Guild Wars 2

Well it is a watchknight. They’re for guarding.

Mystic.5934:

Malganis.7468:

No, it needs to be changed to actually be -10% damage so the potions work as originally intended. Whats the point of using them if they increase the damage done to you, as well?

that’s basically the definition of berserker builds.

Exactly what I thought as well. And on the other end of the spectrum, if like me you’re a tank support warrior with so much regen that you get through most of a dungeon without ever having a dent in your HP, it’s well- well- well-worth it to get 10% more damage (a precious commodity when your hits are like rubber) in exchange for an unnoticeable increase in damage taken.

Ugh, personally I’m getting pretty grossed out about Marjory and Kasmeer and their sex has little to do with it. The thing that makes me uncomfortable is more to do with how obnoxious and attention-whoring they are about their relationship, making overt references to it every five seconds. Yeah, I get it, you’re lesbians, now quit shoving it in everyone’s face.

Well to be honest, if I think about it, it’s more Marjory that annoys me. She just screams attention-kitten to me, with her sexual tone in everything she says to everyone. She also seems a whole lot more interested in the romantic or sexual aspect of her relationship with Kasmeer than Kasmeer herself is; she only seems to make any allusion to it when the subject is pressed. Which it is, by Marjory, at every possible opportunity.

I certainly agree that there are some faults with this content. It’s not that I’m saying it’s perfect, but I am saying that it’s brilliant stuff and some of the most exciting and epic new content we’ve had yet. It’s taking the game in a direction I was almost hopeless to think that it may ever go in (with the boss fights looking more and more spammy and farmy with each passing week for many many months now). I want to voice my support as strongly as possible for the direction they’re moving in with the reworking of this fight.

It is flawed, that’s true. But I really don’t feel any concern because of how easy it will be to do balancing on this event once they’ve had a while to observe players’ efforts. Something as simple as adding five more minutes to the clock could very well make this encounter perfect; maybe something like buffing the turrets. I also feel that giving commanders the ability to commandeer the turrets and override other players’ control would be a terrific thing (sort of like WvW where the player who built the siege machine can override all other players’ control of it). This way they can boot off people who shouldn’t be on the turrets and hand it off to someone more suitable with no hassle.

I think one or more of these things would go a long way to perfecting this content. But people really do need to chill a little in the meanwhile; I fully expect that no significant changes will be made until the current stage of the Living World is over, and that’s really nothing to worry about. You can get all the Living World achievements in a couple of hours without even winning a Tequatl fight — notice that they separated the achievements dealing directly with the Tequatl fight into its own category under “Bosses,” which is permanent and will persist long after the Living World has progressed past the current stage.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Please Nerf. ~I know how much you all love that comment~ But this content is flawed for several reasons.
1. Requires 80+ characters
2. Requires that all players are skilled
3. Requires that all players know what they are doing
4. Requires that all players are actively playing
5. Requires that all players work together
6. Requires that all players have good internet connection
7. Requires good leadership

I agree with dbgamer, these are some very poor criticisms. I never thought I’d see the day someone actually thought that players should be able to beat a major boss in a game without needing skill, co-ordination, teamwork and to know what they’re doing. It sounds like the sort of false entitlement that has spoiled gamers as a whole for quite a while now.

This kind of content does not challenge a player’s skills, but rather, punishes the player for other’s mistakes, because it doesn’t matter how skilled you are at combat, team work, or leadership; if you can’t find 80 people of the same quality you will fail, if any of the above points outlined are missed, you will fail. This kind of event requires all players to give 100%, but that is rarely possible. In that regards, this content is neither ‘hard’ nor ‘challenging’, but rather relies completely on luck.
1. The luck that you get into main server
2. The luck that all the above listed points are met.

And this luck based system does not make the game more fun, but irritating. For even if you can find a good group that meets all the requirements; good luck getting on their server. And this, by all means, is the great downfall to this event.

But if that were true then it would not be the case that more skilled groups of players are able to slay the dragon. Even on my own world, Borlis Pass, an effort co-ordinated by my guild and a couple others saw us take the dragon to about 33% health; if luck were a major factor here then it’s a pretty huge coincidence that the level of success appears to be directly impacted by the effort, skill and teamwork used by players.

Talissa Chan.7208:

If you’re going to start a thread could you not start it just because you like the sound of your own voice? Every response from you is simply trolling. Please close thread and l2p with other people okay? Obvious troll is Obvious.

