living Story Season 2. If they planned it right, they could potentially stretch out LS S2 and make it last until closer to HoT’s release. (Avoiding many of the “Where’s New Content?!?” rants.)
But they didn’t do it this way. For their own reasons. And it’s far past the time when payer input could have changed the course of things.

This is so that people with lots of money can’t have a full set of Ascended armor, with a decent selection of Ascended weapons in 20 minutes. Then have nothing further to work towards, and get bored after playing a couple of hours with all “best in slot” stuff. This is the same reason that Legendaries are such a pain to make. If you can get the absolute best stuff in the game in a few minutes, you probably aren’t going to play for long. Of course the fact that you can buy Legendaries kinda flies in the face of all this. But Anet is not always consistent, IMO. Some of the things that they do don’t make sense to me.

I’m sorry you’re having so much trouble. I imagine that new code being put in for HoT is causing unforeseen issues. Also, the edited Personal Story is being restored to something more like what it originally was. This will also produce a higher incidence of odd bugs. Until the months after the personal story restoration, and the HoT release, I would expect a higher incidence of odd, random seeming bugs.
Have you put in bug reports or tickets? If not, please do. Anet devs need detailed documentation on these various bugs, so they can correct them.

IMO, that would definitely make it easier. But if you give the option to sort them either way, then everybody wins.

Oops, that should have been this link:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Leveling_equipment
(The level/stat disparity is explained. And no, they won’t buff level 80 to compensate, it’s intended.)

re: Seems like they need to buff the level 80 backpacks, and or nerf the level 78 one. – The level 78 Crafter’s backpacks are leveling equipment. The proportionately high stats are intended.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Leveling_equipment

<edit, TheSwede ninja’d my post, with a better stats table – can’t get the numbers properly spaced>
Yes, with a level 80 jewel in the level 80 exotic. Why would anyone not use proper level upgrades in the comparison. Spelling it out completely:

Crafter’s Lv 78/65 —-—- Exotic Lv 80/80
item(78) + jewel(65) —-- item(80) + jewel(80)
32 + 21 = 53 —-———- 22 + 25 = 45
18 + 13 = 31 —-———- 16 + 15 = 31
18 + 13 = 31 —-———- 16 + 15 = 31
ttl 115 +4inf=119 —-———- ttl 107

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Exquisite_Ruby_Jewel
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Embellished_Brilliant_Ruby_Jewel
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafter%27s_backpack
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elegant_Weaponsmith%27s_Backpack
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Advanced_Spinal_Blades

Put in the proper upgrade and use your impeccable basic math skills again:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Embellished_Brilliant_Ruby_Jewel

Level 78 backpack + level 65 jewel = better stats than a level 80 exotic.

You haven’t specified what size bags you’re using, OP. So please forgive me if this is stuff you already know.

15 slot bags are usually at a good cost per value price point. 18 slot bags are proportionally more expensive, but give 3 more slots per bag, which is significant. 20 slot bags are at a premium, because they’re “top tier”. And are generally not worth it to just buy outright. Halloween pails and the Uncanny Jar are good alternatives. The Uncanny Jar is a reward for completing a collection:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Uncanny_Canner You’ll have to go into a_ 55 to 65 level area to get the last item. But it will help you with map clearing, and you’ll have gained some levels along the way.(You can only get one Uncanny Jar per account.)

Also you can craft various types of bags. I’d avoid crafting bags with cloth/tailor because cloth is expensive. I would use leathers or metals. If you’re crafting anyway, this is a good solution. If not, then I wouldn’t level crafting just for bags, you won’t make a good profit.(Unless the market has changed a lot sine I last checked.)

Post to fix forum bug.(?)

I meant if they deliberately interfered with someone getting the heart. Chista was saying that she had been harassed, told not to do the heart.
They only thing that both parties(farmers and heart) both use is the crows. If people completing the heart don’t take crows, or take single crows away from a group, there really is no conflict. There are plenty of rats, quaggans, etc… to do the heart without impacting the farming. The most potential for conflict IMO, would be several players trying to do the heart sat the same time.

If they interfered with you getting the heart, I would say that’s reportable. Were you able to get the heart? If you still need the heart, and are in NA, we can form a party and see if I can get you to any of the apparently friendly servers I was on when I did the heart.
I haven’t seen any example of this kind of behavior, on any of 6 alts that got the heart recently. And I’ve gone to the island to observe several times since then.
I concentrated mainly on the rats, which are green and unfarmable. I took at least couple of crows(away from groups, and the farmers) each time. No one harassed me. And the times I have been there observing, no one has harassed anyone else. There seem to be occasional griefers, but there are a few comments and everyone moves on. It may have just been bad luck that you got in with unfriendly farmers. Or I’m having quite a bit of good luck – because I haven’t seen anyone yelling at people not to complete the heart, in any of the times I’ve been there since the farming began. I’ll try to help you if you want.

