Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Forcing people into areas they don’t enjoy doesn’t make the game better for anyone.

That’s factually untrue. It did make it better for me, on two separate occasions. First, I was forced into WvW because of the Gift of Battle change. And I ended up enjoying it. Second, I was forced into raiding, because I’m kind of completionist and want everything possible for my main. I ended up enjoying that, too.

The big negative of giving the same reward across multiple game modes is it doesn’t stimulate you to step out of your current comfort zone. People tend to stick with what they know. Giving them an incentive to try something new objectively does make the game better.

A valid middle ground would be to introduce a new set, with different means of acquisition. This way you’d still keep the incentive for people to try raiding, while giving another for something else. But ANet seem reluctant to do it for some reason.

P.S. It’s not a coincidence they added reward tracks as an alternative of content they chose to no longer support.

Vayne.8563:

The status situation is what I dislike most about the addition of raids to the game. I thought the game was a better game before legendary armor became the new status symbol.

You’re being subjective here. If they added a type of content which appealed to you, you wouldn’t dislike it. Players always create “status symbols” out of thin air. AP numbers, specific titles, legendaries, they are all used to that purpose. It’s not something inherent to the object in question, it’s the perception of the players.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

And yet, it is genuinely why I play raids and use my credit card to accelerate the process to get it. If I want that armor, I have to do it since there are no other path toward it.

In WvW, I enjoy swapping my build around to tailor it to different situation (zerg, raid, roam etc.) The game mode offers lot of different needs you can fine tune way beyond mere meta . Not having to waste runes while saving inventory space is a significant quality of life for me. Why are we suppose to accept only raider would deserve or find that relevant? No clue.

Anet can do whatever they want with their game, but as a customer I sure have the right to let them know what I think.

Like I said, I’m sure there are players like that. I’m also sure not nearly all of the players who are raising the complaints are like that. My point was that the QoL in question is likely percieved like a lot more than it actually is by your average player.

You’re doing the sensible thing by the way – you’re raiding to get it. It’s not that ANet thinks only raiders “deserve” this QoL you’re talking about, it’s that ANet thinks this gives more players the incentive to raid. Which, in your case, turns out to be correct.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

I’m only interested in freeing inventory space and having access to easy rune swapping.

That’s the general motto behind the complaints. But I’m not buying it. Not at this scale. The armor is too expensive, and rune-swapping is done extremely rarely. Just because you can stat-swap it doesn’t mean you do. Swap to what, exactly? I already run the optimal runes. If it’s about practicality, then the legendary armor is just not worth it. Sure, there might be people who genuinely care about that. But they’d be the minority. The rest might very well think that’s what they care about. However, what they really care about is the exclusivity. They are seeing a new shiny in the game and they want it without the effort involved. Simple as that.

Right, making significant percent of the traits irrelevant should be what a spec does? Somehow I don’t think so.

Ashen.2907:

Feanor.2358:

Ashen.2907:

I still dont see how legendary armor can be measured as more than a convenience item for me. The skins are atrocious and there is no prestige in an item that can be purchased for real world money….particularly as the only visible indication of its nature would be functionally deleted.

Obviously some will lime the skins and will use them…but no (to me) prestige for something that can be purchased with real money and which is gated by time and grind.

Technically, pretty much anything can be bought with real-world money. Does it mean there’s no prestige to be had at all in this world? No. Regardless, it doesn’t make the item any more practical. I’m sure there are players which will use it as convenience item, and I’m also sure they are a very small minority. For the rest, it’s just vanity.

It does mean, in my opinion, that there is very little prestige to be had in gw2.

Yet there’s an awful lot of complaints about a prestige item.

It is extremely unlikely for the spec to restrict us in two attunements only. There are way too many traits which require you to be in a specific attunement. Locking out two attunements, you get 2 choices for the trait lines:
a) Lock out the trait lines as a whole as well.
b) Leave them as they are, meaning players are free to pick a trait which will never trigger.
Both are pretty terrible.

Rauderi.8706:

Where’s the immersion in killing Mordremoth (spoilers!) and then having his dead face still somehow murder everyone on the map 20 minutes later?

