Guild Wars 2

Go with the one you like the theme off. With the elite spec i suspect both will be in a good place in the expansion.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.

Hey everyone,
First of all, welcome to all the new players. This is a guide on all you need to know to start your journey in GW2. It got some good responses on reddit so i thought why not share it here aswell. If you still have questions as a new player, or if you feel i forgot to add something as a veteran player, feel free to let me know and i will continue to expand this guide.

Megaservers:
Before we start, let me explain this. GW2 has megaserver technology, wich means your server basicly does not matter unless you want to play WvW. For example: Anyone on any server in EU can play with anyone else on EU in pve and pvp. If you are really interested in Wvw tough, it may be a good idea to check servers first, since once you pick a server, as F2P, you have to stick with it. Swapping servers is something only B2P players can do.
Gemstore:
When i am talking about the gemstore in this guide, please be aware that for free to play, these options are purely available trough buying gems for real money, while players who have bought GW2 can also trade in gold they farmed for gems. However the gemstore isn’t really needed, and it mostly provides cosmetic stuff, and quality of life items. You can play the entire core game without ever using it.

Character creation: There are 5 races to choose from, Charr, Norn, Sylvari, Asura and Human. If you would like to know more about the lore before choosing go to https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/ to make your choice. For more info on professions(classes): https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/

-In the gameplay aspect, how does picking a certain race matter?
It does somewhat matter. First of all each race gets a few skills and even elite skills to match their race, however these skills are PVE/WvW only and they are mostly considdered flavor, there, these aren’t relevant in comparison to class abilities. Big races also kind of have a harder time in jumping puzzles, due to size of the character model and the sometimes small area you have to work with your camera, but that hasn’t stopped me :p.

-What about playing with my friends?
The initial waypoint for each starter map is unlocked, so you can waypoint to your friend’s map starting right after the tutorial.

-Is your race changeable later on?
No not at this time, and it’s fairly unlikely this will be added due to how the personal story works.

-Can you change the way your character looks later on?
Yes, trough 2 gemstore items, the total makeover kit and the self hairstyle kit. Total makeover kits even let you swap gender.

-Can you change your profession(class) for a certain character?
No.

-There is one profession not selectable for me.
As it sais when you hover over this, you need to upgrade to heart of thorns, and then once it comes out you’ll be able to play that proffesion. The profesion is not available to anyone atm tough.

-After creating a character, i’m getting a bunch of choices, do these matter in any way? Most of them are there for flavor, the first one (page 5) is purely visual for example, however page 7 and 8 of character select are the 2 choices that do matter. Page 7 will be what your lvl 10 story is about, page 8 involves your lvl 20 story. You can see the number of the page in character creation on the bottom of the page, in the center. It is also important to note that any of the visual items(page 5), for example the mesmer masks, the necro facepaints and so on, can be hidden once you are ingame. The only exception is the ranger pet, but you will get the option to get new pets fairly ealry on in the game.

-Can i change my character’s name later on?
Yes you can, by using a gemstore item called the Name Change Contract.

Your first steps into the world of GW2:
After you finished Character creation, you will see a cinematic, that will introduce you to your race and your character. The cinematic will be affected slightly by what you have chosen in character select. Once this is over you will have a basic understanding of the story of your character and you will be trown into action. Talk to the npc with the green star above it’s head. The lvl 1-2 area is instanced and not accesable by other players unless they just started a character of that race themselves. It doesn’t take long to complete this instance. Just follow the story, defeat the epic boss as the end (don’t worry it’s not hard) and you will be going to the real GW2 world and unlock lvl 2. It may happen that you have to wait a few seconds to start the final boss, but in the mean time there will be an event (orange icon) going on wich you can do.

Once you’ve entered the world of GW2, some things may be unclear to you, but just follow the instructions you get, you can also equip the weapon you just recieved as a reward for the lvl 1 story by going to you inventory (I or the bag icon in the top left)and doubleclicking it, or rightclick and equip. Since you just reached lvl 2 you will also have a level reward, on the bottom right above your minimap.

Scouts:
What you’ll want to do next is talk to the scout near the spawning location. Scouts will always have this icon above their heads: !https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/6/69/Scout.png!
Basicly they tell you what there is to do in a certain area. If you are ever stuck during leveling not knowing what to do, the scouts are usually a good place to get started.

Waypoints:
The scout will show you several things on the map, but the first i’d like to talk about are waypoints. They have this icon: !https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/archive/d/d2/20130609222923%21Waypoint_%28map_icon%29.png!
A waypoint is basicly a fast travel point. You can travel to it from anywhere on the map as long as you are not in combat. It will cost a small amount of copper, but never in a way that would discourage you to use them. You have to discover waypoints first to travel to them. So basicly you have to run up to it, and if you unlock it, it will be available for that character forever.

Heart quests and events:
The scout also shows you several hearts on the map. !https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/archive/b/be/20120503152711%21Incomplete_heart_%28map_icon%29.png!
These are your basic quests, you run up to them, and as soon as you come into the area of the quest, the objectives will be shown in the top right corner. Completing any of these objectives will advance your progress bar to that heart quest. When completing a heart, you’ll get rewards in the form of gold, karma and experience. The heart npc is now also a vendor where you can buy things with karma!

After having talked about hearts however, i need to bring up events. While doing these heart quests, you’ll see orange markers pop up on the map. These are the events. Sometimes events may spawn right on top of you. Events are basicly periodic, and happen randomly, often in chains, all over the world. I would advice any new player, if an events pop up, to go do it. It is important to loose the mmo mindset of quest chaining and just to get lost in the world and the events play out. The event system is what makes GW2 a great game imo. So basicly anything orange should take priority, unless you see it’s something you’ve done before, at least that’s my opinion on it.

Vista’s and Points of interest:
Something else you will notice on the map are vista’s and points of interest.
-Vista’s: !https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/archive/1/14/20140720130532%21Vista_empty.png!
These are basicly point in the world where you have a nice view, and get a little movie of yourself looking around the area. These can help to really appreciate the beauty of the game. Just a cool thing to do while exploring the world.

-Points of interest, or poi’s as we like to call them, are basicly areas on the map that encourage you to explore, but you’ll unlock them as you go. If there is a poi on the map, it may be worth checking out.

Hero challenges:
!https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/4/44/Hero_point.png!
These are basicly points where you do something, from defeating a foe to just channeling the point, to earn extra currency to spend on skills and traits. I would advise doing these when you encounter them.

Skills and combat:
So now you know about the world and what there is to do, let’s talk about combat. At lvl 2 you’ll have 2 skills on the left of your bar, and 1 on the right.