Some of us are defending stacking as a valid form of gameplay, some of us are defending stacking saying it’s the best method, and some of us are just saying that they shouldn’t be eliminating gameplay options, and that there should be more viable options, rather than less.
And I think that you may be confusing “fun” and “rewarding”. You can put up with a certain amount of stuff that isn’t fun in game, if it’s sufficiently rewarding. I’d wager most players who stack, do speed runs, etc… are doing it for profit, not for a fun/enjoyable experience.

<Oops, my reply was to stars – and I may be off, judging by the other replies>
No, you will have a certain number of Hero Points to use, based on your up to 80 leveling, and the skill challenges you have completed. Everything will be locked again, and you will unlock it again using your new Hero Points. Skill points not earned through up to 80 leveling or skill challenges will be translated to Spirit Shards, which are a currency use for obtaining mats.

They seem to be implying that the game knows which skill points came from up to 80 leveling and skill challenges, versus which skill points you got form post 80 leveling and tomes, scrolls, etc… And that those gotten from up to 80 leveling and skill challenges will be converted to hero points, whereas all other skill points will be converted to Spirit Shards.

You know, it might be that the farmers are what got this heart fixed, so that there are more, and quicker spawns of interactive mobs to complete the heart. I can’t say for sure as I ignored the heart from the time my main completed it, until the recent forum complaints.
Can anyone tell us when the spawn quantity/time was altered so that the heart goes smother and more quickly? Do we know if it was before or after the MB farming started?

If this turns into a “he said, she said”, then this thread will get locked.

I don’t believe anything until it’s in game and working properly. I believe that Anet intends for guild halls to be in the expansion at release.
It would be nice to know what the cost/requirements are, in order to be prepared ahead of time and be able to obtain a guild hall as soon as possible.
But Anet doesn’t seem to want to give any more info at this point. At this point, what more is there to be said? We wait…

What legitimate reason is there to put a player-generated interactive object directly on top of a game-generated interactive object? “close” does not equal “on top of in a way that makes selective interaction difficult”

+1 to the “we need better interact options” , but it may be hard to keep that simple and deft to use.

This used to be a very tedious heart. The interactive mobs didn’t spawn fast enough, and you had to do a lot of waiting around, wasting time.(Which is always bad in a game.)
When the last thread about this popped up a week or two ago, I went there with 6 alts, did the heart, and observed. I was able to get the heart with no trouble. In about 2 minutes each time. I was able to stay moving, and had no shortage of mobs to get the heart. Once or twice each time I would take crows out away from a group, and away from the farmers – nothing was said. I observed no toxic chat or behavior, though I think there were griefers every so often. There would be a couple of comments, and things would move on.
So it doesn’t seem to impact players getting the heart.
There doesn’t seem to be much toxic behavior or chat.
It may be that this is having some impact on the economy – that might be a valid complaint.
But the OP is objecting, and asking for a nerf because people are playing in a way that he/she does not approve of?
OP, did you try to get some of the farmers who were new players to do other things, that you would consider more fun? Did you consider that new players need money to gear their characters? This admittedly simple, boring activity rewards a disproportionate amount of money. Maybe Anet should look into making more difficult content more rewarding. If you want to change someone’s behavior, it’s far better to do it with positive reinforcement, rather than punishment. Also, you simply can’t argue with results. If something simpler/easier is more effective at generating in-game money, people are going to tend to flock to it. You should be asking for more rewarding, more fun, challenging alternatives.
re: “Play How I Want”. “Play How I Want”(PHIW) means “I play how I want, you play how you want.” It does not mean “Everyone must play how I want.” Everyone is different, and we’re here for different reasons, with different motivations. Asking for game play options to be removed because you personally don’t approve of them, is IMO, just selfish.(Unless it’s a form of griefing.) If you want a game where everyone plays exactly how you want them to play, you are not being realistic.
Overall, I say we need more valid options, more more effective styles of game play. Not less, never less.

Guild Halls are supposed to be coming with the expansion. But no one from Anet has told us anything about cost, requirements, etc… yet. I wish they would give us more info, but they haven’t yet.(unless I’ve somehow missed it)

A simple solution would be to make chests work with autoloot. Though that wouldn’t work for siege. Why does the game allow portals(or other interactive game items) to be placed right on top of other game items, anyway?(in a way that interferes with the interaction with the original item) Can someone answer that?

