Guild Wars 2

FalconDance.1637:

…ankittenep hoping it gets better. …

Ok, that’s weird. Somehow the filters kicked in and what I see in the post is “ankitten” when what I said was (without the apparently offending words), “and I continue hoping it gets better”. Since when is the word (k e e p) a curse word?

lorazcyk.8927:

I would give up all of this — variety, choices, whatever — to have a wonderful story like GW Prophecies. I remember thinking so many times that I wish the game was made into a movie because it’s pretty good.

Can you imagine what would have happened if we’d been given even this limited choice in GW1 missions? Escort Rurik through the Ruins of Surmia —- or figure out a better alternative. Clear Borliss Pass and negotiate with Ironhammer —- or make Rurik do the PR work (he gets the credit anyhow!) after you light the beacons. And maybe I didn’t want to leave Saidra behind to cover our retreat (I think we could’ve taken those Mursaat down!!).

lorazcyk.8927:

In GW2 I don’t feel… “oh no..!” or “hell yeah!” or “we got you good!” or anything really. I don’t feel excited about it, I just do it bbecause I’m supposed to.

Ditto. I’m doing it because I’m supposed to – ankittenep hoping it gets better. The ONLY time I felt engaged was when Tybalt became a martyr. I sat, stunned and, to be honest, a bit teary-eyed. That is the only time in five characters, the oldest being 70 thus far. Otherwise, it’s just another brawl. another batch of Risen, another crowd of Inquest, a pansy flippin’ magic sword wielded by an inept necro.

I would prefer that Anet had kept the guild alliance system present in GW1. It worked.

We have a thriving (multi-game) guild. This multi-guild idea is new to us, and we’re trying to work within the given parameters but still stay true to our own SOP. At the moment, that means we treat other guilds we share members with (and there are only a couple) as allies.

For me, it’s not so much that the content is terribly hard – it’s the only-one-way-works for all professions idea that threatens to break the system.

As mentioned by someone, a profession with no inclination, training or proficiency with a weapon type is forced to use that weapon or the story cannot proceed; the example was a guardian and a rifle. For me, it was a ranger and a golem/bombs. Not only did it make no sense for a Sylvari ranger to morph herself into an experimental golem and lay bombs, she would/did not have the proficiency to do so. (I know, there I go using sense and stuff.) In the end, I was able to forego the stupid golem idea and use basic pulling and strategy to proceed even though the storyline did not recognize the effort, but there are lines where you aren’t given even that leniency.

I appear to be one of the lucky ones who had little difficulty with the Breaking the Blade quest though I did end up retiring the character later. Instead of trying to kill everything that moved, I did the sneaky-sneaky thing with timing and stealth, killing only what had to be killed to get out. Was it easy? Oh heck no. And it took a lot more time than it really should have, given the level and content.

The personal story is NOT about your character, it is a one-size-fits-all-professions bit of story coding that is intended to enliven the game with something more than continual killing of everything that moves. Yes, it would be extremely difficult to have semi-“intelligent” stories that actually reflect any number of personality types. But the current system doesn’t even try. The only storyline that resembles decent is the set of human stories – and even those are rather ho-hum.

Kerithlan.1659:

In the far northeast reaches of the region, in an area known as the War King’s Greatcamp……..It is terrible. Nothing about it is fun. It is grueling. It is tedious. It is stressful. It is frankly not balanced.

It is HORRID, this place. I was there last night with a guild-mate and later with two (first to get our own skill points and later to help the other get his). Multiple events spawned in too rapid succession – and this was with a large group of players both times. At one point, there were two events happening simultaneously with corresponding groups in battle – and with the skill point challenge activated in the mix and respawns of everything occurring so quickly, the battlelines were blurred – literally.

Centaurs do not reproduce this quickly, Anet. Seriously. I watched centaurs respawn before the body of the ones just killed hit the ground! After the event(s), we had to constantly fight our way back out of the area with immediate respawn of all the cursed horses. Challenge is great, but this is not challenge. This is ridiculous wrapped up in stupid.