-Weapon skills: The 2 skills on the left are weapon skills. One you lvl up you’ll unlock more of these. Main hand weapons have 3 skills, while dual wield weapons have 5, off hand weapons determine skill 4 and 5 when paired with main hand weapons. Most classes are eventually able to swap weapons in combat (lvl 10), except the elementalist and engineer, because they have other ways to change up their first 5 skills. It’s important to keep in mind that if you find a new weapon type you can equip, your skills on the left of your health orb will change according to it. To see what weapons you can equip you can check out your hero tab, and go to the 2nd page. The skills on the left are basicly your weapon skills. Weapon skills cannot be swapped around.

-Heal skill: The one skill you have when starting out, on the right of your health orb, is the heal skill. Each class will have one heal skill at first, and will be able to unlock different ones after playing for a while.

-Utility skills: Your 7-9 skills are called utility’s, you unlock those slots as you level up. Utility skills are your standard free swap skills that your proffesion can use. You can choose out of different skill category’s and you’ll unlock more of them as you level up. Unlocking skills is done by going to your hero panel’s 3rd tap, after reaching lvl 11.
-Elite skill: The last skill on your bar, is your elite, it will unlock at lvl 31.Elite skils are really powerfull impactfull skills, wich is why you can only have one.

Endurance and dodging:
Above your health orb you see a yellow endurance bar. This is the resource you use for dodging. A dodge basicly makes you invunerable to most attacks. Dodging is a mechanic all classes share in GW2. To dodge just doubletap in a direction or press the bound dodge key (v by default, i personally prefer middle mouse button, but that’s for you to decide)

Underwater:
When going into the water the first time, you may not be able to use skills at all, but when you unlock underwater combat, you’ll get an underwater weapon. Wich will, again change the left side of your bar. The right side you’ll have to set the skills again because some utilities can’t be used under water.

Unlocking skills and traits:
Unlocking skills and traits is done in the 2nd tab of your hero panel. Actual trait build making is done in the 3rd tab. Basicly you need to unlock skills you want, and traits you want while leveling. You do this by spending hero points, wich you earn by lvling up and trough hero challenges.

-One thing to always remember: Don’t panic about hero points. You will have more than enough to buy all core skills and traits by the level cap even if you don’t do any hero challenges. You can’t screw up your character by spending hero points on certain skills or trait lines. Just go with what you want.

Personal Story:
Your main quest line, always shown by a green marker. You’ll get the first one at lvl 10. These quest will always show in priority to everything else so they are easy to follow. Your personal story is instanced, but that does not mean you can’t bring friends. As long as they are in your party, they will be invited in with you. Just always do these when you get them.

Dungeons:
If you are into dungeons, you can start doing those at lvl 30, wich is ascalonian catacombs, you’ll get a message in your mail wich shows you where they are when they unlock. Lvl 30 is also the moment the LFG tool unlocks for free to play accounts. A dungeon has different versions.

-First of all you have one story instance, wich is fairly easy, and gives you another story trough the dungeons, wich is relevant to the plot of the personal story, but it’s still optional. If you like dungeons feel free to run trough the story mode the moment it becomes available. There is basicly one story mode dungeon every 10 levels from 30 to 70, and after that one at 76 and 78 and the last one at lvl 80. Do not do the lvl 80 story mode dungeon until the personal story tells you to, since that is the point where both stories (dungeon story and personal story) sort of come together.

-Next to the story mode you have 3 explorable paths, with each their own story, but more limited to what’s happening in the dungeon itself. They aren’t really that relevant to the entire world story. The 3 explorable paths will always unlock 5 lvls after the story unlocks and can be a fair bit harder then the story, especially if you are new to GW2. I personally would advice against doing these with your first character lvling up, and these are still relevant and being run at lvl 80.

So for dungeons when leveling your first toon i would advise, do the story modes, ignore the explorable modes for now.

Pvp:
Once you are lvl 2, you can jump into the pvp lobby and directly get acces to lvl 80, set your build and start the pvp, armor in pvp is all scaled to the same level so only your build and skill matter. The pvp lobby is accesable trough the crossed swords icon. It is possible to level a character’s pve/wvw level by playing pvp, as you get rewarded with tomes of influence, wich make you gain a level.

WvW:
World versus world: This game mode is locked until lvl 60, to prevent abuse. WvW is server vs server vs server in an epic large scale pvpve battle. This is the only game mode where the server you are on matters. Basicly this game mode is about capturing castles and forts, protecting or destroying supply lines, and large scale sieges and battles.

The Bank and trading post:
These can both be found in large cities. Your bank allows you to store items away to free up some inventory slots, if you want to keep them. The trading post allows you to trade with other players, tough for free to play it is limited. But it can still be helpfull with crafting.

Gathering: While roaming the world you’ll find 3 different types of gathering nodes: mining logging and gathering. Troughout your quests you’ll also recieve mining picks, logging axes and gathering sickles needed to harvest these nodes. If you want more of these then the general quests give you, vendors often sell these items. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_tool

Salvaging:
As you level up you’ll gain acces to salvage kits, with these you can break down items you don’t need into materials. Just double click the salvage kit, everything you can’t salvage will be red, the items you can salvage wills stay white. If you are in need of salvage kits, you can, like crafting materials, get them at vendors. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Salvage_kit

Crafting:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting
The major cities also have your crafting stations, you can learn 2 crafts at the same time, but you can swap later on. For new playes trying to delve into the world of crafting i would advice the crafting for whatever armor you use.

General helpfull tips:

-Keybinds, Graphics and sound options, and just general options: Can be found in the game menu (the cog on the top left, or just press escape) and then options.

-If you want to disable the double tap dodge roll, this can be found in the combat section of the general options.

-If you click on a player and rightclick on his portret, you can add him, invite him to party, mail or whisper him(altough these 2 options are limited for F2P), block or report him.

-If you are lost on what to do, the top right side of the screen will always have a general direction to go to.

-Some armors have slots in them, these can be used to insert runes or gems, some weapons have slots aswell, wich you can put sigils into. These aren’t really that important till max lvl, but can give you a little boost if you want/need it.

-Once you are lvl 10, your personal story will send you to your race’s main city. You can buy weapons there if you want, to try out all the weapon combo’s on your proffesion.

-When you first come out of the lvl 1 instance, don’t mind the few crazy people (i may be one of them) greeting you to Tyria. It’s all good fun :p.

-You can move items round and deposit your crafting materials you gathered or salvaged right into your back by clicking the cog icon on the top right of your inventory pannel!

-Don’t forget to have fun. You don’t have to unlock everything at once, just go with the flow.

Enjoy, and sorry if any mistakes slipped trough, i’m not a native english speaker, feel free to point them out.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Quarktastic.1027:

Aidenwolf.5964:

briggah.7910:

Aidenwolf.5964:

This was our (reward? Bribe? Pacifier?) for paying money for the game that is now free? It’s a decent outfit not something I would’ve purchased or am likely to use but thanks for the gesture.

