Guild Wars 2

Pretty sure they’re working on it, but these things take time.

ShinraGuardian.8053:

Stop crying about magic find. That person is still contributing damage you wouldn’t have had if you went in with 4 people. Damage is damage.

Ha ha ha! Seriously? Your defense of Magic Find is that it’s better than running with 4 people? Yeah, I guess almost anything would be.

Why is it okay for the Magic Find guy to be the slacker, though? Maybe I would rather sit back and just mindlessly mash 1-5 while checking Facebook and Twitter on my cell. Hey, it’s better than if I weren’t there at all, right? Damage is damage.

Why is it that in all these example scenarios, it’s always assumed that there’s only one Magic Find player, and 4 well-geared others? It’s like part of their justification is that it’s okay for them to wear MF only because they know the rest of the team doesn’t, and therefore they’ll all be okay. They say the team doesn’t suffer that much, but I doubt they’d be saying that if they frequently encountered PUGs where all 5 group members were loaded with Magic Find. Frankly, it’s because not everyone has pre-set their gear in such a selfish way, that you’re able to get through any dungeon content at all.

How many people out there would “report” someone for an offense they didn’t even witness, just because a guildie gave them a name? Is their integrity really that lacking?

If anything, I would hope the people who “reported” you based on word of mouth would face consequences for it. This is abuse of the reporting function. ANet can look up their chat logs and locations at the time of the incident, and verify for themselves that they didn’t really see you do anything.

I think the real solution is to just have more skins in the game, which will just naturally happen over time as more content gets added to the game.

Or at least some kind of mini-pet battle system, anyway.

To me, Fractals are an endgame, level 80 affair. I’m sure it’s possible to clear some of them with lower levels, depending on player skill — but I don’t think it’s asking too much that someone be max level to join. If a level 16 character can join a Fractal run, that is a problem.

As an aside, the whole mechanic of upscaling/downscaling is not perfect. A level 80 being downscaled in Queensdale can utterly mop up any mobs effortlessly, whereas that cannot be said of someone whose character really is of that level. And vice versa — someone who’s upscaled to 80 still doesn’t have access to all the skills, traits, and capacity for stats. How does a non-existent helm or shoulder piece get upscaled, anyway? How do you upscale ZERO?

You mean the dredge haven’t already been beaten in the face with a shovel? Why do they look like that, then?

Three Krytan seraph are manning an outpost in Queensdale, tasked with guarding a tower against centaur attacks. Each has brought three optional pieces of equipment with them.

Soldier A: “So, what did you guys bring? I brought some binoculars, my trusty longbow, and a sword.”
Soldier B: “I brought a throwing axe, and a sword & shield in case the centaurs get close.”
Soldier C: Great! Sounds like we’re well prepared, then! As for me, I brought a shortbow, a greatsword, and of course I never leave home without my VIP badge!"
Soldier A: “Ha ha ha, good one. No, really, what else did you bring?”
Soldier C: “I just told you. Shortbow, greatsword, and VIP badge.”
Soldier B: “You idiot, how is a VIP badge going to help you do your duty? The centaurs aren’t coming to check our IDs! You intend to block an arrow with a piece of laminated card?”
Soldier C: “Hey, this badge ensures that I get paid 30% more for this mission. Gotta put the kids through school, ya know?”
Soldier A: “How are you going to put your kids through school, if you’re DEAD?! We all have to guard this tower together. You’re endangering all of us because you just want a few extra gold in your pocket!”
Soldier C: “Excuse me, what I bring is none of your business! It’s skill that makes the soldier, not weapons and armor! I’ll kill more centaurs than both of you put together! You’ll all be dead because you suck and don’t know how to fight! It’s my choice to sacrifice combat ability for profit, anyway! I am the greatest soldier here, and I have never gotten hit by a centaur, ever! I don’t make mistakes, and every centaur I see is dead within three seconds! I can even fight naked, and still do better than you jerks!”
Soldier A: “Jeez… can we get this guy transferred to another post or something?”
Solder C: “I HEARD THAT!! HOW DARE YOU, SIR!! You can’t kick me off this team, I will report you to Captain Thackeray and you will be fired for misconduct! The Seraph are all about choice and letting soldiers decide how they want to enjoy being in the army! And I enjoy making more money than you!”
Soldier B: “When I want to make more money, I just take on more work—”
Soldier C: “GTFO, n00b!!”