It’s not Mordremoth himself, it’s one of its avatars. And I usually leave the instance before the next reset, so immersion has always been there for me.

Lite Ning Strike.5203:

This map will get less populated as other areas open and the new expansion opens.

Ironic that you bring the topic, since you’re basically asking for one less reason to actually play the map. But no, it won’t. Because of Crystalline Ore.

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Yes, go play Diablo 3 and leave us filthy casuals here to play something that’s actually fun because it’s not a mindless grind over the same items with 2 stat more.

Jski.6180:

I was under the impression that you have 2 fusion atuments and that what your swapping in-between.

If its realty is just 2 attunements and that it ele going to realty need some major power and cdr added to its effects. It may cause core ele to comply disappear all together too.

I was talking about normal attunement switching. You still have your 4 attunements to switch to, but you have a mechanic that takes note of your last attunement, the one you were before switching to your current one.

Remember, this is all speculation based on a single skillbar shot. But in my opinion this would be among the easiest and most sensible approaches. Locking out two attunements permanently has huge problems, your traits becoming irrelevant among them. But just like Tempest introduced a new mechanic without changing the way the core ele does, the new spec will most likely do the same.

Nikkinella.8254:

Feanor.2358:

Nikkinella.8254:

The same was said of tempest and look how well that turned out for us.

Looking… uhm… pretty well, actually. The core mechanic is great. The traits are all over the place, in my opinion to make it usable in PvP. But even as it is, even after the number of nerfs to this and that, the line is still pretty great for PvE.

Again, you talk about pve. For future reference, I don’t do pve so when I talk about balance and class issues, its only related to WvW. And in that regard, no tempest is terrible. Ele is pretty much entirely replaced by other classes in wvw. Its the weakest class for roaming now, in smallscale fights, it is replaced by druid. In large scale fights, its replaced by ventari rev as far as support goes, and replaced by necro as far as a dps role goes. So in wvw, tempest was a massive failure.

For future reference, this is a game. I’m only concerned with what is fun. And Tempest definitely is.

As for WvW – I couldn’t care less about roaming and small fights. It’s just a less fair and balanced PvP. The potential of this game mode is large-scale combat. Where I still play Tempest successfully.

That’s not to say I’m against balancing changes in WvW. I just don’t really care. Balancing only concerns me in PvE, in WvW the squads are too large for the individual contribution to be really important. Sure, it’s important for roaming, but then again, I don’t care about this particular aspect.

Ashen.2907:

I still dont see how legendary armor can be measured as more than a convenience item for me. The skins are atrocious and there is no prestige in an item that can be purchased for real world money….particularly as the only visible indication of its nature would be functionally deleted.

Obviously some will lime the skins and will use them…but no (to me) prestige for something that can be purchased with real money and which is gated by time and grind.

Technically, pretty much anything can be bought with real-world money. Does it mean there’s no prestige to be had at all in this world? No. Regardless, it doesn’t make the item any more practical. I’m sure there are players which will use it as convenience item, and I’m also sure they are a very small minority. For the rest, it’s just vanity.

Ashen.2907:

Feanor.2358:

Do they? Or are they just looking for a reason to justify their position? Not necessarily consciously, mind you.

Well, speaking just for myself, I do. I would love to have more space available and to have less hassle in playing around with different builds.

Speaking for myself, I thought the same, back when I did my first legendary. But in the end I’ve stat-selected it very rarely. In the long run, I’m definitely behind on money because of that, and it never really made any difference on space. In hindsight, I could have simply stat-swapped ascended weapons to the exact same effect, at a fraction of the price.

That’s the thing though – we seek reasons to justify our choices and our desires. We usually find something that sounds reasonable and stick with it. But very often it isn’t the actual reason behind the choice/desire in question.

Ask yourself, honesty – do you really think you’d use the functionality often enough to justify the much higher price of the legendary armor? And following, do you think everyone who’s vocal about the legendary armor would? I don’t.