I agree that not everything should be an easy achievement.

However, when I kill a spawn of (whatever), when do I get to simply catch my breath and look around to enjoy the scenery? When do I have the leisure to seek out small scenic surprises?

I don’t. Not with the current re-spawn seemingly tuned to an expectation of non-stop hordes of players in a constant stream through every area.

Gaviston Hawkington.9647:

I just think the solution is WAY too simple to ignore.

For Wintersday Anet should simply guarantee that “a” Wintersday item is contained in every Black Lions Chest opened during the event. There can still be the full range of items from common (high drop rate) to exotic (low drop rate), but in the end everyone gets “something”.

This might work if they put in special chests – say a 33% chance of having a Wintersday “stocking” (chest) drop instead of a chest OR otherwise change it up from the usual.

Has Anet considered that Europe goes daylight savings at midnight? Have they adjusted for that?

(The US goes daylight savings next Sunday.)

Curuniel.4830:

@FalconDance – as a GW1 player myself I love what they’ve done with the charr because it complicates the setting so nicely. Hearing the charr talk about humans makes me think more about human history and such, you know? But bias is ok too :P

Oh, I agree that it adds dimension. ‘The other side of the story’, so to speak.

I’ve noticed (by playing all the races at least a little) that the human personal story seems to be the most thought out – and it feels as if the game really was built around the human element. Of course, I could be wrong, but that’s been my impression since beta.

Personally, I don’t like the way the Charr look, move or sound. I don’t even like their overall view of other races, especially humans —- but then again, I’m a veteran of GW1 and may be just a little bit prejudiced against them.

It makes sense that Grazden would be easier to take down than another profession – in GW1 he was a prot monk and as such did not have offensive spells. While he did use a hammer in melee range, he was notoriously likely to die quickly against the grawl who seemed to delight in smacking him down.

Why not? It does’t really take all that long, there’s at least one chest with decent goodies on the way, and it’s something different.

@skullmount

I noticed that on my ranger, it does not show. But on son’s necromancer, it shows as a large grimoire strapped to the back, rather in keeping with a mage of the Darker Arts, I think. So perhaps it is designed to show differently on different classes? I hope it stays that way because a ranger or a tiny Asura with a big ol’ book on their back would look plum silly!

Not been announced by GW2 team yet in any of the usual spots, so reserving belief until then.

@Rickets

Just a thought, but this event goes on for a week or so. We already know that content will be added periodically specifically for this event all that while. Why would anyone spend all their money on the first day and then decide that, because they didn’t get what they expected (‘cause we all know that the odds are always in our favor and not anyone else’s), Anet is obviously greedy and uncaring about their customers. I’m sorry, but that sort of attitude is childish; gimme what I want, what I expect or I’m going to raise holy smoke and take my toys home forever.

Now, not that I’m accusing anyone here of this, but coming from 7+ years of GW1, I know that there are those who rush in, essentially grab up/buy the special goods as soon as possible and then re-sell, driving up the market prices. Perhaps Anet took that into consideration (it is a valid idea) and deliberately drizzled out the chance rate so that wouldn’t happen so soon. I don’t know – and neither does anyone besides the developers – what the actual percentage is, but apparently there are individuals who have opened chests and received special goods since there are apparently ones for sale.

Heck, I’m reading 17 pages (just this thread alone) of people griping and griefing – and I was tickled pink today to get really good armor drops on my girls and gleefully looked forward to finding pumpkins to carve, candy corn nodes and trick-or-treat bags fall from foe.

So, people spent money on keys – and because they didn’t get what they expected on the first day of the event, they’re all upset?

I understand disappointment, but seriously?

I tried this in story mode with experienced guild mates (I was the low level at 50) last weekend. It was a flippin’ nightmare, seemed bugged, and we ended up deciding to try again later.