I’ve seen player housing and/or guild halls come up a few times in suggestion threads, but I don’t really understand what it’s all about. What I’m imagining is that it’s just an instanced lobby where you can stand around.

Considering there’s already a guild chat channel we can participate in anywhere, I just don’t know what guild members are supposed to do while standing around in a room together. I assume there’s a bank and some other stuff, but does it have anything that’s not already available in any city?

laharl.8435:

the MF guy was probably doing the most dps in the group while not dying.

Probably? Why probably? Possibly I would accept, if they were exceptionally skilled and the other people in the group were geared improperly and were inexperienced. But probably? Where do you get that? Having Magic Find on your gear doesn’t make you a better player, and you don’t even know who it was.

See, one of the things that bug me the most about MF stackers is the arrogance with which they so confidently assert that they are the best players in the game. I never hear “Hey, sometimes if the group is having an easy time of it, MF doesn’t hamper our progress to any noticeable degree.” No, instead it’s always “Players with MF do the most damage, always CC and dodge perfectly, and do everything better than people who have any other stats.”

Talking to them, you’d think MF was the only stat in the game that did anything. After all, Vitality and Toughness apparently don’t contribute to survival, because players who have MF don’t ever get hit! Crit and Conditions don’t increase damage, because MF players already put out the maximum damage that’s humanly possible! Maybe all gear in the game should just be nothing but Magic Find! No one with Magic Find has ever let anyone down, or failed at anything, right?

I still want capes, regardless. Even if there’s clipping and a Charr’s tail goes completely through the thing. It’s not like this will be the first game to have clipping issues, and the things can be toggled off if you don’t like it.

There was another topic we had going about someone who got kicked from a dungeon group just seconds before the final boss went down, just because the rest of the party were jerks and thought it would be funny. We weren’t certain they would face any consequences for that, so I doubt you’ll have a problem.

That said, don’t sentence someone to exile for future crime. What is this, Minority Report? Wait til they suck, then you can tell them they suck. I’m not thrilled with Magic Find as a concept, and especially unimpressed by people who stack it on all their gear, but you never know.

1) The third stat on all your gear is not like optional “training wheels”, and not an extra space where you can just plunk in some Magic Find and assume nothing else was really required there. To claim that it doesn’t affect your damage or survivability at all (or that of a dungeon group) is ludicrous. Never heard of Crit Damage or Condition Damage? You don’t think you could put a buffer on a few more of those close calls with Toughness or Vitality? Oh, that’s right, I forgot — you MF stackers have got it all figured out — you always put out the highest damage in every dungeon, and you never get hit either. MF players are GW2’s finest, and they never make mistakes. We should count ourselves lucky to even be in the same dungeon as you.

2) ArenaNet obviously sets drop rates with the knowledge that Magic Find is out there, potentially crammed into every piece of gear a player owns. As a result, default drop rates for everything are undoubtedly lowered for the rest of us, to compensate. Obviously I can’t prove this, but it’s naive to assume ANet don’t take it into account.

3) Why on earth should a player be rewarded for stacking a stat that essentially does nothing? Someone who’s so amazing at the game that they don’t even need a third stat clearly knows how to build a character well enough that they can be creative and think of a way to benefit from the extra — and thus, get things done faster and get more rewards from more efficient playing. A pug group who is less experienced will appreciate that kind of player even more — they don’t need someone who is intentionally bringing themselves down to their level just so they can selfishly benefit from a few more drops during a dungeon run. If you’re really so great that you never die and are pumping out mad loads of damage, then start buffing other players or try and take some of the heat off whoever currently has boss aggro. Surely you can think of a few ways to do that.

I might be okay with Magic Find if it were restricted solely to food or accessories, or something that equalized its potential across more players. When you start seeing people with “Magic Find” builds, though, you simply haven’t integrated a good feature into the game. You’re basically telling people that there’s no reason to develop your character past mediocre, and that even the most skilled players wouldn’t benefit from the full range of tools available to them.

So, it would be too much work to fix the hair conflict, but it wasn’t too much work to make graphics for an entire equipment slot that many people instinctively toggle invisible, due to said conflict? Doesn’t ArenaNet want to sell headwear like the Witch’s Hat, Wintersday Hat, etc., in the gem store?

Guys, I think I found out what happened to the horses…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Drop_of_Magic_Glue

Call me selfish, but I’m heavy into Skirmishing so I like that trait right where it is. :-)

No new races coming up in the near future, but I will make an effort to hug the next quaggan I see.