Ashen.2907:

I fully supported the idea of raids getting the FIRST set, willing to wait to see when options were added for WvW or even, possibly, sPvP…but the idea that an entire tier’s functionality is gated in this manner, permanently? This is concerning to me.

That’s another thing. Adding a second set is perfectly fine by me (but it’s ultimately up to ANet).

Xenon.4537:

1. Why are sigils so different from runes economically?

The major difference I see is in the number of owners of legendary armor vs weapons. The armor is harder to get, hence ANet expect a much smaller number of players and therefore a much smaller impact on the economy.

Do they? Or are they just looking for a reason to justify their position? Not necessarily consciously, mind you.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

Like it has been told countless time, the comparison is simply not valid nor reasonable in the context. This is the only option in existence to get that tier of armor and they wont produce anymore.

Actually it is both reasonable and valid. There is no second Ad Infinitum as well. The Ascension is NOT the same item. Yes, they are both backpacks. Yes, they are both stat-selectable. But that’s not everything they are. Not even close.

By the way, the argument about stat-selection is what’s actually blown out of proportion. I very rarely stat-select my gear. It is simply too much of a hassle for half the desired effect, at best. Even with free rune-swapping, it is still something rarely done, as I’d need to also change my build, trinkets and whatnot.

People don’t really care about the functionality that much. They want the exclusivity and they deceive themselves because “functionality should be equal for all” is easier to accept than “I’m envious”.

Jski.6180:

Feanor.2358:

Jski.6180:

How else can you do duel elements then?

Like I said – make the new spec mechanic “remember” your previous attunement and work based on the combination of the two. So if you’re in Fire and switch to Air all ele stuff would work as if you’re in Air, while all the new stuff would work for Air/Fire.

I’d say this is the most sensible approach, from design, implementation and balancing points of view.

The problem would be if you went air fire what happens if you run the training -20% cdr for each and +power + precision how dose that work? Would it be a full -40% cdr and you get both of the + effects? I think if they make it so fire air would make the fire line have effects but not the air but if you went air fire air line would have the effect not the fire. There are problem with this. The only sure thing that will work to make this not comply op would be to nerf the when your in this atument effects. Effectively nerfing the core ele even more.

Existing effects (in core trait lines) apply to your current attunement. So if you went Air → Fire you’d lose the extra precision (since you’re no longer in Air attunement, it only affects your new mechanics) and you’d get cdr/might/whatever as if you’re in Fire, just like before.

Jski.6180:

How else can you do duel elements then?

Like I said – make the new spec mechanic “remember” your previous attunement and work based on the combination of the two. So if you’re in Fire and switch to Air all ele stuff would work as if you’re in Air, while all the new stuff would work for Air/Fire.

I’d say this is the most sensible approach, from design, implementation and balancing points of view.

Astralporing.1957:

Titles, guild decorations, and maybe minis are a good place for a trophy. Armor skins aren’t.

Says who? Everything can be a trophy. It’s not about the object, it’s about its exclusivity.

Astralporing.1957:

Skins are for aestethics. If you are wearing them for any other reason, it is just an ego-booster.

Except it’s not just black and white. There’s always some of both. For instance, Ferrari make great cars. Truly great pieces of art when it comes to driving experience. But you cannot possibly drive one without your ego being affected. There are no such people living on this planet. Exclusivity simply has this effect on the mind. We like things that makes us feel special. Every one of us.

Your last point, about the associated functionality, has another issue. It would effectively remove runes from the economy, they’ll become just another Resonating Slivers. While I don’t mind everyone getting access to the same perk, I can understand ANet being reluctant to do it.

It’s not an attempt to boost my ego. Perhaps you can best think of it as a trophy. A reminder for a long and hard effort. Only valuable because of what it signifies. You could argue it will still be a reminder if there were an alternative way of getting it, but it’s just not the same. Like I said, if they did that, these items would be no different than any gemstore skin on sale, only with a different colour on their names.

Astralporing.1957:

Well, yeah, every item in the game should have at least 2-3 different (preferably significantly different) acquisition options, preferably with one of them being through mainstream content, and/or one requiring dipping into a niche content, but not heavily investing in it. Obviously, acquisition options through heavy investment in specific part of the content should be the fastest, while other methods can take longer.

