Guild Wars 2

I just want to point out that none of the changes in WvW have anything to do with HoT. What HoT brought to WvW, and still does, was huge grind in PvE to get new elite specs, gear and guild hall up for WvW. They later provided some way to get those same things from WvW. Yet, overall development of WvW is completely independent from HoT. You can even say the overall effect of HoT on WvW was so negative, developers finally HAD TO start working on the gamemode.

Same way, I do not think PoF will itself bring huge changes to the WvW beside new elite specs and new gear.

Sorry, my knowledge of raids and high level fractals is 0, as I never done those. In WvW Guardians are still backbone of every group while Warriors have disappeared (could be just the setup for my WvW group).

From the class preview weekend the feeling I got was that new elites are designed more to specific role. They are not just better at everything like HoT elites were, making anything released before instantly useless. Some are clearly good at 1v1, while others are great supporting the group, and some are just great fun at general PvE in open world.

In that sense new elites are good at making PoF alternative to the HoT content, and not simple upgrade you HAVE TO grind through again. For many classes there will be situation where HoT elite remains “better”, while in other areas of the game PoF elite has clear benefits.

While some new elites were instantly accessible and provided quick fun (Holo, Spellbreaker, Deadeye), others had mechanics that I feel were not very well explained. Scourge, and the relation of Sand Shades with Death Shroud was just skipped causing much confusion. Same way Mirage, and the Mirage Cloak + Ambush mechanics were very difficult to understand.

Well, HoT did not only bring 1 new class, but also new elite spec for every class, which is probably must by now. Scrapper, Druid, Chrono, Tempest etcetc are dominating the game now. Very few classes, if any, is able to compete with new elites using core specs only.

The problem with Scourge, I feel, is that some of the mechanics it uses are not explained at all. Many players looked at the shades and just thought “cool” and then started to count damage numbers, then posted quickly about how useless Scourge is.

Yet, others consider it most OP class for WvW, that would totally change every group fight, and if not heavily nerfed will rule the WvW scene for years. There are traits and skills that pop bonuses one after other endlessly.

As I said, I feel the class needs more time. Players need to learn how to play it and the class mechanics need to be explained better. The short weekend just was not enough.

There was no hint of any HoT exclusive masteries on the PoF preview area. No ley lines, no jumping mushrooms, no lava tubes or Itzel poison. The gliding works just like in core Tyria – you can climb on the high spot and glide down but that is all.

Developers have said it many times that PoF is independent from HoT and owning HoT gives you no benefits in the PoF areas.

From sticky on top of the forum:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Policy-3rd-Party-Programs-Multi-Boxing-Macros

Macros
Guild Wars 2 players are permitted to use macros as long as the macros are programmed with a 1 key for 1 function protocol.
This means that if you program a macro, it must require one keystroke per action. You may not program a single key to perform multiple functions.
For example, if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok. If you Press A and it casts multiple spells, you’re not ok.
You cannot program a macro to perform the same or multiple actions on more than one account at a time.
You cannot program an “auto-clicker” macro that, for instance, opens chests while you play elsewhere.

You do not have to buy HoT if you just want PoF.

Looks fine to me. I have GTX 1050 Ti, and GW2 is not specially demanding game. Once the zergs fight in WvW, everyone gets lag. You can aslo tune down video settings if things feel slow.

ghost.6780:

So this weekend in WvW has been an interesting one. It has been almost entirely dominated by by the spell breaker warriors, and the winds of disenchantment spell. I reported the graphical display bug of this in a separate post, so in this one I just wanted to give some feedback on why exactly this skill would end up defining WvW around itself if it is not heavily tuned down.

Good post, and I totally agree.

Does not matter that the skill has long cast time and long recharge time. Too many targets, too short interval, too long duration, too big radius, blocks missiles (seriously? why?), is combo field and is unblockable.

Reminds me of Coalescence of Ruin when HoT was released.

I also would like to point out how much more screen effects every new elite brings. Have developers actually thought about what happens when 2 zergs fights? It is pretty in 1v1 fight, but it it starts to break the game in large fights.

Gliding was pretty much only part of HoT I like.

When you say PvE, what exactly do you have in mind? General open world exploring mostly solo? Large scale meta events? Running fractals and raids?