Yep, ArenaNet sold their three million units and are packing it up. The servers go down next week, and development on GW3 will commence shortly. Suggestions for new classes, anyone? I’ve really got my hopes up for a Mathemagician.

1) Would you prefer ascended gear to be the last tier implemented for the remainder of GW2?
YES
2) Would you prefer ascended gear to be equal to exotic gear in all statistics except agony resistance?
I DON’T KNOW, it depends how they handle Agony and the Ascended tier in future.
3) Would you prefer the level cap to remain at 80 for the remainder of GW2?
NO
4) Would you prefer if WvW was set up on an equal playing field similar to PvP?
YES
5) Would you prefer if WvW / PvP / PvE had separate skill functionalities?
NO
6) Would you prefer if Magic Find was removed from the game completely?
YES
7) Would you prefer if Magic Find was divided equally amongst all party members?
I DON’T KNOW what you mean by that.
8) Is GW2 too ‘Grindy?’
NO
9) Does GW2 need less RNG?
YES, in some cases
10) Has the Trading Post [and all its users/farmers] positively impacted the economy?
YES
11) Do you have as much faith [and/or enthusiasm] about the game [and/or company] as you did before launch?
YES
12) Do you reasonably expect [many of] your primary concerns to be addressed in early 2013?
YES

I make an effort to rez anyone I see, as fast as possible. To me, it just feels good to help people that way — and it’s like a fun challenge to try and pull one off in the center of a dangerous situation while not getting walloped myself. I’m also more than happy to receive a rez. I don’t know why anyone should be “embarrassed” to be revived. I’m not going to wait around on the ground if there are no visible players in the immediate area, though. That is a waste of time.

A method to tag other players who need a rez? Hmm, it’s a nice idea in theory, but I can imagine some abuses. For example, there will be jerks who will tag you to say they’re coming to help — when really, they aren’t. Or, you tag them and then they complain afterwards that you didn’t come fast enough and wasted their time.

Obsidian.1328:

The problem is the introduction of guns(and all of those tanks, robots, etc. you mentioned) into the game in the first place. There was no need for it, and it creates an odd oxymoronic situation with different technologies/crafts/philosophies all existing in the same time period.

The thing is, when someone asks for Rangers to use guns, they’re really just asking for the profession to fit the setting of the game and make use of weapons that are completely appropriate in terms of both lore and game mechanics. There is no rational reason to decry or snub such a change, and to do so is to make references to an invisible rulebook that apparently only you can see.

If you feel that strongly against the use of guns in a fantasy setting, you are playing the wrong game — and your issue isn’t specific to Rangers. Why is it okay for a warrior, or a thief? I don’t know what personality you have arbitrarily ascribed to those professions in your mind, but don’t go telling me that a perfectly available and widespread weapon doesn’t suit my character, especially when my character leans heavily toward ranged combat.

Sorry you feel Tyria is an “oxymoronic situation” — and maybe it is. I agree that it is jam-packed with anachronisms, and conflicting technologies that would seem to render each other obsolete in many instances. If anything, maybe Rangers should only use guns, and everyone should leave bows behind. You may have to be technically-minded to design and build a gun, but it’s definitely not a requirement to use one.

Obsidian.1328:

It’s like ANet wanted to appeal to the steampunk and techno-magic crowd, while still somehow having the simple “D&D” setting remain relevant. Traveling to each of the capitals you feel like you are using Asuran “time” gates, every city is in a different time period. :/

GW2’s Ranger class is the result of ANet’s desire to keep some of those “classical D&D style elements” in the game. I doubt they will let them have rifles.

All of that must sound very insightful and incisive to some people, but it has no grounding in evidence. Those Asura Gates link different races, not different professions. Every race can choose any profession. Even the Asura and Charr, the most technologically-advanced cultures in Tyria, can be Rangers. If you don’t agree with this, then your beef is with ArenaNet’s handling of racial restrictions in general, and not with Rangers having guns. Heck, World of Warcraft gave Hunters guns — and that setting was about as technologically advanced as Tyria (maybe even less).

Imagine this scenario:

Charr Warrior: “Hey, I noticed you tend to favour a ranged style of combat. Why stick to that flimsy bow all the time? Ever think of trying a rifle, like a real Charr?”
Charr Ranger: “No way! That would shatter my classical D&D style elements!”
Charr Thief: “Ha ha, what a dork. Now be quiet. I’m trying to fire a subtle barrage of STEALTH bullets from my booming STEALTH pistols!”