In such a situation, if one dislikes all of the choices, they also likely dislike the whole game anyway, so we do not have to worry about that.

And i don’t see how it would rob anyone of anything, unless their sense of achievement is based not on them achieving something, but on other players not having shinies.

See last paragraph here

Lite Ning Strike.5203:

I’m aware of how it currently works, but it could easily be started by clicking the “new NPC added” to start the map event….

So effectively you want to postpone the map reset, giving the players the control over the exact moment it happens. Now first, I find it very likely this option to have pretty much the same result in regards to your issue. Surely someone will click it, pretty much as the map starts. You can’t rely on everyone in the map to act according to your wishes.

Second, players get to see the reset. It breaks the immersion. It can be seriously annoying. Imagine you’re communing with a HP in one of the towers when suddenly the boss spawns right on you. Or a whole throng of mobs appear out of thin air.

Finally, it’s really a non-issue. Just play the meta event. It’s fun. There’s no need to brainstorm “solutions” which only work in very specific scenarios and introduce a lot more problems than they solve.

P.S. And seriously, this is the domain of an elder dragon. The most dangerous place in the whole expansion. You really ask to be able to walk around safely around it? Where’s the immersion in that?

Shortage.5427:

armaduras.8972:

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

Yes but you also push away the people who wants this stuff. From my 60 in game friends and 30 followers only 3-4 are online. Also games such as BDO and BnS seem to have stolen lot’s of people from GW2 because it felt a “Waste of time” or rather “Too casual for me”. The more you restrict the people the easier the get bored.

Also it’s a MMORPG game. There is no MMORPG without some type of grinding or gear progression. It was fun till i reached 1600 hours and completed everything.

It all goes back in the box, and move on a diffrent game?

To be honest i saw the new expansion leak and it was amazing. But now i am wondering if it’s worth that much.

Now consider your own statement that there is no other MMO without gear grind. Maybe GW2 is specifically targeted at players who don’t like to be forced into gear grind? You’re basically demanding the only game made for them to become like every other game, effectively forcing them to leave the MMO scene altogether. Strikes me as kind of selfish position.

Astralporing.1957:

If the game offers only bad choices, then the end result is a net negative, because, regardless of the option the player takes, his or her joy in playing the game will get diminished.

Following this logic, you should make every item in the game freely accessible. Because for each aspect of the game you can surely find a player who dislikes it. Now, this would be a net negative. Because you’d be robbing players at large of the sense of reward and achievement.

Lite Ning Strike.5203:

I agree with you and the original poster. The map should be available 100% for all Waypoints. POI’s, Hero Challenges, and Masteries even when the Meta is not going on. Shut the gates “if” the event is started leave the others alone for mapping and achievements.

The meta starts immediately with the reset of the map.

Ohoni.6057:

But again, any mechanism that “succeeds” at getting a player to become an active player in a mode which they do not enjoy, may have succeeded at that single task, but it has failed the player in question, and failed the game as a whole, because it has led to a net negative experience.

It can’t be a net negative. Nobody’s forcing your own choices. If you choose to play something you dislike to obtain something you like, it means you like the objective more than you dislike the means. If you don’t, then you simply forgo the objective. Just like I’m not getting The Ascension, because I don’t like PvP and I’m not playing it. In either case, you’re making your own choice, based on your own preferences, leading to the subjectively better outcome. Unless you’re deliberately choosing otherwise just to feel more miserable. But this, again, is your own choice.

Ohoni.6057:

Nobody ends up in a worse state. Everybody wins.

Except not. Making an item universally accessible makes it meaningless. When an item is bound to a specific game mode in the manner they are, owning this item signifies effort and dedication. Losing all this devalues the items greatly. Better make it a gemstore item and sell it.

Hopefully we won’t get gear progression. The lack of power grind seen in other games is one of the best features in GW2. There’s the fashion grind, which offers long-term goals in the game, lets you pick your own goals and isn’t mandatory.