No the reward was all the memories you’ve had through 40 content updates for FREE.. This was just the cherry on top.

Nothing was free I paid to play

I’m going to assume you’re the type of person who probably has around 4000 total hours played.

So for every dollar you spent on the core game (assuming $60 at launch) you got nearly 67 hours of entertainment. To expect Anet to give you anything at all as compensation is absurd.

$150 pre-order pre launch. The company devalued my purchase to zero forgive me if I’m not alright with that.

Excuse me, this

http://static.4gamers.be/images/2012/03/13/07c930e70dd39a0ea0208504adce04d0.jpg/content6

was 150 dollars, not just the game, and to my knowledge they aren’t handing out those artbooks and rytlock statues for free to play players. In fact all those aditional things are still being sold without the game for 90 bucks. So yeah you bought the game for 60 bucks, those other 90 are for the collectors edition merch wich oddly enough when looking at ebay, hasn’t dropped in price since lauch.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Fox.3469:

Obtena.7952:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Ashen.2907:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Its a matter of principle and fairness, of equal worth. content of the same value should be of equal worth. players who invest more money and time in a game, should recieve services equal to the resources they put in. if I’m to pay in more, I should recieve more. if I’m going to recieve the same amount, I shouldn’t have to pay more for it. I’m not saying we vets are entitled to more things then new players, but we certainly arnt entitled to less. and less is what we are getting, THATS the problem.

We are not getting less than new players.

Less value for our money >.>

Nope. The extra value you get over new players is the amount of time you’ve spent ingame while you have owned the game and they haven’t.

+ all the 40 updates + log-in rewards (wich stays exclusive to B2P)

No, all they have to do is buy the lastest expansion and they get all those 40+ updates for free. and as for the amount of time we spend playing the game, they don’t regulate that, we are paying for the opertunity to play, not for each and every hour we play, that’s why its buy to play and not subscription. however much we do or don’t play has nothing to do with the cost. otherwise someone who can only play once a week should have to pay less than someone who plays every day if we follow your reasoning. we pay to play, and howmuch we play is up to us, its not attached to the deal. so it has no relevence.

This is simply not true, living world season 1 isn’t available anymore, living world season 2 costs gems. They do not get this for free. Of course you can’t suddenly retract every little change to the classes, but that is far from all the content we had.

First of all, the game, at this date, is not worth 50+ dollars anymore, it’s worth 15-20 max. That is just fact, if you went to the store prior to the anouncement of HoT, i saw copy’s at that price point. Games do age and GW2 core game isn’t worth that much anymore. So basicly you are getting really angry over 15-20 dollars. The living world season 2 costs 1600 gems, wich is about that price. So basicly now you are getting angry at no difference? I’m trying to understand why you are angry, but i can’t see it.
Basicly you aren’t comparing you money’s worth, you are just mad that other people 3 year’s later, get if for free. And that my good sir is entitlement.

Obtena.7952:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Ashen.2907:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Its a matter of principle and fairness, of equal worth. content of the same value should be of equal worth. players who invest more money and time in a game, should recieve services equal to the resources they put in. if I’m to pay in more, I should recieve more. if I’m going to recieve the same amount, I shouldn’t have to pay more for it. I’m not saying we vets are entitled to more things then new players, but we certainly arnt entitled to less. and less is what we are getting, THATS the problem.

We are not getting less than new players.

Less value for our money >.>

Nope. The extra value you get over new players is the amount of time you’ve spent ingame while you have owned the game and they haven’t.

+ all the 40 updates + log-in rewards (wich stays exclusive to B2P)

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Ashen.2907:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Its a matter of principle and fairness, of equal worth. content of the same value should be of equal worth. players who invest more money and time in a game, should recieve services equal to the resources they put in. if I’m to pay in more, I should recieve more. if I’m going to recieve the same amount, I shouldn’t have to pay more for it. I’m not saying we vets are entitled to more things then new players, but we certainly arnt entitled to less. and less is what we are getting, THATS the problem.

We are not getting less than new players.

Less value for our money >.>

No you aren’t getting less value. GW2 is an online game you had acces to, and fun in, for years. These people are just starting it now. They waited and you payed because you couldn’t wait. Even if they didn’t go free to play the base game would eventually drop to about 10 dollars, if money ment that much to you, then you would have waited for the price to drop. Yet suddenly going free to play makes the big difference… Your money provided you with 3 years of entertainment, while these players are just starting. In the total age of GW2 they will always have had less time then you with the game. Add to that that you enjoyed so many free updates and they didn’t. There is no unfairness going on here, and if you really think you got less value for you money, don’t buy HoT, wait for the price to drop or for it to go F2P.

I don’t get this pug drama. Guilds will obviously clear it sooner because they are used to playing with eachother, but the more people that play it, the more that will learn it. If it’s on farm for many guilds, then why the hell wouldn’t a pug group be able to clear it? Especially since most guilds will have raid days and some people from those guilds will want to pug on other days. The know-how on what to do will automaticly spread.

Just be gratefull it’s not like wow, where it’s been beta’d so much there are actual guides for the bossfights before the game is even out.

I’m sorry but no. Flexible means there is alway an ideal number. Wich means for other numbers it will be overtuned, or for that number undertuned. I want a balanced instance that is equaly hard for everyon, and you can’t properly balance hardcore content around scaling group sizes.

Even in europe we still have a welcome party going at 5.30 am :p

Mike.3460:

Fox.3469:

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

1. Farm 100k Gold on a Free Account.
2. Upgrade on a Weekend and sell it for way more than the code did cost.
3. Repeat.

Oh who could possibly have tought of this.

Not to mention that there’s absolutely no limit to scam of any sort left.

Also, I can make a free account, run a bot for a week and play a fully equipped lvl 80 char as I want… what’s the sales point of GW2 again…?

Face it, there is no way to prepare a Game for what comes with being F2P. You can NOT hold Buy2Play standards in terms of community etc. if you suddenly get rid of the “behave or lose your 50€+ account” – argument.

I’ve faced it, i’ve seen many communities in other online game flourish with F2P, i don’t see how this one should be different since it already is a nice community.

Btw, the botting thing, i think you underestimate how obvious it will be if F2P accounts suddenly make loads of money.

Heylel.2109:

Fox.3469:

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

You can’t talk in map chat, you can’t whisper anyone not in the same map then you unless you are mutual friends, and you are restricted to 1 every 30 secs. Basicly the only time you can speak to others freely is in groups for dungeons.

So how exactly will this affect the community?

Bot Farmers.

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

I agree there should be a way to fix the current having to buy runes and sigils for legendary armor.

How about having a rune select under the stat select, but you can only choose runes once you’ve applied them on the piece. So basicly it takes the runes you apply to it and saves it as an option?