There are inconsistencies and anachronisms in this game. We are going to have to deal with it. Picking this one profession to forcibly stagnate in some medieval time capsule isn’t doing anyone any favours, and it’s not in service of the setting ArenaNet has written (as opposed to the secret one you say they were really trying to write).

Xaaz.8472:

You do realize you can commune with that skill point from the side of the platform, not even having to kill a thing, right?

Ha ha, no, I didn’t realize that! Well, that would have helped, had I known… :-S Oh well.

I would love to play a Monk or martial artist type profession, and I do want to see some fist weapons — but in terms of filling in gaps, we need another heavy armor class more than anything else. There are only two of those, but three lights and three mediums. I don’t know how important it is to maintain that kind of balance, though it seems to me that you want to prevent one type of gear from being drastically higher or lower in demand.

Firelysm.4967:

We don’t need any guns! And i would pay with gems not to implement any of them! Ranger is not meant to use any either, go play thief u have plenty of styles to play with guns! Close this topic!

Are you for real?

I definitely want to be able to use a rifle, as a ranger. I think it’s more than appropriate. Sorry, but creating a ranger in this game doesn’t involve religiously subscribing to this untouchable “ranger theme” cult as some of you might like. What are you people even talking about?
Where in your totally made-up Ranger Code of Conduct does it state a requirement to swear off firearms? Why should one kind of ranged killing machine, made of wood and string, be more “acceptable” than another kind, made of wood and metal?

“Ranger” is a profession, like any other — not a philosophy for luddites. You know Tyria has tanks, flying machines, and robots, right? If you don’t want to use guns, no one is going to force you.

I play on Sorrow’s Furnace, which is currently the third worst server in WvW. I had my worries about ever getting into the central keep in the Eternal Battlegrounds, but the last time I went in there, we got it. I guess when you’re terrible, you get pitted against other servers that are terrible — and sooner or later, you’re bound to get lucky. That’s the whole idea of their ladder system.

I was also extremely worried about ever getting the skill point at the Altar of Lyssa in Malchor’s Leap. In order to get in there, you need a concerted effort of like 15-20 people to capture the Cathedral of Eternal radiance, then take down a boss or something in the center. But one day, I went in there and it just happened to have been cleared. I never thought I’d see the day.

So, I guess the moral of the story is — keep checking back regularly. It may be a rare thing, but it’s got to happen eventually.

Pinipals are so weird.. I actually saw my first one about a week ago. It was such a strange surprise, since I assumed I had already seen all the creatures in the game. I was like “WTF is this?! Why are these here?! Are they special?” They weren’t special. :-S

Anyone who buys the Elementalist Gear gets banned for exploiting! :-P

Heh, sorry, couldn’t resist.

But seriously, we don’t even know the context of the vendor selling this stuff. Is this just one of many vendors? Is the gear in the boxes something level-appropriate to the zone you bought it from? Is it a full set of all rares for people who just made it to 80? Whatever it is, I doubt it will have anything to do with the Ascended tier. ANet is working on more ways to attain Ascended gear, but I don’t think “buy a box with Ascended items in it” was what they had in mind.

I’m just excited about the general prospect of having new regular goals and events, and more avenues for acquisition of items, rewards, etc.

JemL.3501:

I heard they will release some head-bands which will allow us to port our mind into the characters and we will really be the characters.

Sweet, I’ll order my Nerve Gear right away.

http://avvesione.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/sword_art_online-21-asuna-human-nerve_gear-coma-hospital-bed.jpg

Oglaf.1074:

Having him either survive or return as a Risen enemy would somewhat diminish the epicness of the conclusion of his Legend.

I think it would be awesome if he (or at least some noteworthy character) actually fell to the Risen and came back to fight you against their will. Zombies are so overplayed these days, but if you’re going to have them in your story, why leave out one of the tropes that could actually serve as dramatic tension? As far as I can recall, nobody in this game who you ever meet gets turned into a Risen, forcing you to fight them in a tragic battle. Forgal’s a big guy and a good fighter, I could totally believe Zhaitan expending a little extra effort into turning a fresh one like him into some kind of “super-Risen” mini-boss. Maybe in the end he tries to resist, or even comes to his senses in his final moments and is ashamed of what he let become of his “legend.” Then you can be nice and just tell people he died honorably.

Seriously, did anyone you meet ever get turned? How could this not have happened?