I’ve had the ruby node for a lot more time. Plus, I played the map a lot when it came out. In any case, it doesn’t make sense one item to be so effortlessly converted and another to be so annoying.

Right, story instances in a game I play being at least interesting mechanically isn’t something I should be concerned about? Are you serious?

Try salvaging two stacks. Then compare with eating two stacks of winterberries.

Ohoni.6057:

I agree, it’s ok that they take time. My point is, any give reward should EITHER:

1. Take a long time to earn, involving a significant investment of player time and skill.

OR

2. Only be available in a specific portion of the game, which players may or may not enjoy.

Never both at once, because getting players to try new things has value, but getting players to stick with things that they are not enjoying, is a negative play experience and should be avoided whenever possible

I already disagreed with this. I’ve given reasons. Now I’ll give you an existing example as well – Ad Infinitum. You cannot get this item without both putting significant time and effort and putting them in a specific part of the game. And it’s fine. These items are meant to be an incentive not just to try a mode, but to become an active player in this mode. And they succeed at this, by the way.

Kycoo Grim.9463:

funny thing, Necro is still the go-to for CM 100 in Fractals or most people.

Unless these people do not LFG, my observations do not comply with your statement. The go-to comp is the power meta comp. 4N1D groups are safer, sure, but I don’t see as many people using it as before. And especially not on level 100 CM.

We seem to have reached an impasse. I don’t know what games are you playing. In the ARPGs I play, every boss can and will kill you if you’re not familiar with the game mechanics. GW2 bosses aren’t an outlier in terms of difficulty. They are more or less the same difficulty I find on any boss in any ARPG. Some harder, some easier. Just like in any other game.

ezd.6359:

It was bad idea make them crafting materials from first place. Who really use them for crafting?

There are existing food recipes which use berries. I imagine it was the logical choice to make all of them crafting mats.

Ohoni.6057:

That’s faulty reasoning, but the game can’t be held accountable to that flawed logic.

Maybe so. But there’s another simple fact – no game is balanced in the way you’re envisioning. Pretty much all of them are balanced the way I described. Ever wondered why?

Again, I have no problem with berries. However, the rubies/wood/shards (which I get on a daily basis from my home instance, hardly spending any time at all) are a problem. Yeah, I could choose to not harvest these nodes, but then I would feel disappointed of buying them at the first place. In any case it’s a bad experience. And a one trivially fixed. So I really see no reason advocating against it. But if you do have a reason why adding a vendor to convert them would be bad for the game – I’d like to hear it.

Astralporing.1957:

When i move around in core Tyria, i see a lot of people with visible levels instead of mastery points.

Wouldn’t that be the case if you’re choosing to level an alt the old-fashioned way? I don’t really know, I’ve tomed all my alts. But I know for sure there are players who enjoy levelling.

Ohoni.6057:

But again, you conflate “trying new things” with "spending hundreds of hours in them. The two have nothing to do with each other. We agree that there is merit in rewarding player for “trying new things,” but “trying” is the work of only a few hours, not hundreds. If a player does try a new thing, and definitely does not enjoy it, then the game should respect that choice, and should allow him to return to doing something else, rather than punishing him by permanently withholding the desired reward.

You’re talking about the ultimate rewards in this game. Legendaries – all of them, not just the armor – all take lots of time and effort to complete. And that’s fine. They give long-term goals. If you want them, you have a reason to keep playing the game. It is exactly what has kept me in the game.

Furthermore, few hours aren’t nearly enough to get a proper feel of a game mode. Few hours into raiding get you nowhere. You’ve only seen a glimpse of the potential this mode has. And you likely haven’t appreciated it. If the game only required you to do that, it would be full of players who thought raiding is disappointing “because I’ve done it all and it’s meh”. The truth is, you need a lot more to learn the fights and the mechanics and it is only after you’ve learned these the raids become truly rewarding.

Paul Ella.2037:

What would you prefer to see – floating back-pieces or some level of clipping with the armor?