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

You can’t talk in map chat, you can’t whisper anyone not in the same map then you unless you are mutual friends, and you are restricted to 1 every 30 secs. Basicly the only time you can speak to others freely is in groups for dungeons.

So how exactly will this affect the community?

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwBxKwmAIdo&feature=youtu.be

Woodenpotatoes.

I don’t really see how gold sellers would be an issue, if anything this works against gold sellers. GW2 the core game would have eventually dropped to a price where gold sellers would have acces to buy a massive number of accounts for very low price. Now they instead make the core game free, but without allowing these accounts to send any resources to other players. Thus the usefull account for a gold seller is back at full price now. And it will always be bumped back up with every expansion coming out.

Ah, here we go again.
Time to grab some popcorn.

I bet people don’t even realise this game was already being sold for 15-25 euro’s depending on where you’d pick it up, before the HoT preorder anouncement.
A few months after HoT, if it wasn’t included, it would have been at 10 or even 5.
The restrictions are really heavy, something most people will want to get rid of eventually. But that’s the beauty of it, they get to try it. Imo this is perfect marketing, since you draw allot of new players in, and instead of locking the full range of things behind a certain subscription or gemstore thing, they lock it behind the expansion, in my personal opinion, that is very smart.

But most reactions in this thread aren’t even about that.
Most haven’t even read this: https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157?_ga=1.243374597.1017581385.1401897416
How the hell should i respect your opinion if you can’t even bother to read.

Good job Arenanet, keep it up.

I honestly don’t think so, the core game is more then enough to decide if you want to play GW2 or not. I think elite specs will never be F2P.

Let’s see, ehm, no not really.
I haven’t seen any mmo up to date release this many changes to the classes + a new class.
So i’m really excited for it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Fox.3469:

Until then, i suggest we continue the discussion under the idea that it is possible and fairly easy to do.

The title questions is, “can we get it early.” If we assume that it’s possible and fairly easy to do so, then, well, of course we could get it early. In that case, there’s nothing at all to discuss: if it were that easy, then there’s really no reason at all for ANet to delay releasing this particular feature.

Since they haven’t released the Revenant early (and have shown no signs that they are even considering that as a possibility), I think it’s far more likely that it’s difficult to do so. And if that’s true, the costs far outweigh the benefits.

And yet no dev has responded saying, srry guys this isn’t possible, while on most things that aren’t possible, they respond directly. This is a matter of choice not technical issues, not until a dev confirms otherwise.

So can we plz keep the discussion on if it’s possible, should it be done.
The 3 day headstart for pre-orders at launch wasn’t anounced until they anounced the release date so it’s fairly logical that whatever we can possibly get won’t be anounced till they anounce the HoT release date.

I say a headstart for the rev would be better then just a general 3 day headstart in this case.

Arlee.7038:

Fox.3469:

I do know the internal workings of game development, and even mmo development. Your assumption on comparing beta and live environments, and how they are completely different, and how it would require allot of work, is entirely wrong. Now i don’t have exact details on Arenanet’s operation, but unless they did something completely bonkers in their structure, releasing this class a bit early should not only be possible, but possibly even be safer in terms of not encountering unexpected problems.

Unless you specifically know how Arenanet has things set-up in their programing for this game you can’t legitimately make the assumption it would be easy for them to just activate the Revenant without anything else that is coming with the HoT release. You might consider that sort of set-up bonkers, but then you probably don’t know everything about their engine and how things are set-up, so again that’s not really an assumption you can actually make.

Pretty sure there is no button or switch to just make Rev available, so probably should stop treating it as if it’s that simple.

I can legitimately make that assumption, because these systems are set up quite simular at different mmo’s. And most mmo’s don’t even dare thinking of running their beta’s in the same client as the release version. Most mmo’s make you download an entire new version of the game to test stuff. And even those mmo’s have all added class features and changes ready to go at least a week up front in the actual client. Arenanet has the beta inside the client, and isn’t scared to have the beta just be ingame in the live environment, since no different games files are needed and you can play with people playing their main account, wich tells us they have a better system then those mmo’s. So yeah i made an assumption out of that. But it’s based on what i know. Just because i don’t know the exact system doesn’t mean i don’t know how much harder a beta on live servers is compared to a beta on a PBE. If they can do all that in their client, releasing the revenant a bit early is like asking a theoretical physicist to solve 2+2.

Btw if it really isn’t possible with how the system works right now, wich i highly doubt, then the devs are the ones that need to tell us that, not some random person who thinks it may be so (if there really was a problem with this in a technical sense i would expect a dev to have reacted already). Until then, i suggest we continue the discussion under the idea that it is possible and fairly easy to do.

Substance E.4852:

Halan.7931:

I think with HoT release only people who have the expansion should be able to write at forum.

It’s sickening to read for 1000th time “I don’t like specialization name or something, that’s why I’m not buying”. Don’t like – don’t buy, but stop spewing negativity. They won’t change everything to YOUR liking…

And it’s equally sickening to read for the 10000000000th time “Stop complaining on the forums, it’s making me sad!”

Complaining isn’t the problem, feedback is needed. However toxic behaviour, absolute disrespect for other people, aggresive attacks pointed not only at the company but at certain developpers, and threathening to leave if one issue isn’t fixed, that is a problem. Imo any topic not made in a civil manner should be removed. People need to learn to behave, and realise that just because the devs are asking for feedback, you don’t get a free pass to neglect all manner of civil conversation.

Some people seem to have forgotten what that means and it’s these people that need to either help and make the game better, by being constructive and explaining themselves, or get the kitten out of our community and never come back.

“Arenanet you suck, are you kidding, this needs a complete overhaul. Omg i will leave the game if this stays.” and “gg game is dead for sure now” are not positive feedback. If you reply to topic like this i honestly hope you leave and never come back. In fact i hope you sort your life out, because if you are that angry about a video game you clearly need to set your priority’s straight.

If there is one thing that Arenanet does need to do it’s set these forums straight because allot of good feedback is being lost because the forums are this toxic, allot of people i know, and i’ve played with in the beta test, don’t even come on here because of the extremely negative atmosphere. And that is a problem, because the opinion of those people is important.

I do know the internal workings of game development, and even mmo development. Your assumption on comparing beta and live environments, and how they are completely different, and how it would require allot of work, is entirely wrong.
Now i don’t have exact details on Arenanet’s operation, but unless they did something completely bonkers in their structure, releasing this class a bit early should not only be possible with very little effort, but possibly even be safer in terms of not encountering unexpected problems.

This isn’t a technical issue. The revenant will be up and ready in your game days maybe even weeks before release, ready to play, it is far to tapped into the base game not to be. The only question is, when do we swap that switch. Your downloads on release day are the new maps, not the class, or any of the elite specs for that matter. So please don’t look for an excuse in technical stuff. It’s not an issue, unless A-net have the weirdest setup in code history.