Please look up the definition of “trolling,” which means capturing the attention of a group of people by making them angry and continually agitating them by any means possible. That’s trolling. What we have here is a person expressing their opinion, which appears to have made you angry because you disagree with it, not because he’s trying to agitate you. Someone’s opinion is never trolling, and trolls generally don’t express their own opinions. Accusing someone of “trolling” is not a “win argument free” card.

Lol, I can’t believe what I’m seeing here — there are people who are actually trying to say that stuff like this is not what Guild Wars 2, philosophically, is about? Are you joking?

What Guild Wars 2 is not about is sitting around staring at a boss timer so you can warp from boss to boss autoattacking until it dies, and repeat.

What Guild Wars 2 is not about is huge epic bosses that have literally become easier to kill than a level 60 mob. At least you have to dodge and use skills to beat level 60 trash mobs effectively.

Now consider what Guild Wars 2 is about. Dynamic content that impacts the world around you. Events that feel like they’re taking place for their own tangible reasons instead of being a loot pinata for players. Content that is focused around skill and co-ordination and poses a real challenge, a breath of fresh air and a step away from the mundane, mindless grind and gear-centric gameplay of traditional MMOs. I think anyone would agree that these are the principles that are at the very core of Guild Wars 2’s philosophy, and I feel strongly that the new Tequatl fight is more true to those values than ever. I’ve been calling for the major boss fights to be totally reworked like this for months now, for those reasons.

With a bit of balancing this content will be extraordinary; imagine what a difference something as simple as another five to ten minutes of allotted time would make for the sake of balance.

I really couldn’t agree more, dbgamer. I am extremely impressed with the reworking of this dragon fight and the challenge ArenaNet has presented us this time.

My initial reactions about three or four minutes into the fight: fear, awe, and wonder. The way the dragon is presented is absolutely epic, I had my sound cranked with the bass up and it felt more real and immersive than any film. I really felt the way someone should feel when facing a dragon, and equally as important, I felt a sense of fear when it began to crush everyone around me like they were nothing. The feeling of awe was derived from the apparent hopelessness of the situation as it unfolded… this was certainly a dragon fight, not an autoattack-spam loot farm event. And immediately after the dragon did his victory lap, it left me feeling that we had been terrorised and broken and not the other way around… I wondered how it would be possible to overcome this challenge.

Fighting Tequatl now is exactly how I envisioned dragon fights in this game back when they were nothing more than a few bits of concept art. This is epic, the way these fights need to be. No more spammy loot farm events. As it is now, I feel that we are in a real, living world where there is a real dragon threat, and even the rumour that one world had figured out how to bring it down was thrilling.

I know that, as a player base, we will gradually become more and more effective at fighting the dragon until we begin to bring it down repeatedly. What falls short here is clear to me — it’s player familiarity. There are so many threats that play a factor in this fight now that players of all skill levels must grow completely re-accustomed to the whole boss fight formula. I’m very confident that we will see players beginning to overcome once the majority of players figure out how to survive all the threats the dragon poses and can then start to focus more and more on actually dealing damage.

Daevinity Inspirata.2508:

This thread is a lot of whining and entitlement. Let the new players have something nice would you? Simply purchase the legacy armor you like and move on.

People on the forum would rather whine that they can’t upgrade to the Heroic Edition for $20 instead of buying the only thing added in the Heroic Edition for $10. Figure that one out.

LOL this thread is ridiculous. Seriously, some of the people whining here about things that it was already made clear ten times are not the case… can you say learning disability? Wow.

And there are still people saying they want the choice to “upgrade” to the Heroic edition? You do realise that the only thing that would give you is a gem store armour set, right? Something you already can buy for less than an upgrade to a different edition of the game would cost you. Now where’s that :rofl: smiley?

Beorn Saxon.4762:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Beorn Saxon.4762:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Arkham Creed.7358:

Doesn’t change the fact that HoM weapons are already finding their way into the rest of the game.

Can you back that up with an example?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lord_Taeres%27s_Shadow

That is not a HOM skin. Do you have a REAL example?

Bro, read that page, the notes. That is a NEW skin just added you get from champs. IT IS THE SAME MODEL AS THE EXCLUSIVE HOM FELLBLADE.

Everyone with HoM realized this as soon as anet made the blog post about new champ loot. This skin was featured on the blog post and everyone cried foul. So sad.

Right. Except for the part where it isn’t even a greatsword, LOL.

lordkrall.7241:

I would say that Hell does exist in Tyria, but here it is called Realm of Torment.

And looking at the helmet at least it does look like something that would come out of there.

And that is perfectly acceptable, however they are not called Tormentfire Gauntlets. Which actually doesn’t sound bad at all.