Floating backpiece. No clipping for me, thank you very much. The theme of the light armor is magical, so a floating backpiece kind of fits thematically. Clipping just breaks immersion, period.

Ohoni.6057:

Anyway, I believe that my suggestion would be interesting for as large a part of the playerbase as possible. Those who aren’t looking for a challenge can just go through it normally, and those who do want a challenge can activate the challenge mote and receive one. How is that not everyone winning?

You can believe anything you want, it doesn’t make it true. I personally would never bother doing a challenge for a mission I originally found boring. And there’s pretty simple logic behind that: If the original content was so easy to be boring, I don’t expect a tweaked-up version to be actually challenging.

Furthermore, it would have ruined my experience and immersion already, so I’d feel disappointed at the content and won’t be willing to revisit it.

So no, it’s not everyone winning. It’s the players who just came into the game and don’t yet know its mechanics who are winning. Everyone else is losing, hard.

Faaris.8013:

ArchonWing.9480:

Considering 250 would just purchase a single item, it is not really something that material storage would make a big difference on. I have 750 for storage, and it’s filling up.

What are you waiting for, just spend the berries/rubies/shards…

I don’t need any more ascended trinkets right now. All my alts have full sets. I’d rather consume them for UM, because I can then spent the UM on T6 crafting mats I need for legendaries. But then, this works with berries and it’s PITA with rubies/shards/wood. There needs to be a vendor which converts the non-consumable ones to UM.

OriOri.8724:

So, your idea of casual play is to go from 1 farm to another, to another, to another?

That’s not what casual players do.

OK, so let me give you yet another perspective.

A full cycle of login rewards takes 28 days to complete and gives, among other things, the following:

• 20 Mystic Coins (currently worth ~1g each)
• 35 Laurels, with an option for extra 20 from Chest of Loyalty. These can be converted to gold by purchasing bags of crafting materials at any laurel vendor, at roughly 1g per laurel final rate.

Doing just the dailies (2g per day) on top of that and ignoring any materials you gain in the process, you can make 20 + 55 + 2×28 = 131g per 28 days. So the game gives you 4.67g per day for basically doing nothing.

I think even the casual players do more than just dailies. No matter what you do, you get loot (which can be salvaged and sold), karma and liquid gold. It is perfectly possible to get 100g in less than 10 days with casual play. If you’re deliberately choosing not to, I fail to see any reason to complain. You’re complaining about your own choices. Only one person has the power to change these, you know…

Nikkinella.8254:

The same was said of tempest and look how well that turned out for us.

Looking… uhm… pretty well, actually. The core mechanic is great. The traits are all over the place, in my opinion to make it usable in PvP. But even as it is, even after the number of nerfs to this and that, the line is still pretty great for PvE.

Azel.4786:

Yes nothing in the spec fits the theme of a “Tempest” (which is defined as a “violent windstorm”). Just check WoodenPotatoes video on it.

I disagree, the core mechanic of the spec fits perfectly.

Azel.4786:

ANET doesn’t want to admit it, but most likely Tempest was going to be a damage dealer spec that would focus on DPS, but somewhere along the lines people thought that making a healbot/support class would be better.

I just said that, along with a reason for it.

Azel.4786:

But then they realized that a pure support class would be awful for the new content as it would not be able to explore the new content without clinging on another ally – so they haphazardly gave it DPS and from then it just became a mess and without time or ideas to fix it they shipped it off hoping it would be passable.

I disagree here again. First off, we have an elite spec that’s pure support – the Druid. And it has been meta pretty much since it was released. There is no problem in creating pure support specs.

Second, how can you think the DPS came as an afterthought? The DPS in Tempest come from it’s core mechanic. This isn’t something you add in the last moment. It’s something you start with. The DPS was always there, it’s the support that got patched in.

Jski.6180:

Wolfric.9380:

Tempest might not be popular from playstyle and ele ist more difficult then other classes but it´s not garbage and i enjoy it.

That the thing they made it op like most of the elite spec that the only reason why its not garbage. They gave tempest too much dmg when it should be nearly a pure tankly support class. They effectually killed the core class by making a ele +1 out of tempest. There is nothing specialization about tempest.