Sky.7610:

Lol, what are you talking about? Of course its entirely possible to “pin down” an numerical cost on an infinitely usable gathering tool. The endless toymaker tonic or the unbreakable bell is on the TP, are they priceless? No. Why? Because of their realistic usage of their gathering tool.

Tonics, bells, and other novelties like that are just for fun. They don’t have any practical use in the game, nor do they give anyone an advantage in the game. I don’t know what you mean by “realistic usage of their gathering tool,” though. They aren’t attained through gathering.

Sky.7610:

10g = 250stacks of pick = 25,000mines. That is probably more than an average person would ever mine in this game

That’s a fair point. It’s still theoretically an infinitely priceless item, but as far as this is a conversation about practical matters, you’ve got me. We don’t live in Theoretical Land.

Sky.7610:

and the cost of 10g as a goldsink would as a result, surpass the goldsink of individual one time use picks.

In a bulk sum, perhaps. But, the design of an unlimited-use gathering tool is still to provide an unnecessary convenience to the rich, as if their time were more valuable than those who have a hard time letting that amount of money go. People who have 10g (or presumably, 30g for a full set of tools) to just throw away like that don’t need an easier time in this game. They have their gold to get them by, and can probably just buy whatever they need.

Sky.7610:

Fyi, the peoples whos economically savvy arent the one out there gathering…

If that’s true, then there’s no reason for this tool to begin with, since they wouldn’t need it.
You know, there are people who have alts who they just park in front of rare or high-demand gathering nodes. They log in, harvest, send to collectibles, and log out. We don’t need to make it simpler for them to do that.

Rieselle.5079:

if we want convenience, then how about a special tool that never breaks, but instead deducts some coppers for every use? the fee can be equivalent to buying the tools, so it’s effectively the same except you don’t have to worry about running out or carrying spares.

I actually thought of that a while back, though I think that would rub people the wrong way, especially beginners who can barely scrape together any money for repairs and their first skill book. They would be annoyed that simply gathering costs money, which doesn’t make any practical sense since you’re not buying it from anyone. We would hear even more endless “WTF GW2 is a grind like all F2P scam MMOs lol!!!!”

From our point of view, we have the privilege of hindsight. We’re only able to say it would be more convenient because we played through the game with the current system. Maybe it would be okay as an option you get once you reach max level or something, but imagine if that’s how you were introduced to the game. I don’t know about you, but I’d think it was a stupid rip-off, from that perpective.

Cowrex.9564:

Sylvari folk do have a bit of Drell complexion

Fixed that for you.

Yeah, it’s a sign of a good character creation engine that people are able to come in with their own image of what they want to make, and then do it.

Ronah.2869:

I turn off these circles. I don’t like to see cartoonish, unrealistic graphics. They just break the immersion. Also, I have turned off enemies names, NPC names, players names…. and everything else that fills up the view. Ctrl and Alt are good for use from time to time but very rarely. There was another thread here with a sensitive UI. I am all for it, so everything on the screen is hidden unless purposely revealed

The purpose of the suggestion was to optionally provide a higher degree of visibility in the AoE target circles for those who need it. For example, one of the two short posts before yours actually referenced vision problems specifically regarding colour-blindness. “Immersion” isn’t even worth addressing when players aren’t getting all the necessary battle information. There are fights where you absolutely need to get out of the circular range as fast as possible, and graphically there is almost no other indication of impending danger until it is too late.

Unfortunately, video games are a visual medium and do often require of their players a full range of colour vision. Hopefully, ArenaNet will add in a few more options that players could toggle on, for accessibility purposes. It doesn’t seem like it would be very difficult to implement, but until then it seems you folks are stuck having a harder go of it than the rest of us.

A skilled artist works within a restricted colour palette, rather than just barfing rainbows everywhere.

Not aware of any patches today, nothing in the patch notes on the Wiki:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates

Should there be?

There is nothing in your original post that sounds even remotely like grinding. You describe moving from place to place, doing heart quests, exploring, and having goals to work towards. Do you know what grinding is? Grinding is having to repeatedly do the same things over and over, basically performing monotonous tasks as your main method of advancement. You don’t have to collect 30 boar tusks, nor do max level characters grind to increase Reputation with various factions through repetitive “daily quests” aka chores.

You get XP for everything in GW2. You can explore, do hearts, participate in dynamic events, craft, do personal story — and in the course of that, you’ll undoubtedly complete your daily achievements which provide a big boost to XP as well. If you do all those things, you will quickly find yourself overlevelled before you complete a zone.