Kryptonite.9376:

They aren’t cheats if they level the playing field.

I’m sorry, but in video game terms, isn’t that the exact definition of a cheat?

There’s just one thing that’s bothering me about the new achievement rewards content, and it’s a bit superficial, but still pretty puzzling.

Why is the firey gear set called “Hellfire”? I’m sorry, but since when does “hell” exist in the Guild Wars universe? Why not Baelfire or Foefire or something that actually refers to something in the lore of Tyria and not that of Earth?

If there’s a reasonable answer then great. But I don’t see how this choice of name could be rationalised.

Once I got the skill to heal yourself for a large amount (the one you get from the charr master) it was a very exciting, very close victory. I just tried my best to time it so that my belch and water were ready to go when Adnul used his special, and when he got me down to about 50% health, I used my special to get all my health back. In the end I beat him with about 500 HP remaining, on my third or fourth try.

raahk.2786:

Might just be my unluckiness, but in all seriousness this guy is nothing more then a RNG based cheat.

Lol oh please spare me the “boss is B.S. because he can do things players can’t!” Of course he can, that’s why he’s the hardest challenger. Is it fair? Hell no, but a lot of the time, overcoming a difficult challenge means that you’re up against odds that aren’t fair. And thank Balthazar for that.

Ridiculous. Just one species/gender combination has dozens of hours of voice dialogue, covering every line they can possibly speak in their personal story, dungeons, and in the world.. and then on top of that those voice actors have to voice any future stuff as well for consistency. There are five species, each with both genders playable, so that’s ten different voice actors voicing dozens of hours of dialogue each… and you think it’s in some way practical or realistic to expect several alternatives for each combination? Yeah, that would be a terrific use of budget.

And don’t compare dozens of hours of dialogue to a total of three minutes of NPC dialogue in every stage of the Living World content.

I’d just like to go on record saying this really bugs me too. I actually hope it is a bug and not a game design decision, because I feel it’s super immersion-breaking. The whole idea of dynamic events occurring in the world around you is centered around cues instead of holding the player’s hand (as the traditional “quest” format does), so having some “important” event-related dialogue from some NPCs half a mile away being played through your speakers as if they’re right next to you really works against that I think.

According to the allegedly “leaked” patch notes for tomorrow, this is already happening. Berserker’s Stance is going to give -100% condition duration while active.

1) No execution while stealthed
2) Save / Load build templates
3) More maps!

Have you ever-
Been so bored that you played Guild Wars 2 on a Radeon 9600 Pro?

TGSlasher.1458:

My problem with stealth is that not all attacks can be used against stealthed foes.

For example, warrior can swing widely or d/d ele can use his auto attacks. But a S/F ele (what I play) has very few skills that can hit a stealthed thief, or pressure him out of refuge. The s/d auto attacks don’t work without a target and the aoes are on high c/d or are lamesauce.

I’m sure there are other classes / setups in the same boat.

The problem I have with what you’re saying here is that you’re taking a fundamental element of PvP’s gameplay and calling it a flaw. The fact that your specific build has a glaring weakness to another specific build is largely how PvP operates and it was the same way in Guild Wars 1, it’s not a flaw or an imbalance, in fact it’s a perfect example of good balance. Every build has distinct flaws, and if there’s one particular build you really hate always owning you before you can get a single hit in, then you’re free to rebuild your character to counter that build.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Oh there are quite a few. Rangers in general have a really hard time with this, due to the fact that pretty much all of our weapons (with the exception of the GS) require a target to be used properly.

I don’t see how that’s the case at all; Barrage for example tears through thieves with a level of effectiveness that’s paralleled by little else. Not only does it give you a huge AoE you can sit in for, what is it, 8 seconds? It also does very good damage and cripples with every hit. It’s rarely worthwhile for a stealthed thief to try and bear the Barrage just to hit you once or twice, especially considering that the weakness of high-DPS thieves is that they are ultra-squishy, and rapid pulses of Crippled negate the ability to use stealth for escape, the very fulcrum of the hit-and-run mechanic.

As with the post above, you might say, “but I don’t use a longbow” — fine, but then your build is going to be weaker against stealthed enemies. If they are a problem to you then modify your build to be more effective against them, that’s really one of the most fundamental aspects of PvP gameplay.

Mobott.5908:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Mobott.5908:

If Charr are cats, shouldn’t they be terrified of water? Well, they’re not. You can’t assume that what’s true about cats is true about Charr.

Cats are not terrified of water. They are almost entirely made of water and need it to survive.

On the other hand, though, charr are also not cats.

