Guild Wars 2

I am personally pretty excited about the GS skill change. I think it’s gonna be awesome. But I’m majnly thinking of sPvP.

SonicTHI.3217:

Mercucial.6759:

Except for those that want to chase items with better stats.

But it’s all about you amirite?

Fun impacts loot collection. The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you dont need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but its not required to play the game. We dont need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who dont are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Colin Johanson

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”

-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet

Either this is all lies or you are playing the wrong game. Considering the nov 15th update and all the subsequent ones… enjoy the game as its been changed for you.

I keep trying to hit the + symbol, but it only let’s me do it once. This should be stickied somewhere unbiased.

In the end they are just a company. This game just happens to be their ‘product’, nothing more. It’s about maximizing profit, even if it means double-speak marketing. There seems to be a rift between what the designers want and what the marketing/financial department gets the final word on implementation. That’s why there are so many design decisions that just don’t make any sense.

Mercucial.6759:

Except for those that want to chase items with better stats.

But it’s all about you amirite?

Every other MMO that has ever existed is waiting for those players with open arms. This game and it’s predecessor were marketed to not have gear grind. This game has changed it’s ways for higher profits. Us players that don’t need a game to tell us how good we are but let our own skill level decide have no where else to go. This was out last refuge.

But it’s all about their kind ruining this game before they hop on the next MMO bandwagon, amirite?

The problem lies in the developers refusal to split PvE and PvP skills. Mobs don’t dodge, which makes the counter to HB non-existant in PvE.

As a player I shouldn’t have to look at the big picture and think “Well I may have put in tons of hours and got little-to-nothing to show for it, but at least someone out there is getting all the rewards for the same or less effort than I am. What a relief!”

That’s not fun for anyone but gambler’s. And really only the small percentage of winning gamblers.

Imagine working 40 hours a week and instead of a set wage, your income was decided by pulling a number out of a hat. Not many people would stick to that job. Only the lucky ones that were rewarded more for equal or lesser effort. Oh, and gambling addicts.

My build that I spent the past few months getting the ascended gear specifically for doesn’t even work underwater.

Most of my traits don’t matter down there, I’m forced to have a different elite skill (and skills in general), cross-combos are harder to pull off, the effects make it very difficult to see what the enemy is ever doing so smart play over button-mashing is almost impossible, and enemies leash entirely too far.

All of this combined makes underwater combat feel like a chore.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

jportell.2197:

Portal used to be infinite on a 60s CD…. Be happy it’s 20 now on a 90s CD. That is all.

Horrible justification. ‘It was even MORE OP before, be thankful now that it’s slightly less.’

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

I’m new to the Mesmer, so I haven’t played a one for long but I have played with/agains’t them plenty ofc.

The OP is right that it’s imbalanced to let more than 5 people be affected by any of these skills since that’s the limiting factor for everyone else (and for good reason).

The thing is, this is in the Mesmer sub-forum. No one wants ‘their profession’ nerfed. Ofc nobody is going to agree with these changes here. The natural tendency is to use what’s the most effective as long/often as possible while it’s still available. Balance is not what the players care about unless it’s someone else besides them that is too strong.

Actually, you’re wrong. Portal is a skill that facilitates movement, not buffing or other status effects. As such, the 5 target limit is meaningless for it. Portal is perfectl balanced because it’s a pure utility and tactics skill with multiple counters and workarounds, many of which were actually presented in this very thread.

There’s a reason that people are mocking the op, and it has nothing to do with a misguided attempt to keep portal. If you actually read his post, you’d notice that he’s just complaining about how a Mesmer turned the tables on his party when they tried to 5v1 him. It’s the most absurd premise for a complaint I’ve ever come across, and is a large part of the reason why almost no one is taking this seriously.

My argument is about the skill limits themselves and how Mesmer gets to defy the rules.

General AoE healing and damage- 5 limit
Warrior’s warhorn/banner speed boosts- 5 limit
Ele’s numerous speed boosts- 5 limit
Thief stealths- 5 limit
Everyone else’s everything- 5 or less limit

Mesmers- 20 or infinite.