That’s true for most of the elite specs. And honestly, I find zero reason thematically for Tempest to be tanky/supporty spec. Everything in the name screams “maximum damage”. Same for the chosen name of the mechanic, by the way. Overload? Dangerous and destructive. Definitely not supportive or protective.

The support potential exists, of course. But it has always felt to me like something artificially strapped onto the specialization rather than a natural part of it. Maybe somewhere along the way of creating it the devs realized they want the class to have some application in PvP and the mode simply doesn’t work with full glass builds.

I find it very unlikely for them to choose an approach where you can get two procs of different elements at once. It would be a nightmare to balance and it would make the new spec mandatory.

Ohoni.6057:

Exactly, which is why that should never be your goal. You can never make the fight “interesting for everyone,” period. So what you should do is make the default fight completable by everyone, and then for players that wouldn’t find that terribly interesting, you offer optional challenge mote versions that are more challenging.

And the effect is you bore 95% of your players to death and they never bother repeating it. Nonsense. What your goal should be is to make it interesting for as large part of your playerbase as possible. Which I think they have.

Alga.6498:

It’s one of OUR gods. We just can’t kill our god who has been a blessing for the humans for over 250 years and even more! (GW1~ years aswell)

You mean, a god who has not been anything, let alone a blessing, for the past 250 years? The Six were gone, remember. Human characters on Tyria do not have a special reason to worship them. Yeah, they’ve been around some time ago. But they no longer are. Now all of a sudden one of them appears under very suspicious circumstances. He destroyed a bloodstone, lied to your face and seems intent to do something you have every reason to believe would end up as a planetary-scale disaster. And you want to just bow and follow in blind faith?

I question the choice of Balthazar for the role, but your line of attack simply doesn’t hold.

Cyninja.2954:

1.) Do you know how Balthazar lost his power?

2.) Do you know exactly how weakened Balthazar was before he absorbed part of the bloodstone explosion? Would he have been in danger of getting killed?

3.) How would the other races have reacted? Would the Charr have been overjoyed about a human god returning? Would a Norn who wanted his name forever told in an epic story challenge Balthazar?

4.) How did the Sylvari react when their creator and essentially god appeared? Might a faction of the humans reacte in a similar way?

5.) What about the powers that oppose Balthazar? Gods have enemies and usually those enemys are of a same epic proportion. How useful would have been an entire continent of humans following you when another god being shows up and wipes them all away?

I don’t know, somehow I feel these obvious questions that come to mind very well explain why someone in Balthazars position might want to slowly and covertly repower himself. It’s not always the smartest move to go:“I am your depowered god, bow to me and let me regain my strength!” until a time where you can be sure you don’t get wiped off the face of Tyria.

There’s nothing pointing toward (1) being relevant. Sure, it might be, but it’s just an assumption.

(2) is valid until the explosion of the bloodstone. It doesn’t explain why he would keep his disguise up.

(3) I can’t imagine the charr being overjoyed my a mursaat appearance either. And he’s leading a significant part of the White Mantle. Norn teenagers may dream about challenging a god, but would surely be stopped by their elders who wouldn’t want to risk a war for someone’s silly dreams.

(4) Yeah. The White Mantle themselves, most likely.

(5) Right. Making the spectacular appearance and consuming a bloodstone worth of power should totally go unnoticed.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Besides, it’d be very, very hard to replace royalty who’s being watched on a near 24/7 basis.

For the goddess of illusions? We must have very different understanding of the word “hard”.

ezd.6359:

Last patch
Blood Rubies, Jade Shards, Petrified Wood, and Winterberries have been added to material storage.

1 material storage slot = same situation as before just saves 4 slots in my bank. I have 3 stacks of rubies for example.

1) Need to put currencies to account wallet.

2) Let vendors sell unbound magic for these currencies.

Honestly, I don’t care where they put them. I can live with having a stockpile of 500 in the bank. As long as they introduce a more sensible way of converting these to UM. Berries are fine, but the salvageable ones are borderline unusable.