I didn’t mean it that way, I was talking about how cats don’t like getting wet.

Haha, no, I know. I’m just saying, I think it’s a myth that cats don’t like getting wet. I’ve seen cats that love to swim, or take baths in the sink.

It’s a moot point. Stealth is magic. I realise that may seem a bit like “a wizard did it,” but it’s not — every class in the game uses magic in one form or another, and thieves use it to stealth. It’s not just “hiding in the shadows.” Thieves also use magic to teleport (shadow-stepping).

Besides, one could just as easily argue that stealth is not only about masking sight, but also sound. If Dredge navigate by sound, then thieves could simply remain hidden from Dredge by eliminating the sound signature of their footsteps.

RollingBob.8502:

LOL this game has an extremely bare cash shop for an entity that has been accused of gouging every nickel and dime it can.

Seriously, people obsess to the point of mental collapse about legendaries and they are the same stats as the exotics. Anet could sell the skins and do away with the purples but they don’t.

Then there are the minis. Kinda neat, and I felt compelled to make my two for wintersday, but they only take up room because i can’t sell them. Yet some people “gotta catch em all!”.

There are some neat things that are outside the game offering in just the slightest fashion; black lion salvage is just slightly better than anything available in game, likewise the trans stones. Those however barely make up for the fact that Anet has not even tried to milk skins, providing only a single skin upgrade for each armor weight.

keys to the chests? Well yeah that is a mini game like a jumping puzzle. Sometimes you have to just walk away and laugh. Thse who succeed you can give a golf clap and tilt your hat, and go about the more important business of seeing how many risen you can take on at once.

Really, for an entity that gets slapped with a stigma of evil for trying to make money, their cash shop is really really bare. Vault expansions, bag additons and character slots probably top the list in what they actually sell.

I have never before loved a game so much. When I die i want to buried in the harathi hinterlands that is how much I love this game.

Bravo, Rob. A little bit of sense goes a long way.

And do charr bombs do more damage than human longbows? No. Case solved.

AnemoneMeer.7182:

Neraine Casel. Female Warrior. Last name is pronounced Case-L (Or however you pronounce Case as it’s own word.)

I would give it 7/10. Neraine sounds like a pretty good name for a female charr. As for Casel, it’s good and sounds good when paired with Neraine, but I’m not really sure it completely follows the typical charr naming protocol. Aren’t charr surnames generally something more like titles, that reflect the personality or behavioural traits of the individual? I suppose there are exceptions though, so I give it a 7/10.

After a few weeks of deliberation leading up to the game’s launch, I decided on making a Charr engineer named Holokostas Whitelaw.

Holokostas because:

*It sounds like a common real name, “Kostas.”
*It’s a play on the Greek word " holókaustos" meaning “to burn entirely,” and he uses the flamethrower as his primary weapon — enough said.
*It’s original

Whitelaw because:

*No matter how sinister and dark I make my characters (from a roleplaying perspective) I also make sure that they maintain a righteous disposition. “Whitelaw” to me gives the impression that the character is known for his adherence to the “big picture” of moral adherence.
*His fur is partly white.

Below: Screenshots from when he was around level 20. All I got.

Mobott.5908:

If Charr are cats, shouldn’t they be terrified of water? Well, they’re not. You can’t assume that what’s true about cats is true about Charr.

Cats are not terrified of water. They are almost entirely made of water and need it to survive.

On the other hand, though, charr are also not cats.

Oglaf.1074:

… it is not Jormag!!!

>_<

Don’t you know? MMO players have to abbreviate every single thing in the game — presumably for the sake of convenience — which ends up making everything extremely confusing so that it has to be explained further before half the people reading it understand what it means, thereby decreasing convenience threefold.

LFG MM COF HM WTF BBQ BIX NOOD

And now we’re not even sure if people are calling the Claw of Jormag “Jormag” because they think it’s Jormag the elder dragon, or if it’s just that they’re too lazy to type “Claw of,” or if it’s just that whole “I’m hip because I abbreviate things,” like when you’d watch your younger brother chatting to his friends on MSN back in the day and he would type a sentence out, then backspace it all so he could re-type half the words in abbreviations and acronyms before sending the message.

TLDR: Rhiann’s Respite renown heart is tedious and buggy.

You know, crafting can be a pretty big world in Guild Wars 2. I recently found out, for instance, that there are items that can be crafted that a lot of people aren’t even aware exist.