Grinding for Legendaries, dungeon tokens, ascended gear exists — but it’s far from necessary, and serves no purpose other than to just be there as an option. People who undertake that stuff have chosen to do so, and if they don’t like it they can stop doing it and not miss out on anything else.

Tiger.7506:

WoW = hard vertical progression … no life
GW2 = slight vertical progression… very good
The difference between medicine and poison is the dose!

Exactly right.

I don’t know why some people on these forums are so vocally against anything resembling a shade of vertical progression. Who wants to play an MMO where you know from the beginning: “I will never be more powerful than I am right now.”

What ANet has done so far is perfectly acceptable. None of the story and exploration content in this game, up to and including Arah, requires anything higher than Green to Yellow gear, depending on your skill. Both are extremely easy to obtain, whether by drops, trading post, or crafting. Exotics are also available for an added boost, but are not required by any stretch of the imagination — and the amount by which they make you more effective is nowhere near that of comparable tiers of gear in other games.

Ascended gear has recently entered the game, which currently has some kinks ANet is working out. At present, you have to run Fractals to get it — but you only need that gear for Fractals anyhow. It is a very small sliver of the game, self-contained, and designed for people who enjoy that kind of vertical progression and ramp in difficulty. I’ve run a few fractals, but haven’t received any gear from them yet whatsoever. And you know what? I’ve not been barred from anything else in the game.

There is no hard stop that players have to put up with if they don’t want to hop on a gear treadmill. Zhaitan isn’t hidden behind a succession of various raids and gear checks, and even the most casual player can potentially see and experience 100% of the game.

I play GW2 way too much — hours a day — and I still get to run dungeons and everything else with friends who only get to play maybe once a week if they’re lucky. This is one of the most balanced, fair-handed, equal-opportunity MMOs out there, allowing for many different kinds of players to participate and have fun. People who complain about “gear gating” in GW2 have no idea how spoiled they are, and are making a mountain out of a molehill. ANet is working hard to please you people, but they also have to please the fans who want more vertical progression.

As long as everyone has equal access and potential for advancement, I don’t see what there is to complain about.

There was another topic about dredge and their blindness, with regards to stealth:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-does-stealth-work-against-dredge/first#post1154385

There may be a more practical reason besides just “lore” though — the dredge are an entire race, found in many places all over Tyria. Most players will encounter them throughout their adventures. Making them immune to blind will be an unpleasant surprise the first time, but because they are so commonplace players can get used to the idea, and word will spread about them (like in these discussion threads). It’s not a big deal to grant sweeping immunity to a certain common effect to a well-known race, but if you start micro-managing each individual kind of enemy and selecting a few conditions that may be incompatible with not-so-obvious details, it’s just going to confuse and frustrate players in desperate situations.

Can an abstract elemental with no eyes be “blinded”? Who knows? Surely it must have some mechanism to sense its environment, but the particulars of it are pure speculation and probably not even worked out in detail by ArenaNet themselves. Saying they sense by “magic” is not an answer. They could still have “magical sensors” that receive and process light, and therefore would be susceptible to clouds of dust that obscure light.

Different types of enemies should have unique behaviours and a “flavour” to their tactics, but dumping on too many complications and caveats all throughout the game’s bestiary won’t improve the game.

We can disagree about what and how many gold sinks there must be in the game, but it seems strange to me to try and pin down a numerical cost that would “make up for” an infinitely-useable, unbreakable gathering tool.

If it’s unbreakable, and useable an infinite number of times, the proportionate cost of the tool is not 10 gold or 25 gold — it’s infinite gold. Such an item would be absolutely priceless.

Having to maintain your gathering tools provides a gold sink that is small, manageable, and consistent. It’s required of all players equally, and allows for the same amount of everyday material acquisition, at the same rate for everyone.
An unbreakable gathering tool utterly cuts off this gold sink, for the purposes of providing a convenience for those who are skilled enough to farm or manipulate the economy, or those who are able to play more often. It is a reward for simply scraping together a large lump sum of gold — and once that lump sum is spent, the maintenance costs are lifted from those players forever. Essentially, it is a tax cut for the rich.
People who can generate mass quantities of gold at any one time do not need to be more highly rewarded, and they don’t need their play time to go easier than other players who are struggling to get by.