As I explained in my previous post, portal is an entirely different type of skill, and bears absolutely no relation to normal skills that obey a 5 target aoe limit.

The infinite skills you refer to are, I presume, temporal curtain for swiftness and veil for stealth. The thing is that these skills are deficient in other ways, namely not stacking with any other buffs. Whether this makes them balanced, I’m not sure, but regardless of that fact, if you wish to debate the merits of line buffing aoe skills, I suggest you make a thread for them, instead of hijacking this portal thread.

How am I hijacking? I am talking about portal. I put that in there because it’s an important item of information that strengthens my point, which is primarily towards portal and mesmer as a whole.

And yes, portal is a different type of skill than just speed. But so is aura-sharing for ele’s or venom-sharing for thieves. Both of those have a 5 limit. Warrior banners are a different type of skill since they are stationary boosters, but still those have a limit.

It’s painfully obvious that portal needs a lower cap than 20. It’s extremely biased and overpowered like this. It breaks the rules that everything else goes by.

You keep saying that portal is OP and needs to be nerfed, but you always neglect to actually say why. I’d love to hear your reasoning on this.

To clear up any confusion before you try to explain yourself, let me start you off by fully explaining the difference between portal and skills that have a 5 target aoe limit. Portal is not an aoe. That is the basic difference. A 5 target aoe limit makes no sense because it isn’t an aoe. The skill is a utility transport, and no precedent exists in the game for a target limit on that type of skill.

With that in mind, go ahead and attempt to justify why portal is op, so that I can show you why it isn’t.

You are getting hung up on the AoE part when it’s irrelevant. It affects more than 1 person, and that’s the subject. It (and veil) breaks the rules that every other skill that affects other players in the game abides by. Even chain skills have a 5 or less limit and those aren’t “AoE”.

jportell.2197:

Portal used to be infinite on a 60s CD…. Be happy it’s 20 now on a 90s CD. That is all.

Horrible justification. ‘It was even MORE OP before, be thankful now that it’s slightly less.’

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

I’m new to the Mesmer, so I haven’t played a one for long but I have played with/agains’t them plenty ofc.

The OP is right that it’s imbalanced to let more than 5 people be affected by any of these skills since that’s the limiting factor for everyone else (and for good reason).

The thing is, this is in the Mesmer sub-forum. No one wants ‘their profession’ nerfed. Ofc nobody is going to agree with these changes here. The natural tendency is to use what’s the most effective as long/often as possible while it’s still available. Balance is not what the players care about unless it’s someone else besides them that is too strong.

Actually, you’re wrong. Portal is a skill that facilitates movement, not buffing or other status effects. As such, the 5 target limit is meaningless for it. Portal is perfectl balanced because it’s a pure utility and tactics skill with multiple counters and workarounds, many of which were actually presented in this very thread.

There’s a reason that people are mocking the op, and it has nothing to do with a misguided attempt to keep portal. If you actually read his post, you’d notice that he’s just complaining about how a Mesmer turned the tables on his party when they tried to 5v1 him. It’s the most absurd premise for a complaint I’ve ever come across, and is a large part of the reason why almost no one is taking this seriously.

My argument is about the skill limits themselves and how Mesmer gets to defy the rules.

General AoE healing and damage- 5 limit
Warrior’s warhorn/banner speed boosts- 5 limit
Ele’s numerous speed boosts- 5 limit
Thief stealths- 5 limit
Everyone else’s everything- 5 or less limit

Mesmers- 20 or infinite.

As I explained in my previous post, portal is an entirely different type of skill, and bears absolutely no relation to normal skills that obey a 5 target aoe limit.

The infinite skills you refer to are, I presume, temporal curtain for swiftness and veil for stealth. The thing is that these skills are deficient in other ways, namely not stacking with any other buffs. Whether this makes them balanced, I’m not sure, but regardless of that fact, if you wish to debate the merits of line buffing aoe skills, I suggest you make a thread for them, instead of hijacking this portal thread.