I feel like a bit of an idiot for revealing one of my big income secrets here, but how many people reading this thread have even heard of Beaded weapons? These are weapons that can be crafted by a sufficiently skilled craftsman which not only turn a big profit due to such low, low supply, but also almost directly allow you to convert karma into gold. The fact that the main expense involved in crafting Beaded weapons is one that you can’t actually use to make a tangible profit with any other way — karma — makes them hugely profitable. The actual gold costs are just a few silver and the items consistently sell for between 10 and 20 silver.

I won’t give any more details on how these are crafted, readers can research that for themselves. But my point is that, aside from being an insightful trader, you can also be a smart crafter. There are plenty of things you can do with crafting that are actually relatively secret. You don’t even have to be excellent at playing the economy (I’m not) to know that rarely-seen weapons have a higher innate value.

Ravenna.8029:

That is 2 a.m. Japanese Tokyo time. How are we supposed to complete this?!? Bad form.

Wouldn’t it be 2 AM somebody’s time no matter what time they chose? Not really logical there.

Surbrus.6942:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

[stats don’t matter]

And you treadmill grinders call us competitive people casual…

Whatever the hell a treadmill grinder is, I’m not one of them. 1) because as far as MMOs go I’ve only played Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, and 2) because there is no treadmill in either.

Crise.9401:

So people broke your fix within minutes, on Blacktide for example, Noll just indefinitely lays on the ground spouting greets to a group of on-lookers.

rofl. Did someone also break your English comprehension? They said pretty plainly that Noll is not fixed yet.

Raging Bull.5048:

FluffyDoe.7539:

Raging Bull.5048:

It’s been in trouble since day 1. Hopefully, the MASSIVE CHANGES that are needed will change the destiny of GW2 for the better.

The longer they wait, the more trolls will pop up here in the forum. Sweet~^

Yeah, excuse me, but don’t call me a troll. Consider yourself as one if you like. If the game wasn’t in any sort of trouble, and if the direction they initially took was FINE, they wouldn’t be changing it later on (right now). There is, however, still much work to be done.

That is such nonsense, though. There is no “direction change” to begin with. You only perceive there to be one. I mean what the hell is a direction change here? Was it a direction change when they added exotics before the game launched? What if they had added Ascended weapons before the game launched, would that be a direction change? It doesn’t even make sense. You’re complaining about Anet adding a bunch of new items, and because you irrationally perceive that to be a “direction change,” which it isn’t in any way, you in turn perceive it to be a sign of “problems.”

From my perspective, there is no direction change, and so there are no “problems.” The only problem I can see, in fact, is the problem of the forums being flooded by the vocal minority who isn’t currently playing the game and enjoying it. Not like anyone’s posting on the forums while they’re playing the game, so that pretty much leaves just whiners. The sad reality.

Crater.1625:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Not true actually. They added inscribed weapons in Guild Wars 1 which in fact basically obsoleted all the weapons that existed before and relegating them to “old-school”. And even before that, if I’m not mistaken, just a few months into the game’s life they added the new “uniques” tier which dropped in a sort of dungeon. (sound familiar?) And while there was some complaining, it was pretty kitten tame. Hell, compared to the nonsense over this, Katrina was tame.

This reads as though you never actually played Guild Wars 1, and only heard about the changes made throughout the game’s life via a cursory glance at Wikipedia, or some second-hand information that wasn’t accurate enough to be truthful.

Inscribed weapons never made any weapons “obsolete”. The Inscriptions were exactly identical to the inherent properties that weapons had at launch. Not a single piece of gear was made obsolete. The only difference was that Inscriptions could be overwritten – but you could only overwrite them with other inscriptions, all of which were identical to weapon bonuses from the earlier weapons. (I’ve said it a number of times in the last few days, but my first/main character in Guild Wars 1, today, right now, in November of 2012, is holding a weapon that I found before the game even technically launched, during the 24 hour pre-order headstart, and that weapon is exactly as powerful as the absolute best weapons that you can get in the game today, three expansions and seven and a half years later.)

lmao, please. How was the ability to change the stats of your weapon not inherently superior to being stuck with whatever stats a weapon drops with? It’s just a matter of simple calculation. “Old-school” items, to be truly max stats, had to drop not only with a 9 requirement, but also with perfect stats. Inscribed items didn’t. You could find a 9 requirement sword with crap stats, then just buy an inscription off someone or salvage one to make it however you wanted. You could also change it at any time, particularly with inscriptions costing only a platinum or two, to suit your build. Something you basically needed a full set of four different “old-school” weapons to do.

Similarly, “Unique” weapons were cosmetic only. Statistically, they were exactly equal to weapons that already existed in the game – they just had a unique skin, and couldn’t be customized.