Has there been a tweak since Saturday?

I recently completed my first dungeon (Caudecus) on a lvl 50 ranger. I was with experienced guild mates (all but one at lvl 80). While we were successful in the end, it was a grindfest that cost us all dearly (repairs) that resulted in precious few rewards of any kind (drops) and a hat in the end. That was on story mode.

We had attempted Ascalonian Catacombs on explorable mode prior to that. Again, all except for me were knowledgeable and had been through this dungeon several times successfully. Our instance was bugged, apparently, and nothing seemed to go right. We persevered until it 1) became stupidly expensive for repairs (ok, so we were also a bit stubborn) and 2) it was abundantly evident that it really wasn’t ‘just’ us, the dungeon really was bugged.

If a solid group made of mostly experienced characters who know their professions have as much difficulty as we did, I shudder to think what the other dungeons hold or how a PuG manages.

Now, some of you come in and say “I ran that dungeon in my skivvies and didn’t have any trouble” or “you just need to either learn how to play or go home”. How is that helpful? How is that even relevant? There are those who are having difficulty, who believe that perhaps things are a bit unbalanced somehow. Personally I am in the first group and – having experienced GW for over 7 years already – I can well believe there is an imbalance that is exploitable by some professions and suffered through by others. Anet will never please everyone – and never should have tried. Unfortunately, they have once again tried to do so and though they have created a beautiful game, the mechanics are still skewed.

One of the problems is – and has always been with GW – is that Anet developers seem to think that difficulty or challenge equals more mobs thrown at you at once rather than fewer but intelligent foe to defeat.

I would agree with many here that some of the personal story quests really do call for a pair, not a solo hero. Yes, a Guardian or a Warrior may have an easier time – d’uh, they’re generally in significantly higher armor, if for no other reason. A ranger has less difficulty than a mage of any sort, I’d also say. But some of quests do not allow for a partner (unless this has been changed recently?).

NPCs in personal story instances really might as well stay home, they are so useless. Even Caithe, a Firstborn who is supposed to be so talented, dies easily in instance. The only other NPC thus far I’ve seen who is remotely useful is Tybalt.

I do not go into a story instance unless I am at least two levels ahead of recommended, and frankly, I have begun to avoid the stories altogether. On the three characters I’m currently playing regularly (Sylvari ranger, Norn Guardian and Human Mesmer), only the human story seems to be thought out and, well, a coherent story. The others are essentially "go wrest a “magic” sword from that guy because we screwed up" (Sylvari) , “brawl, tidbit of story, brawl, tidbit of story, brawl” (Norn), and “golems gone mad, Inquest pops in for a fight, golems gone mad, Inquest pops in for a fight” (Asura). Add to that the difficulties (again, acceptable challenge does NOT equal more and more and more mobs to me), the unbelievable lag (of some), and the eventual discovery that the story line has diddly to do with the rest of the GW2 world – and I am not inclined to play that part of the game.

Seems to run in cycles for me. My ranger gets mostly greens and browns but all the sudden she seems to be getting “pastels” drop. Granted, they’re not what I would consider pastel (they practically glow in the dark!) but different.

My other girls don’t get many dye drops at all. Of course, the next one’s level is half the ranger’s, but still.

Weirwynn.2390:

There are already customizable armors available from the guild armorer.

They are bad.

I feel any effort in this direction should be towards improving them.

Actually what I meant was something a bit different. Let me try to refine the idea a bit.

Example: crafting medium armor utilizes leather and jute (for the most part). If, however, you’re in Asuran lands, cogs drop as trophy (merchant fodder). Why not, ONLY in Asura lands, be able to craft your leather armor with the addition of the cogs for a look that clearly shows where the armor was crafted? (The cogs could perhaps show up as a belt or other small-ish detail.)

The other lands would use some other common-to-them “trophy” drop, as well. If the new look was kept to one piece of armor (the chest or pants, perhaps), the coding involved would not be too onerous.