The range on rifle is good and since many fights rely on range, rifle feels better compared to shortbow. Then again, bigger fights usually involve constant movement, and deadeye needs to stay on one spot for best damage.

Release date is only month away. Once they implement changes based on feedback these 2 preview weekends provided, there just is no time left for another round.

Fairly sure the last item is suppose to be 5 Deldrimor Steel Greatsword Hilts:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Art_of_Forging:_Nightsword_Hilt_Edition

Adenin.5973:

Is this new elite spec better than the something I could do with the core specs?

Thing is, there is no universal measure of one spec being “better” or “worse”. Some specs are built for solo play, others for groups. Some are meant to be dps, some support. Some will shine in PvE and others in PvP. And some are sort of good for everything but not best at any.

Saying spec is “better” would first require everyone to play exactly same content in exactly same way. Which is not true. Everyone plays the game differently, some only play solo, some with few friends and some only do large scale meta events. Not every new elite spec is, or even should be, able to shine at everything.

But it depends on why you even play. Do you want to get all your characters to level 80 as quick as possible? Do you want to join pvP? WvW? Do you want to do raids?

Because different people play for different reasons. It took me for example over a year to get my first character to level 80. Because i really enjoy the process, I like exploring low level maps (and I hate HoT maps, I still do, even years after release, every time I have to go there). I like doing hearts and doing little quests around. I do not play in PvP so I actually do not care if my character has “the best” build or is loaded with legendary gear (got 0 of those).

But for others some completely different part of the game is their reason. Some only play in WvW. Some only do high level fractals or raids with their guild. Some just like to gather and show off weapon skins.

Does it even bothers you that you are not leveling fast enough? Do you actually have fun when doing something in the game?

I tested every new elite during the preview. Some are very strong and I like a lot. Some are slightly underwhelming atm, but it is to be expected after testing for very little time. There are some I would personally not play yet, mostly because they do not feel very well suited for the way I play.

Lot’s of players complaining are those who have been used to exact same class and build for last 2 years, and now they feel confused and annoyed. None of the new elites is direct upgrade from HoT elite or core class, they are different and learning to play them well may take time.

Haishao.6851:

Dueling is not PKing.

Then do it in PvP.

The ones asking for this really do not want to understand that even spamming other players with your “let’s duel” mesages, is form of bullying. YOU are prepared, ready to fight, while other player is commonly NOT. So, you have the advantage, all the boosts, foods, specially crafted gear for duel and prepared skill rotation.

Even if you add auto-decline option, the bullies will get new reason to go around and harass other players – too scared to duel! Haha!

Again, for fair fight you got PvP. You only want to do it in PvE because you are not able to win fights with fair system, so you want unfair fights. Or to make it more clear, again, you want to fight WHEN and WHERE you are ready, not when and where both are ready.

Pifil.5193:

Don’t really see why people would want to duel using PvE builds. Surely it makes more sense to go to WvW or PvP where you have builds that are actually designed for PvP.

Those who ask for this are the players who enjoy killing level 1 noobs with their fully ascended max level character, and then boast about it. Basically, bullies.

You are not required to finish previous stories to access PoF. Finishing them helps to understand what is happening but you are able to freely swap between several stories whenever you want. You can play one episode from personal story, then swap to Living World 1 and do one episdoe there, then switch to HoT (if you own it) and finish one episode. It is expected PoF will be same but we can only be completely sure when it gets released.

I lost connection once last night when everyone swarmed into game to test new elites, but other then that I have not felt any lag.

You may want to state which servers you use (NA or EU) and where are you playing from.

It depends if you are fighting single enemy or large group of enemies. In WvW zerg vs zerg where loads of enemies die around you, it is almost quaranteed to proc.

hugo.4705:

Engineer is the profession with the less possibilities of weapons, only 6 can be used whereas the better is gardian or warrior with 13.

The whole idea of Engineer class is the ability to equip different weapon kits that provide completely new skills unavailable for other classes. Bombs, grenades, flamethrower etc are all basically extra weapons, you just put them into utility slot.

Shirlias.8104:

Twitchers ( sorry, i forgot to link )

https://www.twitch.tv/sindrenerr

https://www.twitch.tv/phantaram

ah…

Yes, from my short test, Holosmith was very strong. I am almost certain there will be nerf before release of PoF.