Ideally, better tactics would yield better results. But we aren’t in an ideal world, so we have to consider other factors. A group of uniform skill level, that know each other and/or are using voice chat(optimally both) is going to be able to effectively use more sophisticated tactics than a group of strangers, of different skill levels, who are just typing to each other.
In a PUG, you’re often going to have strangers, who aren’t familiar with each other. You you will probably have players of different skill levels, and communication will probably be limited to typing. Simple tactics, which are already known to the group, have a better chance of being effective than something more sophisticated and esoteric.
You need to also consider the purpose of the PUG. People who stack aren’t doing it for fun. They’re doing it because it is simple, well known, and has proven effective.(in these specific situations, and not necessarily the most effective, just effective) It would be nice if everyone was open to different points of view, but sometimes that isn’t the case.
If you try to convince them to do something else and they’re not receptive, man up, stack with them, get it over with, and don’t group with them again. If the group is of a mindset that isn’t receptive to new tactics, they probably wouldn’t have been effective with them anyway.
Now to address this grave misunderstanding of “Play How I Want”. “Play How I Want”(PHIW) means “I play how I want, you play how you want.” It does not mean “Everyone must play how I want.” Everyone is different, and we’re here for different reasons, with different motivations. Asking for game play options to be removed because you personally don’t approve of them, is IMO, just selfish.(Unless it’s a form of griefing.) If you want a game where everyone plays exactly how you want them to play, you are not being realistic. A single player game is more suited to what you want. Though if the designers didn’t make the game specifically tailored to your play style, you still may have some issues.
Overall, I say we need more valid options, more more effective styles of game play. Not less, never less. A game company that gives it’s players less options for fun and enjoyment is going to hurt it’s player base.

Why would anyone like that? It’s trolling. Or are you referring to the terminology? With “by hand” I mean “manually” as in “without using a script”. I thought context would make that clear.

That rude person was trolling you. It is acceptable to play music with scripts.(and allowed by Anet as well)
I know that I appreciate character-played music more when it is played “by hand”. But I would never criticize someone for using a script.(Their choice of music maybe, but not the fact that they’re using a script)

The forum search is broken,(and will not be fixed) that’s why your search didn’t return anything. There’s a sticky at the top of this forum regarding searches.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Searching-the-Forums/first#post4701411
And yes, Halloween, Wintersday, and Lunar(?) New Year seem to be in the permanent rotation.

This is a great idea, (IMO) and I would use it. But this would be horribly abused by trolls. It also might be trickier than we think to implement. So I’m doubtful that this will actually happen.

Different servers have different events going on at the same time. Even something like a World Boss event(which should start at the exact same time) could be off by a few minutes. So if you’re in the middle of an event, please wait until the event is over and you’ve gotten credit and loot before changing servers.

Birthday rewards are for the character, not the account. So you can’t claim birthday rewards for characters that don’t exist any more.

Kal, the system the OP is suggesting would remember the things that you consider junk. They would be added to the junk category, going forward.(Unless you took them back out.)
I personally like the idea, but I think that the problem Anet would have with it is, “It’s not fool-proof enough”. That is, someone might accidentally mark an expensive item (silk scraps, a precursor) as junk and accidentally auto-sell it. Yeah, it would really be their fault, but Anet tends to want things to be very bullet-proof.
Also there are a lot of items, so this might be fairly difficult to implement, or end up having an unwieldy, hard to use interface.
Once again, I think that this is a good idea. I’m just telling you the problems Anet would have with it, and why they probably won’t do it.(Even though it would be a nice thing to have for most of us.)

Edit: +1 to the Oiled Leather Bag suggestion.

It would be helpful to know what classes(s) you have, what level range, and what (real world ) region and time zone.

Here’s a list of jumpless vistas, to help you with dailies. Some of these may require minimal fighting. A speed buff is helpful for avoiding mobs.

Jumpless Vistas

Ascalon: Blazeridge Steppes, Terra Combusta – SSE From Brokentooth Maw WP, Directly S of heart or WNW from Lowland Burns WP

Kryta: Queensdale, Beetletun – S from Beetletun WP

Maguuma: Metrica Province, Wildflame Caverns – E from Sorenn Dra WP, then S into Wildflame Caverns

Maguuma Wastes: Silverwastes, Northeastern Silverwastes – from Camp Resolve WP, take the NW exit and follow the path out, stay left. Stay high and left on the path, through the canyon, then over the hill.

Orr: Fort Trinity – Fort Trinity WP, the West onto airship, then out on to prow

Shiverpeaks: Wayfarer Foothills, East from Halvaunt WP (Wurmhowl spikes)

Hey, Mal. How are you physically incapable of reading the first post? Buy a new monitor? Reading isn’t that hard, all you have to do it look at it.