This is a question purely on would it be good for the game or not, wich is an opinion of course, but in my opinion yes it would be.

I recently came back to the forums, after being off for quite a long time since there wasn’t much i wanted to discuss before the expansion was announced. I find the negativity disgusting. This forum used to be a place of good feedback and healthy discussion. Now it’s just a shoutfest in most topics.

This forum is the exact opposite of the game community right now, and it makes me think that allot of people on this forum aren’t playing the game atm, they are just waiting and hoping HoT will somehow make them like this game again, while in reality, they should have left and not looked back.

You payed for the wings you saw previewed in the gemstore. If you didn’t preview then you payed for your own stupidity.

I don’t want pitch black wings thx.

MattyP.6954:

It’s not my favorite, but it doesn’t impact gameplay at all…so I don’t really care either.

This, i wouldn’t mind my elite spec being called the umpalumpa if it was a decent spec with awesome gameplay. You honestly shouldn’t care. It has no effect at all, except for the name of that trait line.

Seera.5916:

BrokenGlass.9356:

Fox.3469:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Fox.3469:

I’m not skilled enough to wear full zerker. But here’s the thing, i know i’m not. So yeah i’ll be soloing bosses in my soldier armor while my zerker team mates are lying on the floor. If you die, it’s 99% always your own fault. Either you overestimate yourself being able to play zerker in everything, or you just made a mistake. Just own up to it and don’t flame people for your own failures.

This whole association with skill to stats needs to stop, especially when completely garbage people in full zerker can push things into walls and pull off a boss kill and succeed. Mentality like this is part of the problem where elitism has infected how we view itemization.

Someone who is using toughness “because he thinks he sucks” is just as much of the problem as the people who think other people suck for not going full zerker.

Treat
Your
Choices
With
Respect

High bunker builds have already been demonstrated by numerous people like Skady Valda or myself and I personally have no problem going full glass in a dungeon solo myself.

I actually want to know who made up that perspective to begin with, that toughness was suppose to be a training wheel to learn content or it was for less skilled players I SERIOUSLY WANT TO KNOW THIS.

How dare you.

I said i’m not skilled enough for full berserker. I never said i sucked. There is a big kittening difference. In fact i’m better then 50% of this game’s population because i match my armor type to my playstyle. I know my limits. I don’t have the exact same dodge reaction as when i was 18 years old. Sure i ran some extreme glass cannon builds in GW1 and i wrecked with them, even making it into, and playing in a top 100 pvp guild in the world for about a year back in the day. But i have other priorities now. My current skill level in the game isn’t enough for me to know every instance inside out and i tried zerker and it just didn’t fit for me. I’m still quite good at making builds tough, and i’ve got some tanky setups that to me personally, fit perfectly.

There is nothing shamefull about picking a more tanky option if you feel it works better for you. You aren’t a better player if you choose to run full zerker but lack the skill and knowledge to handle it correctly. So for me personally it’s a choice.

Now i have a few more casual people in my guild. Some who actually do kind of play on a skill level below me, even tough they are lovely people. Often i get asked what i’m running, and when i say soldiers or knights, depending on my build, i get surprised looks. These people die in our guild dungeon groups all the time and run full berserker, because they asked someone what was best, and they answered berserker, without even thinking about who that player is, how he plays and what’s the best suited option for him/her. I’ve showed these people some builds and helped them decide what would fit them better personally, and they are very greatfull. These builds allowed them to play the game the way they wanted.

Now i don’t give a kitten who you think you are, i have a right to play the game the way i want to play it. I have a right to show these builds to whoever is in my guild, or whoever asks for it. That does not mean however we are lesser players. The real bad players do run berserker while having no clue. But these players are often encouraged to do this by elitist pricks that think their way is the best and only way to do things. And they absorb some of that attitude. The example of the OP is a clear example of people wearing zerker armor, but not knowing how to play with it. These people would be better off thinking about their build before blindly making a copy of whatever is meta.

I always try to build around people’s strengths, their prefered weapon, their prefered playstyle. I do the same for myself. Does that mean we are bad players? Hell no. We haven’t had any problems yet within our guild in completing any content. And we will try out the new content coming out with HoT also. And i’m pretty sure we’ll complete it.

My strenght in GW1 used to be super fast reaction times and fast play. I’d say my strength in GW2 is more my buildmaking and knowing wich hits i can take and wich i can’t. And during all these build i’ve been making, and i love making them, i found that skill and stats aren’t related.

People and stats are related, and everyone is different.
My message isn’t “Unskilled players should use toughness.”
It’s “think before you copy something, this person may have way more experience in the game, wich is why this build is working for him and not for you”
Toughness is not the training wheel for unskilled players, it’s a viable choice on it’s own imo, but the problem right now is 99% of new players, when asking for advice, hear the word berserker, buy all that armor and just die over and over and over. Some people even leave the game because of this and we as a community are far to close minded about it. Zerker just doesn’t fit every single player, in fact i’d say most players running it now would have a better time running something else. Especially new people.

Now if anyone would like some advice on building their class to their personal preference, or you have some problems your current build, i’m glad to help.
I however don’t make berserker builds because there are many other people that can teach you those and if you want to play like that and you don’t die every dungeon, you don’t need help anyway.

Sorry for the double post. But this dude just hit the nail square on the head with more class than I can manage.

And no one in this thread is saying that Fox can’t do what he does or that he is a lesser player. The “true dungeon elites” are perfectly fine with Fox not playing the meta and helping others make builds that are not the meta. The only thing they ask is that those players don’t join LFG’s specifically designed for those who wish to play the meta. And it’s not a bad thing for players who wish to play the meta to be able to play with others who have the same goal.

The ones who do have a problem with it are jerks and they’ll be jerks no matter what ANet does.

I agree with you, i don’t mind people playing META if they want to.
BUT if they answer a new player in chat when he’s asking advice, and they are feeding him metabuilds, they better be prepared to help this player if he would end up in their party. And that’s where it goes wrong. Allot of the people i’ve talked to in my guild, most being a bit older, had situation like this where they got a full berserker set, got ready, joined a group, didn’t really knew what to do, died, got shouted at with lines like “please uninstall” and got kicked.
Most groups aren’t even trying to explain things. Because it’s a speedrun omg noobs you need to know exactly what to do. How are they supposed to learn then?

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Fox.3469:

I’m not skilled enough to wear full zerker. But here’s the thing, i know i’m not. So yeah i’ll be soloing bosses in my soldier armor while my zerker team mates are lying on the floor. If you die, it’s 99% always your own fault. Either you overestimate yourself being able to play zerker in everything, or you just made a mistake. Just own up to it and don’t flame people for your own failures.

This whole association with skill to stats needs to stop, especially when completely garbage people in full zerker can push things into walls and pull off a boss kill and succeed. Mentality like this is part of the problem where elitism has infected how we view itemization.