Kidel.2057:

4 buttons (save 1/2, load 1/2) anywhere in the character UI would be enough,

Why exactly 2 builds? Each class is able to easily have 3-4 playable builds for different types of situations. If you already provide the build swapping feature there is no reason to limit number of builds you can save and load.

So, how exactly would swapping gear between builds work? Do you need 2 sets of every piece equipped all the time? What if some parts of the gear are same and some are different? If they use same items, it is extremely easy to swap out some item for new while in other gear tab, and forget it was essential for whatever build was hidden.

I don’t really see problems with having traits and skills saved as build and swapped easily.

What are sindrenerr and phantaram?

I have probably played Necro way too much to be able swap into Scourge comfortably after 20 minutes of testing. Everything felt wrong somehow. I guess it is mostly me, and I will try again later.

As I understand it, Scourge has very little point in PvE. Whole elite is built around the idea that enemy has many-many boons. Monsters in PvE rarely do, and the bosses are probably immune to anything like this. So, it would sound perhaps like better spec for PvP or WvW. Sadly, I have never done any PvP and not been in WvW latley either.

81072 is the correct build. Are you still unable to create demo characters?

I honestly doubt there is point gearing up now, just when PoF is coming next month. We have no idea how new alites or new stats will change the game.

Mounts are available in Tyria. There is no need to change anything about Tyria maps or Waypoints because mounts are not replacing other means of transportation. They are just like gliding, you can use it in Tyria if you want, but it does not matter if you do not have it.

I still don’t understand what forces people who hate world completion so much do it over and over again. Just don’t. It is completely optional part of the game and you are not forced to do it.

SmirkDog.3160:

Isn’t this part of the forums supposed to be players helping players? I don’t feel very helped right now, I just feel talked down to.

Nobody is talking you down, the very first reply you got was spot on – we don’t know yet. Which you took as personal insult and started to complain about not getting helpful enough replies…. Do you think you arguing over quality of replies is going to get you better replies?

As already replied, there is new expansion coming next month. Everything will probably change, so trying to build up into current meta is not recommended.

Guardian is one of my favourite classes in open world, don’t see why you would have problems with playing it. In WvW it depends much about your role, and many WvW guilds have specific classes/builds you have to follow.

Dakurus Sunfire.9157:

Is animating it too expensive for their budget or something?

Yes. I am fairly sure it was brought up when first content without cutscenes launched.

Khisanth.2948:

Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Once you know how it goes it should be much easier to go through.

Maybe the first play you just want to win, but next attempts are about getting achievements.

dronikal.8150:

Many will argue that you do not need world completion on your character to be functional but lets be real it is annoying to want to go somewhere and not have the WP.

If you just want the waypoints then you can run very quickly through every map. It takes only minutes. There is no need to finish every Heart and find every Poi just to get access to waypoint.

There is already special zone for players who want to duel It is called PvP. There is also arena in the Guild Hall. What would be the purpose of another new “zone” where players can go and fight each other?

I am not even trying to argue you about that this could improve gameplay for old zones

Just saying that large games developed over many years with multiple patches, expansions and changes, all become sort of mess in the end. People who originally developed the zones, wrote the code and created the developer tools may have left the company long ago. There are probably very little people in the Anet who have nothing better to do then to go over old content and apply small improvements.

Yes, the game changed over the years but much of the starter zones has not. They are not perfect, but personally, I enjoyed low level zones a lot, and did not find anything truely wrong there.

Sorry, I do not know any way to look at the dye options on outfits you do not own yet. I only got 1 outfit – Royal Guard Outfit and it has 4 areas to dye. This obviously does not mean every other outfit can be dyed too.

SmirkDog.3160:

Okay that’s great but I didn’t ask for advice on when to start doing things. What I did want to know was what the rune does, if anyone knows about it yet. That way I can decide if I should wait for it or not.

Nobody knows exactly until the PoF is released. You can not make it until PoF is released and you can not decide if it is any good until PoF is released.

kazaa.9140:

Best way to make some gold?

Depends. Do you own HoT or not? Do you play many hours at exact time or few short plays randomly? Do you mind farming same ingredients over and over every day or just want to have fun?

They still provide the game in 4 different languages, so every text going into the game has to be translated and checked over 4 times.