As the OP said, players were allowed to allocate points to stats in GW1. There was a system in place to keep the stat allocation reasonable and fair. It is certainly possible for Anet to implement this in GW2. I don’t know why they failed to do it this way originally. Tying traits and stat point together always seemed like a poor system, IMO. It gives less build flexibility. I’m glad they’re at least partly correcting it.

re: His method of diminishing returns on stats would most likely come out to less damage than Anet’s… – This was actually Anet’s method in GW1. Once again, the OP is just asking for something similar to the stat allocation system Anet gave us in GW1.

re: If they did allow stat allocation obviously it’d need a cap you could put on each stat, but I don’t see why they would do it to begin with. – Because that’s how RPG’s(in the 70’s) and Computer RPG’s(in the 80’s) originally did it. Note that there are always rules to keep players from abusing stat point allocation.(Unless the game is poorly thought out and not well tested.) RPG’s have always been about customizing your character. Why would you not allow players in an RPG to allocate their stats?(within reasonable limits)

I found the thread on these forums that discusses strategies to defeat Aerin:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lwd/How-to-kill-Aerin/first

It really helps to have other players with you. The NPC’s will occupy the tendrils, but aren’t really helpful for anything else during this fight.

Alt+Shift+NumLock toggles the “mousekeys” feature, and you can use numpad 5 or numpad + instead of clicking.
Then you can toggle it off when you’re done.

Edit: I just tried this. I thought key repeat would kick in and help. But that doesn’t seem to happen. So you’re just pounding a key on the numpad instead of a button on your mouse. The scroll wheel suggestion here might be more useful:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Extend-your-mouse-s-life/5115495

re: You’ll probably have a hard time in HoT too. Seeing how it will be all about jumping mushrooms and gliders. – I have some concerns about HoT as well, but I’m withholding judgement until we know more. It does kinda seem like Dry Top was a trial of things to come. But hopefully they learned a lot of useful things from Dry Top that will help alleviate problems in HoT.

I think it may be useful to note here that social skills and propriety in expressing one’s thoughts can also be learned with practice and diligence. Some of us seem to need some practice in that area. i.e, a baseball bat to the face does not equal kind encouragement

On topic, once you’re through the boss fight that the OP mentioned, there is much less (IMO) “jump-related drudgery” in Living Story Season 2. I’m very bad at jumping, and I hated all of that as well, but you’re through most of it, shava. LS S2 is IMO very good, and worth the effort. There are some helpful posts on these forums related to that boss fight, but I don’t remember his name and I’ll have to look it up to try and find them

re: Or it could end up to benefit you. It goes both ways – Unless I’m misunderstanding, the OP’s system makes armor sets like rune sets, the more you have of a given set the more bonuses you get. This means armor sets need to be “pure” to get the most benefit. The less pure the less benefit. So people who use parts of different sets, (like me) would lose out in this system.
The gear/stat separation if going to change things, quite a bit, and Will certainly need some rebalancing. I don’t think Anet would even consider something like this until all that is fairly well settled.

If you make harvest scale with the gathering tool, then you have to keep buying various level gathering tools.(and keep several different grades with you) And where would infinite gathering tools fall in this system.? That part of your system seems very messy.
Also, some of you information seems suspect. I’ve have meat and poultry drop recently, as a drops, not in bags.

Gear stats are going to get so much change from the trait/stat separation, I don’t think they’ll consider changing gear stats any more until they’ve worked all that out.
I myself would not want this, because I mix and match pieces form different sets. This would put me at a disadvantage in your proposed “Armor Set” system.

You can be in a party and a squad at the same time.
Commanders cannot be in each other’s squads but can be in the same party. When a commander is in your party, you see a blue party dot in the middle of his commander tag.(If you’re in another squad, you probably would only see his blue party dot. – not tested)
You can see squad way points from your commander, and party way points form your party. The same with map pings.

re: @Elden Arnaas why should active players be forced to play with no active considering there is a map size? – Once Anet has found a reasonable and accurate way of determining who is not actively participating, then if the map starts to fill up they can start culling “inactives”. So determining who is “inactive” would be very helpful if they would use it properly.

re: what it dose do is move active players to ressing inactive players hence making the event alot harder. – Players ought to have the sense to not rez AFK’s.

re: So am I right in thinking no 1 objects to reducing the timer of afk’s just my reason’s – You seem to think of it as a complete and total solution, which it really doesn’t seem to be.
1) Find a good way to determine if a player is inactive.
2) Make it so inactive players don’t count towards the event in any way, and get no credit if inactive for the whole event.
3) Cull inactive players if the map starts to fill up.
4) AFK timer isn’t so critical if 1, 2 & 3 happen.(But all in all, an hour is an oddly long time.)

Instead of adjusting the amount of time before you’re kicked, they need to adjust what is considered "participating"in an event, so that it’s harder to passively “participate”, and therefore passively scale the event up, and passively get credit.