Someone who is using toughness “because he thinks he sucks” is just as much of the problem as the people who think other people suck for not going full zerker.

Treat
Your
Choices
With
Respect

High bunker builds have already been demonstrated by numerous people like Skady Valda or myself and I personally have no problem going full glass in a dungeon solo myself.

I actually want to know who made up that perspective to begin with, that toughness was suppose to be a training wheel to learn content or it was for less skilled players I SERIOUSLY WANT TO KNOW THIS.

How dare you.

I said i’m not skilled enough for full berserker. I never said i sucked. There is a big kittening difference. In fact i’m better then 50% of this game’s population because i match my armor type to my playstyle. I know my limits. I don’t have the exact same dodge reaction as when i was 18 years old. Sure i ran some extreme glass cannon builds in GW1 and i wrecked with them, even making it into, and playing in a top 100 pvp guild in the world for about a year back in the day. But i have other priorities now. My current skill level in the game isn’t enough for me to know every instance inside out and i tried zerker and it just didn’t fit for me. I’m still quite good at making builds tough, and i’ve got some tanky setups that to me personally, fit perfectly.

There is nothing shamefull about picking a more tanky option if you feel it works better for you. You aren’t a better player if you choose to run full zerker but lack the skill and knowledge to handle it correctly. So for me personally it’s a choice.

Now i have a few more casual people in my guild. Some who actually do kind of play on a skill level below me, even tough they are lovely people. Often i get asked what i’m running, and when i say soldiers or knights, depending on my build, i get surprised looks. These people die in our guild dungeon groups all the time and run full berserker, because they asked someone what was best, and they answered berserker, without even thinking about who that player is, how he plays and what’s the best suited option for him/her. I’ve showed these people some builds and helped them decide what would fit them better personally, and they are very greatfull. These builds allowed them to play the game the way they wanted.

Now i don’t give a kitten who you think you are, i have a right to play the game the way i want to play it. I have a right to show these builds to whoever is in my guild, or whoever asks for it. That does not mean however we are lesser players. The real bad players do run berserker while having no clue. But these players are often encouraged to do this by elitist pricks that think their way is the best and only way to do things. And they absorb some of that attitude. The example of the OP is a clear example of people wearing zerker armor, but not knowing how to play with it. These people would be better off thinking about their build before blindly making a copy of whatever is meta.

I always try to build around people’s strengths, their prefered weapon, their prefered playstyle. I do the same for myself. Does that mean we are bad players? Hell no. We haven’t had any problems yet within our guild in completing any content. And we will try out the new content coming out with HoT also. And i’m pretty sure we’ll complete it.

My strenght in GW1 used to be super fast reaction times and fast play. I’d say my strength in GW2 is more my buildmaking and knowing wich hits i can take and wich i can’t. And during all these build i’ve been making, and i love making them, i found that skill and stats aren’t related.

People and stats are related, and everyone is different.
My message isn’t “Unskilled players should use toughness.”
It’s “think before you copy something, this person may have way more experience in the game, wich is why this build is working for him and not for you”
Toughness is not the training wheel for unskilled players, it’s a viable choice on it’s own imo, but the problem right now is 99% of new players, when asking for advice, hear the word berserker, buy all that armor and just die over and over and over. Some people even leave the game because of this and we as a community are far to close minded about it. Zerker just doesn’t fit every single player, in fact i’d say most players running it now would have a better time running something else. Especially new people.

Now if anyone would like some advice on building their class to their personal preference, or you have some problems your current build, i’m glad to help.
I however don’t make berserker builds because there are many other people that can teach you those and if you want to play like that and you don’t die every dungeon, you don’t need help anyway.

I’ve always had a problem with thief in the way that stealth was to important. I love stealth for single player roaming and playing. But, i don’t want to use stealth in group PVE. Honestly this may make me start playing my thief again.

I’m not skilled enough to wear full zerker. But here’s the thing, i know i’m not. So yeah i’ll be soloing bosses in my soldier armor while my zerker team mates are lying on the floor. If you die, it’s 99% always your own fault. Either you overestimate yourself being able to play zerker in everything, or you just made a mistake. Just own up to it and don’t flame people for your own failures.

There is literly no option where people wouldn’t be mad about something. Your argument is based on bullkitten.

What option does Arenanet have? Do less beta weekends just so most classes are equal? But then still the reaper, chronomancer, dragonhunter and tempest already had a weekend so people would still considder it unfair. Everything Arenanet does at this point will spark some kind of negative rampage about something. Seriously if you are that kittened off i suggest you don’t buy HoT and leave our community all together, i’m really starting to have enough of the rampant negativity about everything. Noone is forcing you to play this game.

Yes other classes will have more testing then druids and engineers. Due to them being finished sooner. Delaying the BWE would only result in less testing on actual jungle, mastery mechanics and the general gameplay. But sure, your class is more important then that. Get over yourself.

I don’t know what happened but the problem now seems to be gone, as soon as i started the quest to join one of the orders. So i only has problems with the minotaur spirit quest, and then the “got into a fight” quest.

Devata.6589:

Fox.3469:

Ohoni.6057:

When you don’t add incentive to it, i’d say 10% of the population.
When you do add incentive to it, i’d say 40% at least would do it once. But only because that initial 10% stuck around and willingly or not, educated other people on how to do it.

Ok then, so taking those numbers, assuming that the remaining 60% would like the reward too, why should they be happy about this? What’s in it for them?

Look i get what you are saying, you’ve somewhat convinced me exclusive isn’t that important, however the incentive needs to be strong enough. That means that for every single person of those 40%, the hardcore content needs to be the ideal option to get the reward.

Other then that i don’t mind there being a seriously timegated other way to get the reward. But the optimal way to get a reward should always be do the content that the reward belongs to. The 60% that doesn’t want to do it can have the option to go for the same rewards as me, i wouldn’t have a problem with that. What i would have a problem with is if for the average player, this option would be better then going for the hardcore content. Because if that is the case you directly draw people away from that content, and that affects me and my ability to find groups for it.

Personally i would like it best if the skins were exclusive for a few months, but that the non-hardcore way would become available as soon as a certain amount of people beat the content, or just after a certain time period. I personally think that would be the best way, but i would be fine with anything that doesn’t hurt the incentive to actually do the content.

That basically always has been my compromise in the many discussions about this subject. But it still removes a lot of the meaning that comes with the item.

So yea, items should always be behind content and when you can grind for them as well, doing the content should always be the most optimal way (what you will really only get when implementing this immediately all over the game and not having many other rewards that make the same content interesting for grinders as a place to generally grind stuff).

But I would still go for / prefer the option where a percentage of the items are in fact not tradable and so only available for doing the content.