It’s really quite irrelevant, because of the fact that stats mattered so much more in Guild Wars 1 than they do in Guild Wars 2. If you had a crappy sword you did 5 damage. If you had a max-stat sword you did 90 (let’s just say). Your gear was your stats, and then your attributes sometimes boosted one or two of those stats by a small percentage.

In Guild Wars 2 we have a completely different system. Your stats are innate to your character and are only influenced by your gear to a small degree, basically the opposite of Guild Wars. Attribute points and level are now the main factors in stats. If your power is already at 500, for instance, who really cares if a sword gives you +100 power or +110? Great, it will take you only 99 hits to do the same damage that would take 100 hits with the other one. Like that really matters or has any practical significance.

HP is now measured in thousands and not tens. Players no longer press space bar and are guaranteed hits, but must position actively and dodge. Avoiding damage is now a large part of the game and is achieved 90% through skill and 10% through skill*s*; as opposed to Guild Wars 1’s 90% through skill*s* and 10% through skill. In other words, Guild Wars 2 can actually afford to have slight statistical differences between weapon tiers because the way the gameplay works is so fundamentally different from how it worked in Guild Wars 1.

xtorma.1283:

What about two equally skilled players one with uber sword , one with crap sword.

Too many variables. In this case, whichever player’s build is more effective against the other player’s would be the winner. One player could (and this is nearly always the case) have a great build, but be unable to use it to effectively counter the enemy’s which happens to be better at countering his own. This is the way Guild Wars worked, and it is the way Guild Wars 2 works. Guild Wars 2 is actually more open-ended in that sense, because in Guild Wars, some professions were inherently more effective against other professions; a limitation that is no longer present in Guild Wars 2.

At any rate, you can be sure as hell that an extra 20 DPS or an extra 100 HP is not going to make one ounce of a difference in the equation. What will make the difference is build, each player’s ability to dodge, prediction, and not only an insightful selection of skills but also using them at the right time.

Columba.9730:

lol have you closely examined the stats of these items? they aren’t small improvements. Yes, stats Do matter.

No, I haven’t. Know why? Because we don’t know what they are yet.

We also don’t know how Legendaries are going to be buffed yet.

ilr.9675:

…Not to mention, that the “Upgrade” slot stats you would normally get on all exotics, are built right into Ascended items meaning you don’t need to buy Superior Runes because those stats are already built right in. You just haven’t realized it yet, Elricht, because you haven’t seen a true piece of Ascended Armor yet.

I think the point should probably be raised here that neither have you. And since you’re the one complaining, the fact that we haven’t seen a true piece of Ascended armor yet largely makes your stance on the issue appear irrational. Not mine.

I don’t think you’re trolling on purpose, I just think it’s obvious that you’re confused and don’t understand what the Article actually said.

It wasn’t that complicated. Ascended items are better than exotics, and Legendaries are being buffed to prevent them from being inferior to Ascended. What I truly don’t understand, however, is what peoples’ issue with that is.

Daizengar.9836:

Out of all the MMOs I’ve ever played, even in the most Pay to win F2P MMOs, I’ve NEVER seen a MMO community more selfish and pathetic as this one.

I am so deeply embarrassed to say that this is sadly true. This is a dark day for the community. Not because of some new gear… but because we now see just how many awful, irrational people are in it.

Pretty much a must for BossBattle.

Columba.9730:

These new items are must haves to compete in wvwvw, and there is only one way to get them – crappy dungeon grinds that many of us Hate.

Wow, it’s not very often that I would do this, but I’m actually going to encourage you to quit the game. Please.

Weird that players of any decent skill can compete in WvW with level 20 characters, and level 20 gear, but apparently you can’t even compete without top-tier weapons.

If you actually examine the game’s mechanics, I think an enormous facepalm would be in order. I mean you do realise that the majority of stats are actually innate to a character based on the distribution of attribute points, right? All gear actually does is let you further specialise your stats in whatever direction you want to take. I have no doubt whatsoever that I would be able to beat a less-skilled player than me with gear that isn’t even max level, let alone top-tier. A big part of that is my character’s innate stats and being able to distribute my attributes into a well-thought-out build, and an even bigger part of that is player skill. The idea that someone could care so kitten much about a tiny difference in gear stats says to me that that person probably doesn’t even understand how this game fundamentally works, let alone have any skill at it.

Hydrophidian.4319:

Actually, I think you’re the one who’s got it wrong.

As I understand it, as far as attributes go, Legendary items were on par with Exotic items. Legendary items were strictly an aesthetic achievement. Performance-wise, Exotic items were at the cap.