This would be additional to the vanilla armor crafted as some of it isn’t too bad. .

Wouldn’t it be nice if, for instance, you crafted something in Norn territories and the item/armor had some little detail that showed it was made in those lands? A little owl or bear or somesuch? As it is, everything looks the same. There is no difference whether you craft armor in the Grove, Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, the Black Citadel or Rata Sum. For such a detailed and cinematic game, this seems odd to me.

Ranger 39
Mesmer 14
Guardian 18
Engineer 8

Satisfaction varies. Lately recurrent multiple game bugs have seriously lowered my enjoyment.

On a good day 9/10
Lately 4/10

When I created my Sylvari, BirchFlower, it was with the two skin tones called “birch” (d’uh) with a substantial “rose” glow. In the creation screen, the three colors were very noticeable in a relatively subtle and harmonious way. In the world of GW, however, she looks like a dusty albino whose glow is very rarely present, ever. It is most distressing but, at level 38, I am not going to lose her progression.

It would be most welcomed to be able to adjust these things – without re-creating (or paying cash since I believe this to be an error in the creation screen lighting perhaps, not “just” cosmetic upset).

The story doesn’t make sense because your choices (when given the choice) does NOT matter and is not ‘recorded’.

It is as if the developers decided that Path A was the preferred path and wrote the subsequent storyline for it then decided to throw in another choice, Path B, to give a little variety, linked it with the subsequent lines of A, but forgot to make adjustments accordingly. In the end your story culminates all the same regardless of the choices made along the way.

While it would not make sense in this game, I do miss the alignment-altering choices in the D&D style games. If you made a choice in those, there was a consequence (most of the time), and the story would be affected accordingly. Depending on your choices and actions, you might (for example) not be able to use certain armors or weapons any more or your storyline would veer into a new direction. In the end, you might still end up killing the Bad Guy, but then again you might just end up joining forces.

The choices don’t seem to really matter. The results certainly don’t register.

Example: In the Sylvari story, my gal ended up choosing to try a new-fangled, unfield-tested battle golem for a fight (I clicked the wrong dialogue button). I tried using these spangly golems, decided they were not only silly and out-of-character for a Sylvari ranger but ineffectual overall, and did things the old-fashioned way —- strategy and skill. Cutscene was all about how wonderfully the golems worked and how they had completely saved the day. Uh, no.

Story dialogue continued about how well the golems did. The AI doesn’t recognize the golems didn’t do a darned thing except sit on the hill with the Asura and the dingleberry story NPC because it is expected for the player to sit and tinker with the ignorant things rather than make field decisions on how better to handle the situation.

(Personally, I as a player and I as a character have little time or patience to finagle poor planning and game mechanics when faced with a ‘battle’ situation when there are viable alternatives available.)

We are expected to act and interact but there does not seem to be either game mechanics to enable this or a measurable way to tell if it even matters in the end. I realize that in a vast game such as this, it is difficult to code in so many variables. I also realize that five years (plus) and a team of very good developers have gone into this effort. It is almost as if the team who created the world environment and events and the team who worked on the rest (story line, personal and over-arching) did their individual things and at the last minute got together and smooshed the two together without testing to 1) see if they merged well or 2) make sure they actually worked at all.

At this point, I’m avoiding the Sylvari personal story altogether. It is boring and nonsensical to me. Norn isn’t much better. Guess I’ll see about the Human one next.

Again: overall game = great
Personal story = sub-standard

The game overall = great

Personal Story and dialogue stuff = sub-standard

Is it light armor? I can’t find it in the concept art, and the wiki is sorely lacking in information/photos of armors.

Eta: well of course it’s light armor. D’uh. The name of it isn’t in the icon?

They look like the Devout set from the Diessa Plateau karma merchants, if I had to guess.

Right now, I’m using the jungle spider mostly (shark in the water) – it’s fun to watch the poison shots and think, “incoming!”.