If I recall that quest, I had an absolutely horrible time trying to beat him with my thief. You’ll get it, don’t worry. It’s a level 10 quest, so you’re 3 levels above but that doesn’t necessarily mean much at this point. Take a break from it until you get better gear, more skills and traits, or more comfortable with your elementalist. You’ll always be “downleveled” to an appropriate level range, but there are some aspects to your advancement that just can’t be downgraded.

Forgal was a cool character, but I found his voice actor pretty distracting. I can only associate that voice with Colonel Campbell from Metal Gear Solid. That, and Paul Eiding (voice actor) seemed to randomly “forget” what kind of voice to do for the character. Sometimes he’d do a very gruff, almost growling voice, and other times he’d just stop the gruffness and speak normally.

As for Claw Island, Forgal spent 95% of the time dead on the beach. I couldn’t even revive him, because there was a permanent cloud of undead on top of him at all times. For that scene, he was completely useless to me. Too bad, because he seemed to hold his own for the rest of the game.

To quickly answer your question before the usual whiners and spoiled kids chime in: No, I am not getting tired of GW2. There are some aspects I don’t like as much, and some missing features I wish were implemented, but overall it’s the most enjoyable MMO I have ever played.

Tyrianblades.7561:

Essentially it needs to work in the same way as WvW but with NPC’s. Each outpost they own spawns Grawl, and the outlying areas become hostile. The players have to capture each outpost and key point to drive the grawl back. Once everything in the area except the main Grawl base is taken no grawl enemies spawn. However there are still events to defend supplies from spiders, or protect an outpost from destroyers etc Every 6 hours the Grawl do a massive push to break out and capture more outposts. including sneak attacks on bases held by players.

This kind of sounds like how I thought Orr was going to be, except I don’t see why it would be instanced. Does each player get their own personal “version” of the instanced area, or is it like a dungeon and it resets from the beginning each time you go in? You mention the Grawl fighting back every 6 hours… just how long do you expect players to stay in there?!

mercury ranique.2170:

No there is not a difference. It is called freedom. And yes they are jerks. And yes they get on my FL, with a nick reminding me never to play with them ever again. And yes. Everytime I see them LFG I tell whole map chat what they’ve done.

Look at all the trouble you’ve had to go to, maintaining a list of offenders for fear of future incidents, and wasting your own time calling them out in map chat whenever you see one of them LFG. All this effort, because the slight inconvenience of a temporary ban pending an investigation by ANet would be stepping on their toes a little too much. Good heavens, I wouldn’t want to subject those fine gentlemen to anything so unsavory as a temp ban! Their ability to enjoy GW2 trumps everything.

Whether you are trying to protect others from suffering the same fate, or you’re just trying to get your revenge on the perpetrators, you are not the Batman of GW2. It is not your job to dispense vigilante justice in this fashion, nor should you be insisting that the rest of us should shoulder this burden and not bother ANet GMs with the problem.

mercury ranique.2170:

But I don’t think that the freedom to kick someone in any situation should be prohibited, or that Anet should be acting as a policeofficer for something we could easily handle as a community.

GW2 is not a free society. It is a video game, owned and operated by ArenaNet. Not only are they the police officers of the game, they are practically the gods. They have rules about how players are allowed to behave in the game, and there are consequences for not following those rules. As another poster thankfully mentioned, apparently they do have rules about needlessly kicking other players out of a party for griefing purposes.
ANet is doing their best to ensure that all who paid for the game get a fair shot at enjoying it equally and without hassle. If another player starts to become a hassle, we have the opportunity to report it. Why should this case be any different?

Even in the real world, we have laws that prevent people from harassing others or depriving them of their rights. If you don’t behave, you get a fine or wind up in jail. Your right to freedom is temporarily suspended. No one is 100% free to do whatever they want, whenever they want.

mercury ranique.2170:

I have seen misbehaviour in other games…

The result was that his name became garbage on the server within 10 minutes…

…after bout 5 hours he came round, made a public appoligy

Oh, good. So if this ever happens again, all we have to do is devote 5 hours to a public shame campaign.

What you just recounted was essentially a fairy tale. By that, I don’t mean that I don’t believe you or that it never happened — but rather that it is such an unrealistically rare and idyllic outcome that you can’t possibly expect this to happen consistently.

Your anecdote necessarily cannot function in the kind of situation the original poster described. It was him all alone in a dungeon, with four others who abused the game mechanics just to prevent him from getting the reward he deserved, for their own amusement. So, just how do you think he should “easily handle” the situation? Immediately start calling them out by name in map chat, like a raving lunatic? So, either they deny his story or say nothing at all, meanwhile 20 other people who are just annoyed with him report him for spamming the chat channel. Then maybe he gets banned. Best case scenario, no one believes him and just ignores/forgets the story in 5 minutes.