But Legendary weapons can be fitted with Superior Sigils, which have stats and grant special abilities that Ascended items can’t even get, and in fact can’t even come close to matching. So can exotics, actually, for that matter. Ironically, you’re actually sacrificing the ability to get the benefits of Superior Sigils when you use Ascended gear, with “Infusions” being the only customisation, and as far as we’ve seen, Infusions are pretty much comparable to tier 1 jewels. Big whoop.

Now Ascended gear represents a new cap, and Legendary items were adjusted upward to be on par with them.

Great, thank you for proving that there is no gear treadmill. Existing gear is improved to better match new gear. Isn’t that exactly what all the complainers would wish for in the first place?

Shiren.9532:

New content doesn’t inevitably mean better gear. GW1 released two massive campaigns and one expansion after it’s initial launch and it did it without adding new gear.

Not true actually. They added inscribed weapons in Guild Wars 1 which in fact basically obsoleted all the weapons that existed before and relegating them to “old-school”. And even before that, if I’m not mistaken, just a few months into the game’s life they added the new “uniques” tier which dropped in a sort of dungeon. (sound familiar?) And while there was some complaining, it was pretty kitten tame. Hell, compared to the nonsense over this, Katrina was tame.

Keelin.5781:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

They’re “moving away” from it because they introduced new items? rofl you people are ridiculous.

You’re ridiculous. If you had read any of the old interviews or even the manifesto you wouldn’t even need to doubt this.
But please, by all means, keep your head in the clouds.

I’m ridiculous? Why’s that, because I’m being pretty kitten honest and not jumping on this bizarre bandwagon of butthurt with you and everyone else? Because I’m not linking screenshots of me asking for a refund over the addition of new items and calling for others to do the same, as if it proves some point? Rofl this is unbelievable.

Seriously man, take a step back for a second and look at what it is you’re crying yourself to sleep over. The addition of a few new items that aren’t even as good as other items that already exist in the game. I mean are you joking?

krookie.6378:

No. They are moving away from it because they introduced an amazingly incredible grind for gear. I spent 6+ hours in the new instance with 3 different groups. I got 25 relics for my time and 1 rare ring.

Mind telling me why exactly you’re doing a completely optional grind if you don’t want to and don’t have to? Seems like a bit of a weird thing to do.

If you like this grind, more power to you. I’m happy that you have a game that you can enjoy for a few weeks before the next WoW patch.

Okay well first off, don’t insult me by implying that I’m a WoW player, because the only MMO I ever played in my life besides Guild Wars 2 is Guild Wars. And second, yes, if I like the grind for Ascended gear, more power to me. You have basically summarised my entire point. If I want to do an optional grind, more power to me. Just like if I wanted to do the already-existing optional grind for a Legendary weapon, more power to me. If you don’t want to do an optional grind, then don’t. Because a skilled player with a Weaponsmith sword will beat a crap player with a max-stat Ascended sword any day of the week, with his eyes closed.

Surbrus.6942:

Elricht Kaltwind.8796:

Except they didn’t, as you say, “increase the stats.” Legendaries are still better. So you’re pretty much just flat-out wrong and that’s not really a matter of opinion, but fact.

You know, you are a very kitteny troll. You aren’t fooling anyone.

Fooling anyone? “Fooling” implies that I’m being dishonest somehow. If I am, I’d like hear how.

Xenesis.6389:

You can expand the content without needing to increase the stats.
You can provide new equipment without needing to increase stats.
You can provide new equipment with new stat combinations without needing to increase stats.

Except they didn’t, as you say, “increase the stats.” Legendaries are still better. So you’re pretty much just flat-out wrong and that’s not really a matter of opinion, but fact.

I seriously can’t believe how God kitten irrational some of these people are.

Anet introduces a new tier of gear — a few months into the game, no less, which may as well be considered launch — and people freak out about a gear treadmill? Do you have logical deduction issues?

Keep in mind that:

-Ascended gear is not as good as Legendary gear anyway, which means that there is factually no gear treadmill. A gear treadmill introduces gear which is better than gear that already existed. That is not the case here. Period.

-Because we’ve now established that Ascended items are not a “gear treadmill” in any form, the insinuation that they introduce a “grind” to the game is not even half-true, and to be honest, it’s not relevant. The fact is, whether one must grind for Ascended gear or not, that grind is not required, because Ascended items themselves are not required. There is literally zero difference between this and any number of prestige armours/weapons in the first game. Many of them required grind — sometimes a lot of grind — but it was totally optional grind. That is the case here as well. I don’t really see how anyone can object to optional grind. It’s like objecting to a restaurant having a dish that you don’t like on the menu.