While me and you may be prepared to compromise, i highly doubt Arenanet will do it.
I think they will be to scared to have another piece of dead content like most of the hard dungeon paths now. While it may not be what this op wants, i doubt they will give in and make it available for all, even tough i personally wouldn’t mind having multiple ways to get these rewards. I think the only thing we may see is a pvp reward track for them. Other then that i think they will be exclusive. Maybe we get a random non-legendary skin with the 4th birthday gift, like we got a random dye now :p. Who knows.

In an ideal world, the meta would be a bit more tanky, while zerker would be something you could run if you have a support with you to compensate, at least imo.

stof.9341:

Some people think they have a zerker problem and want to change the meta to soldier.

Now they have a soldier problem.

Except this isn’t entirely true. If soldier would be meta for melee for example, zerker could still be viable when combined with a heavy support or heal style build. Guilds could make teams outside of meta, learn to play together, and benefit from actually being coördinated. Right now there is no benefit to running anything else. If soldier were the meta, at least coördinated teams could deviate from that.

Ohoni.6057:

When you don’t add incentive to it, i’d say 10% of the population.
When you do add incentive to it, i’d say 40% at least would do it once. But only because that initial 10% stuck around and willingly or not, educated other people on how to do it.

Ok then, so taking those numbers, assuming that the remaining 60% would like the reward too, why should they be happy about this? What’s in it for them?

Look i get what you are saying, you’ve somewhat convinced me exclusive isn’t that important, however the incentive needs to be strong enough. That means that for every single person of those 40%, the hardcore content needs to be the ideal option to get the reward.

Other then that i don’t mind there being a seriously timegated other way to get the reward. But the optimal way to get a reward should always be do the content that the reward belongs to. The 60% that doesn’t want to do it can have the option to go for the same rewards as me, i wouldn’t have a problem with that. What i would have a problem with is if for the average player, this option would be better then going for the hardcore content. Because if that is the case you directly draw people away from that content, and that affects me and my ability to find groups for it.

Personally i would like it best if the skins were exclusive for a few months, but that the non-hardcore way would become available as soon as a certain amount of people beat the content, or just after a certain time period. I personally think that would be the best way, but i would be fine with anything that doesn’t hurt the incentive to actually do the content.

Astralporing.1957:

SkiTz.4590:

He is already convinced that 95% of the population will not even go near the new challenging content and thus, wants rewards to be tied into easier paths.

Ok, let’s reverse this. Considering this is supposed to be a challenging content, how many people (by percentage) do you expect to finish it at least once? How many people do you expect to run it regularly? How high those percentages should be for you to say that the content is not challenging enough?

When you don’t add incentive to it, i’d say 10% of the population.
When you do add incentive to it, i’d say 40% at least would do it once. But only because that initial 10% stuck around and willingly or not, educated other people on how to do it.

emikochan.8504:

an AI revamp for minions would be the dream <3

Go ingame, test it out, seriously. Allot of the minion problems are fixed right now.

Linken.6345:

Fox.3469:

Tbh i think the whole elite spec+masteries is entirely set up to be the way expansions will work in the future. I feel A-Net is creating a mold in wich to fit all future expansions. That’s a good thing, it means they will probally be able to make em sooner now, since the baseline is set, and won’t have to stop releasing the living story for so long either. Let’s say for the Jormag expansion for example, just replace gliding with snowboarding, have the mountains as an area, and we are set to go :p

i feel snowboarding would replace jumping mushrooms, mountain climbing would replace gliding tho

I like it :p

Hey, i’ve started leveling another character trough the personal story, and i’ve noticed allot of characters dropping their lines of voiceacting. Almost always the first one. And then at random during their talking.
So basicly while characters talk all of a sudden one eats their words and there is only text. This has happened to me during every cutscene of the norn storyline so far.
I did the human storyline a few weeks ago and didn’t have this problem. I don’t know if it’s local to the norn, may test that this week.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You haven’t read all the responses if you haven’t seen any downsides:

• ANet would have to change their entire game plan to release the class early.
• They would remove some of the value of the expansion, which includes the revenant.
• The class itself is being balanced against the other classes that will exist in HoT, not in comparison to the classes that exist now.
• If the class isn’t ready, the feedback they’d get is that they released it too soon. If it’s only available in BETA, then everyone is more likely to recognize the class as a test version.

1. I don’t see how releasing a class a bit early for pre-orders is changing your entire game plan, in fact the entire game was released early for preorders at launch.
2. No they wouldn’t how does having the rev a week early, for pre-orders only, remove value from the expansion? You have to own HoT to get it, so it’s basicly HoT content. What does this even have to do with the value of the expansion…
3. And yet that same class has been released into the live game 2 weekends now, in pvp, wvw and pve. 2 weekends and nobody cared about it. Why do you think having this a week early is gonna suddenly kitten up the balance between your precious classes, and if it does, why does it matter? It’s only 1 week and then all the classes balance is trown around anyway due to elite specs. The Golem rush in Wvw, that kittened things up, 1 class, during the last 2 weekends: not so much.
4. I’m not saying release it now. Please try and comprehend what i am saying. If the revenant isn’t ready 1 week before release then quite frankly release shouldn’t be in that week. What we meant by the bug reports, is how the class itself will react with the living world and the personal story. If a revenant get’s stuck in his personal story right after release, and posts about it, devs may be busy at that time trying to make sure every map and event chain functions correctly in the expansion. However when you release it a weak early, when the entire class is finished, you get a week of feedback on the revenant in the normal worlds and leveling process alone, where some things may not work as intended. And then you get the entire HoT release.

So basicly the positives for A-Net are:
-Free feedback on 1-80 normal world revenant.
-Incentive to pre-order.
-New players don’t feel left out because they don’t have 80 tomes.
-Builds up the HoT release hype.

Saying it would require tons of extra work and ‘costs’ doesn’t make sense to me.

arenta.2953:

engineer

Thief is insanely popular (PvP, WvW, dungeons, fractals)
Warriors tend to have a steady following
Ele is the last of the really popular

and then in 2nd place are ranger, mesmers, necros, and guardians. (ranger and Necro go up and down)

engi’s are the least. though they seem to be getting a bit more popular.

This basicly, only with guardians put into the tier 1, since everyone and their mother plays guardian in WvW.

Tbh i think the whole elite spec+masteries is entirely set up to be the way expansions will work in the future. I feel A-Net is creating a mold in wich to fit all future expansions. That’s a good thing, it means they will probally be able to make em sooner now, since the baseline is set, and won’t have to stop releasing the living story for so long either. Let’s say for the Jormag expansion for example, just replace gliding with snowboarding, have the mountains as an area, and we are set to go :p

I have a feeling the recent necromancer fix on minion AI has allot to do with why the engi hasn’t been revealed yet, since we know he gets drones. Maybe it has something to do with ranger to, that they needed this out there before they could reveal it.