Imagine you were sitting in Lion’s arch, and some guy just starts accusing other players of kicking him out of a dungeon for bad reasons. You don’t know what happened, or why. You don’t know who’s telling the truth. What are you going to do about it, anyway?

ArenaNet don’t have to “guess” who to believe. They can look it up. They have all the data. It’s better for the guy to just report the incident to them, and let ANet handle it as they see fit — not try to convince others with emotional, one-sided anecdotes and hope to incite an angry mob. The goal is merely to prevent malicious behaviour, not score revenge and escalate the situation to involve more and more people.

I have no problems with a “vote to kick” feature being in the game, but like any feature it needs to have proper controls and monitors set up around it, and it needs to be reported when players abuse such features. Anything less is ignorant and irresponsible.

Since you asked, I would humbly offer two main criticisms of “Dark Templars Order”:

1) It’s kind of generic, nor very memorable, and doesn’t leave an impression.

2) Unless you’re referring to Guardians, no one plays a “dark templar” in GW2 — let alone everyone in your guild. Are you really an order of dark templars?

On the other side of the wall, there is a young Tengu wondering when the other races of Tyria will be released. :-P

Short answer: no one knows.

Honestly, though, don’t hold your breath for a new playable race. There may yet be more races coming, though I seriously doubt we’ll see it in the first expansion. The amount of work and resources that goes into creating the whole “race” package is so disproportionate to the amount of gameplay the greater gaming community as a whole would get out of it. As much as I’d love to see a new race, I have to concede that ArenaNet’s time is better spent elsewhere right now. Frankly, I’d be more intrigued with a new profession, if anything.

Onshidesigns.1069:

It breaks immersion when a kill doesn’t yield any drops at all. I don’t care if it’s under 10c profit.

I guess one man’s immersion is another man’s complete waste of bag space. I don’t really want to run over and loot every corpse, just to accumulate another stack of useless vendor trash.

“It breaks immersion?” What does that even mean? Like, why can’t I loot every corpse, regardless of whether I did any damage? Why doesn’t every dead lizard yield 24 teeth, 300 scales, 20 pints of blood, 16-20 claws, a complete set of internal organs, and a skeleton’s worth of bones? Heck, why isn’t Tyria’s surface made up entirely of the dead bodies of various animals and bandits? Doesn’t it break immersion to see bodies just vanish all of the sudden?

Because GAME MECHANICS, that’s why.

Nappychappy.7046:

People loved the game they paid for and beta tested, that game no longer exists.

I think I should start a “Hyperbole Wall” where I collect statements like:
- “GW2 is such a grind”
- “Worst purchase I ever made in my life.”
- “Played for 500 hours and thinking of quitting ALREADY!”

I played the beta. I bought the game on launch day. Loved it then, still love it now. Pretty sure it’s the same game, unless somebody hacked my computer and swapped the files with Maple Story.

Sorry you don’t like the work ANet has been doing lately, but obviously it’s still good enough to keep playing, or none of us would be here.

zabriel.4852:

Can we please be mature show these people some respect?

Boy, did you come to the wrong internet.

I never got involved with commendations yet, and don’t even know what they’re for, but the way I see it, if Lionguard Lyns is not currently providing any function then she should not be standing at the fountain constantly asking people for donations.

Toxyn.9608:

It depends on the requirements. As long as the yearly achievement is not structured to take a year to complete, it would not be a problem. If players were expected to play for a full year or even close to a year, an issue arises:

Not many people aside from children and the unemployed would be able to invest this much time. Most careers have periods of growth and crunch periods, as well as post-secondary programs. The holidays are also a time that many people prefer to spend with old friends and relatives that they have not seen in a while.

If such an achievement would take say, six months, that would give enough wiggle room to allow completion.

Excellent points. Not everyone can afford to play for hours, every day of the year. And even of those who can, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to keep it up for a full year.

The more long-term you set a timed achievement, the more long-term a player’s anxiety about whether they’ll be able to finish it. You would see a LOT of players getting frustrated all Novemeber/December (if they care at all), especially if they get anywhere close to completion. Can you imagine working on something all year, hoping you’ll get there in time, and then making it to 95% or more before you get cut off?