-This is not ArenaNet introducing a “new gear tier already.” This is ArenaNet adding another gear tier that they would have shipped with the game had they felt it was necessary at the time. I don’t recall this amount of asinine whining when ArenaNet introduced inscribed weapons in Guild Wars 1, and that was several years into the game’s life; but now “Anet’s sold out and made a WoW clone, wahhhh.”

-You’re freaking out about new gear that literally makes a difference of a few DPS or HP than the average gear in the exotic tier. Please go away. You’re complaining about the Ascended “gear treadmill” while completely ignoring the fact that the absolutely insignificant difference in stats between Ascended items and exotic items wouldn’t even make a noticeable difference in the outcome of a fight between equally-skilled players. The difference between the two tiers would never in a million years allow a crap player to compensate for being a crap player. We’re talking about single-digit differences in stats, in most cases; eating a food item can give a player a boost in his choice of stats approaching +100, but God forbid an item give you an extra +2 power.

Never seen such a bunch of irrational nonsense in my life.

Cool story bro.

This isn’t a case where one particular ride isn’t functioning however. This is a case where the one and only draw that’s been promoted as a one-time-only event is not functioning properly or simply not functioning at all.

Sorry but that’s totally false. The one-time event is one of literally hundreds of “rides” added by the Nov. 15 update, all the rest of which work flawlessly at best and well at worst. Loot drops have been improved, dozens of event and progress bugs fixed, new resources added, an entire new zone opened — even old boss fights have been revisited, and more rewards added to old dungeons. I’m not sure if you’re just grossly exaggerating the situation out of dissatisfaction or if you’re actually unaware of all that and still need to read the update notes.

Can’t figure out how to quote, for some reason.

Anyway, first off, as for the suggestion that hypothetically if ArenaNet were to “ban” the ranger profession botting would disappear, I think that statement actually shows a lack of awareness. If you haven’t noticed that nearly just as many bots now are actually greatsword warriors as are rangers, you aren’t effectively identifying bots.

As for some anti-botting measures, a few potential ways to handle it come to mind. First is the notion that a majority of botting could likely be circumvented simply by implementing an automatic, instant ban for “players” who have received, let’s say, 5 botting reports. I mean, why not? Keep in mind that abusing the /report feature is a bannable offense under the game’s ToS, so it’s not like it would be practical to falsely report people for botting just to grief them, because once the player’s validity is confirmed and his ban appealed, all the players making false reports would be banned, so I think that would be a non-issue. Even though cases of griefing via report abuse would inevitably occur, having to ban a handful of players each day would certainly be a step up from having to ban thousands of bots each day instead. If we’re going to fight botting, then implementing a measure such as this would give players direct power over bots, and consequently, the power to moderate the game to a good degree. This would probably be the most direct, most significant as well as the most easy-to-implement anti-botting measure of all.

Another that comes to mind at this point is something like what FallenAdvent suggested above. Random verification. Have them automatically distributed among players who have been online for a matter of a few hours within the same day (not consecutive hours, which could be circumvented simply by having the bot scripts log off and then on again intermittently). Prompt players randomly, between, say, a minimum of two hours to a max of five hours. This would devastate the botting scripts, which would be prevented from logging on again for a few hours if they either fail to answer the prompt correctly or fail to respond at all. Worst (or rather best) of all, the bots would be booted in the middle of the night while botters are sleeping, which God knows they likely will be doing until 6PM the following day when their mom brings dinner up to their rooms, leaving a significant amount of downtime. What about players who are simply AFK when their prompt comes up? Well, don’t prompt players that haven’t had any keyboard input for 10+ seconds. Queue those players for a prompt to appear the moment they input again. This way you theoretically prevent bot scripts from being directed to AFK for an hour or two at a time when it’s most likely they’ll be prompted (because AFKing does not exempt a user from verification, it simply delays it). As for player convenience, it really wouldn’t be such a big deal. In a way it would kind of remind me of Guild Wars 1’s “please take a break” messages, and hey, maybe it would even encourage players to actually take a break.

As far as I can discern, a combination of both these measures would effectively destroy the botting and quickly, if not instantly, make it a humorous memory from the game’s launch. Most botting initiatives would be nipped in the bud by players — who currently report bots in droves but never actually taste the satisfying fruits of their efforts — and the few who ever somehow make it past player moderation would inevitably be shut down soon after by the automated verification system anyway.

Of course, ArenaNet probably thought of all this on day one and are probably already in the middle of implementing something similar or better. But still.