I basicly made the same post in the general area for the expansion, since i do think people who aren’t as interested in the revenant deserve to give their opinions aswell.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/The-Revenant-Can-we-get-it-early/first#post5416325
It’s certainly being brought to the attention of the devs, what they do with it is their choice of course.

All aboard!
https://inserezunepiece.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hype-train.jpg

xinkspillx.3914:

While the idea of extracting an ally from danger is kind of cool, I feel like this skill would almost certainly be used for trolling more than anything else.

While this is kind of true, with the priest skill in Wow for example, i feel like this is harmless fun trolling, as long as the cooldown is long enough. Then again i’ve saved tons of people by pulling them out of fire in wow with this skill. So i guess the positive would outweigh the negative :p.

While i don’t play ranger, i wouldn’t mind druid getting something like this.

Who cares about meta anyway, i always make my own groups.
Just made a fractal group for lvl 38 fractal, had 2 rangers, one of wich was a tanky greatsword ranger, 1 necro and 1 d/d tanky ele in my group, i’m running a fairly tanky warrior, had about the smoothest and fastest run ever in fractals, all while we had the 2 of the hardest ones.

If people want to act all elitist let them, most of those people won’t join an anyone welcome group. Groups fill up in seconds anyway, and making it yourself and saying ANYONE WELCOME basicly scares people like that :p. I honestly haven’t had a bad experience since i started making my own groups.

Tabootrinket.2631:

I don’t see any downside to this suggestion, given they manage to finalize the class before the expansion release.
Note : We’re talking about the revenant, not the herald, so really there’s no real headstart toward the HoT core content.

1) It would help people AND especially new players to get accustomed to the class and get prepared for HoT. That’s basically the whole philosophy of Anet, to not hinder a particular kind of player.

2) It’s a feature only those who pre-orders would be given. Meaning, it will make people who are only truely interested in the revenant class more attracted to preordering than buying after release. So it’s beneficial even for Anet.

3) More opportunity for feedbacks, so people who decide to play it on release date can enjoy a stable class.

4) If you’re talking about logic we already had a bunch of revenants roaming the silverwastes a while back among other players. And it wasn’t on a beta test server.

That’s all the positives i see to, i’ve yet to see a negative. Most people just respond, “you’re not getting it early because that’s just the way it is”.
But they way it is right now is exactly why i’m trying to bring this to the attention, if there is a better way to do things (i’ve not seen a counterargument yet), shouldn’t we at least try to ask for it? Seems only logical to me.

Coldtart.4785:

When people blame their death on too low dps just remind them that solos are done in zerker as well.

Quote for Truth

Honestly what happened was they wanted to run the zerker meta, cause they heard it was good, but they didn’t do any research on the actual dungeon and where to stack/how to play the fights. Zerker meta works because people know how to bend the fights to make it work. It doesn’t work when randomly walking into something without knowledge. The whole idea of why zerker works is because you stack, and even if you go down, the massive aoe on all mobs will rez you instantly, or the 4 people standing on top of you will.

One thing, this topic belongs in the general GW2 forum.

Jelzouki.4128:

Fox.3469:

1 Because this forces a choice and otherwise all classes would eventually have all weapons all the time.
2 Because it is way way easier to balance. If you add a weapon and utility catergory with each elite spec, and you constantly have to balance that weapon and utility line with all the previous specs, that would just add and add and add, wich is eventually a mess to balance. When they are bound to eachother, you basicly have to only considder adding to the base class.
So basicly when they do it like this you’ll get more elite specs, as they are easier to put out and balance.

I really don’t see how this is hard to understand.

Because it doesn’t make sense. The weapon you take when build crafting, at least in PvP, depends on your traits. I.e as a necro who doesn’t have access to any good mobility buffs, they are usually forced to take warhorn, and vice versa if I have mobility buffs I can drop warhorn because I don’t need the extra swiftness. So once again to reiterate, the weapon heavily depends on the traits you take. We shouldn’t be locked out of weapons. It really isn’t harder to balance.

Yes it does, and it’s far harder to balance. If you lock them to the elite spec, then you only have to balance the weapon and utility skills around that elite spec. If they add another elite spec, then you only have to balance those utility’s and weapon around that elite spec. If you would have the weapon available all the time, then suddenly your old added utility skills and weapon have to work with the new elite spec, and the new utility skills and weapon have to work with the old elite spec. So basicly a mix of them has to work. As to when you lock it, balance them when you are using that elite spec. It’s about making a choice, once more specs have come out.

Let’s take warrior for example, cause it’s a very clear one. You have those new fancy rage skills, that basicly help you build adrenaline right? This is all based around the fact that berserker is a fast paced monster rushing in and building up as fast as possible. Let’s say the next elite spec for warrior is a spec where instead of your bursts changing your adrenaline mechanic changes somehow. If it wasn’t locked, you’d have to balance that new mechanic around the rage skills, wich directly limits the way you can design the new elite spec. The freedom to design elite specs around a base class, is way way higher then to design elite specs around the base class and the 3 or 4 extra utility category’s and weapons already out for that class coming from elite specs..

I think it’s obvious that when designing the second warrior elite spec, let’s call it “Knight” for now, you don’t want to design those utility’s or weapons with “but wait how will this effect the Berserker?” and “but wait how will the Berserker weapon and utility’s effect this spec.” in mind, if you want unique ways to play the class.
And then when you come to the 3rd elite spec, you suddenly have to wonder how your new weapon and utilities will affect both the Berserker and the Knight spec, and how these specs weapons and utilities will affect the new spec you are designing.

Each elite spec then adds weapons and utilities, wich all have to be balanced with eachother. Wich will become the biggest mess and will seriously cut the way the elite specs feel different from eachother, aswell as the work needed to balance and design them.

When you bind them to the trait line however, you can basicly totally ignore what another elite spec does, and design skills in a way that they don’t have to work with all the specs, just the one you are using at that time. Wich gives way more room to be creative with the design itself.

Again i cannot see how people do not understand this.
When you have 5 elite specs, if weapons and utilities aren’t locked to trait lines, then all the added weapons and utility skills would have to be balanced around the 5 different F1 effects. While with this system you only have to balance each weapon and utility line around it’s 1 F1 ability. (note when i’m saying F1 i mean the elite spec ability, i know some specs don’t have this on F1)

videoboy.4162:

Just because you suggested it, Nike, doesn’t mean there aren’t flaws to it. You have yet to provide a good reason for the Weapons to be locked behind a Spec.

Same reason, weapons are tied to elite specs because then you only have to balance that certain weapon with that spec. If they weren’t, let’s say 5 elite specs in you have to design a weapon, that doesn’t suddenly make a certain elite spec op, and have to design an elite spec, that suddenly has to work with 5 more weapons then the first one had to.
I really cannot see how people think that this wouldn’t make it 10 times harder to design elite specs, let alone balance them.