Thing is, I doubt devs want to touch these old quests for simple reason – nobody really knows anymore how the parts of the game were created 5 years ago. You start to change things, and you end up with weird bugs. If it works, leave it, and create new content instead.

There is not good solution to high level instanced boss fights. These should be challenging because people who do them are really only looking for the challenge, so there will be dps check and healing check and utility check. Since classes are not balanced you are pretty much required to bring in best dps, best healer and best utility or the whole thing will fail and group gets nothing out of the hours spent.

One thing to do would make those fights shorter. People avoid any chance of weird classes/builds because it takes bloody long time and is painful to restart. If the whole thing would be fun little battle, lasting 5-10 minutes max you would get more people willing to just “ah, let’s try it”.

Other way to actually move away from class/build-specific groups is to make dps/healing of each player way less important and build whole fight around the movement and use of environment. Move here or you die, glide or you die, use this kitten-gun-attached-to-the-submarine – none of these actions require specific class or build. Devs use these too, but only to add extra layer of difficulty ON TOP of usual dps check and healing check. They just need to reduce damage you do with normal skills/attacks and also reduce damage you take during the fight.

Finally, you can build non-class and non-build requirement into boss fight by not allowing any classes or equipment. Everyone entering the instance will get pre-defined skills and equipment so everyone starts with equal challenge. However, I imagine this to be extremely unpopular in a game where showing off equipment is pretty much only reason to keep playing.

Or they could just stop making these long instances with multiple bosses and hours of dialogue at the start. Make each boss fight/achievement thingy separate instance that can be played through faster, and also move all the NPC talk to end of the fight so if you fail you can quickly jump out and restart.

Ashantara.8731:

Harvestr.6052:

My question is what if I want to level a HoT elite spec, such as Chronomancer, but don’t wnat to play HoT zones? Can I just level it in PoF? I’m guessing yes, but would rather know than guess lol.

Yes, you can level it anywhere once you have unlocked it by buying the expansion.

Seeing there were elite-specific NPCs dotted around the PoF preview area, I guess new elites could become available through some quest you complete in PoF area.

1. Yes, you can train both Herald and Renegade for your Revenant. Obviously you have to buy PoF for Renegade elite, and you unlock it from PoF content. HoT expansion provides enough Hero Points for one elite and PoF will have enough hero Points for other elite spec.

There are actually much more HP in the game then required to unlock every single trait and skill. For example my character has over 300 HP unspent after unlocking everything core game and HoT has.

2. Black Lion Trading sales are usually timed. New items appear, old ones disappear. Sometimes old ones are brought back later. Sometimes not.

3. No. You can talk/whisper to them and ask what they are wearing. Many players are happy to show off their equipment but you can not see it yourself.

4. You can send him items and trade with him, but if you send/give him expansion-specific items he may not be able to do use them. You have to be more specific with your question.

Thundernoodle.4890:

I’m also hoping to find people who might be willing to drag my noob behind through a couple of dungeons, story mode – I want to experience the story properly, rather than go with the usual “gogogo lolz omg srsly rpers” groups and rush through it all! At least the first time around.

I never had much luck with dungeons. They used to be farmed a lot at one point, but then the game brought in fractals. And then fractals were farmed. And then they introduced raids instead. Now people who do this sort of content go to raids.

This also means very few players bother with dungeons as they offer almost no rewards worth of the time. Yet, most still have annoying mechanics, that you are suppose to “learn” by doing it many times, and dying many times (or by watching walkthroughs). But you can not learn them by yourself, at your own time and pace.

So there is huge gap between those pro-players who have run every dungeon hundreds of times and find these fights extremely easy by now, and those who have never done them before. The “running” is at many spots quite literal since dungeons feature bucketload of garbage mobs that nobody kills, just runs through, using stealth and weird shortcuts whenever possible to reach next boss fight.

I know the game say to go and do dungeon at certain level, but don’t. Get to level 80 first and grab some better gear, understand your skills better, then look around for some group to go into dungeon with. You are doing it for only fun anyway, might as well stay alive a bit longer.

zengara.8301:

Why are people doing it then? What is behind the logic of doing a somewhat boring and repeatable more than once or twice?

1. Those who like playing the game very rarely come to the forum to complain about it. There is most likely lots of players who simply like to do meta events.

2. If the meta is only way to gain very rare materials to unlock very rare skins or finish collection, then you do it even if you do not like it.