How am I hijacking? I am talking about portal. I put that in there because it’s an important item of information that strengthens my point, which is primarily towards portal and mesmer as a whole.

And yes, portal is a different type of skill than just speed. But so is aura-sharing for ele’s or venom-sharing for thieves. Both of those have a 5 limit. Warrior banners are a different type of skill since they are stationary boosters, but still those have a limit.

It’s painfully obvious that portal needs a lower cap than 20. It’s extremely biased and overpowered like this. It breaks the rules that everything else goes by.

Thank you

Pyroatheist.9031:

Geikamir.6329:

I’m new to the Mesmer, so I haven’t played a one for long but I have played with/agains’t them plenty ofc.

The OP is right that it’s imbalanced to let more than 5 people be affected by any of these skills since that’s the limiting factor for everyone else (and for good reason).

The thing is, this is in the Mesmer sub-forum. No one wants ‘their profession’ nerfed. Ofc nobody is going to agree with these changes here. The natural tendency is to use what’s the most effective as long/often as possible while it’s still available. Balance is not what the players care about unless it’s someone else besides them that is too strong.

Actually, you’re wrong. Portal is a skill that facilitates movement, not buffing or other status effects. As such, the 5 target limit is meaningless for it. Portal is perfectl balanced because it’s a pure utility and tactics skill with multiple counters and workarounds, many of which were actually presented in this very thread.

There’s a reason that people are mocking the op, and it has nothing to do with a misguided attempt to keep portal. If you actually read his post, you’d notice that he’s just complaining about how a Mesmer turned the tables on his party when they tried to 5v1 him. It’s the most absurd premise for a complaint I’ve ever come across, and is a large part of the reason why almost no one is taking this seriously.

My argument is about the skill limits themselves and how Mesmer gets to defy the rules.

General AoE healing and damage- 5 limit
Warrior’s warhorn/banner speed boosts- 5 limit
Ele’s numerous speed boosts- 5 limit
Thief stealths- 5 limit
Everyone else’s everything- 5 or less limit

Mesmers- 20 or infinite.

I’m theory crafting away from my computer and was wondering if anyone knows if these stack or cancel out?

I’m new to the Mesmer, so I haven’t played a one for long but I have played with/agains’t them plenty ofc.

The OP is right that it’s imbalanced to let more than 5 people be affected by any of these skills since that’s the limiting factor for everyone else (and for good reason).

The thing is, this is in the Mesmer sub-forum. No one wants ‘their profession’ nerfed. Ofc nobody is going to agree with these changes here. The natural tendency is to use what’s the most effective as long/often as possible while it’s still available. Balance is not what the players care about unless it’s someone else besides them that is too strong.

Having is split would definitely be better than all get full shares, that’s not a perfect solution either, because it would make guild groups shun randoms joining in with them.

But like I said, that’s a far less severe problem than zerg tagging your way to victory.

Like I’ve said in other threads, their live team is too small. They are putting so much of their force working on expansion content that they don’t have enough man power to do anything substantial. So to try and make it ‘feel’ like we are getting content, they time-gate everything. And they give us pseudo content in the form of checklists that don’t add anything new to do at all, but just a quest log for existing content.

The whole strategy seems to be ‘less is more’. So they give us very few options up front and slowly seed new things in to make us more likely to do/buy each new addition. Gem store is a perfect example of this. There could be so many things done with it that players would love to buy, but if they gave us more options how many people would actually be spending money on such lack luster items like the cooking outfit and a sleeveless hoodie? Not many. Since there isn’t really much to spend money on, they add something small like that every couple months and through scarcity alone players jump on it to purchase. It’s great for business, bad for players.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

radsaq.8269:

Agreed. I think out of all the complaints leveled against the necro profession, the most valid ones are the long cast times for relatively weak skills and the excessive (and seemingly inexplicable) use of projectiles.

To be fair, we have tons of ranged attacks that are not projectiles (every land weapon skill but Reaper’s Touch, Deathly Swarm, and Necrotic Grasp is not a projectile, though they may be ranged. Underwater, spear has 2 projectiles, but projectile-hate is much lower there) Truthfully, out of all the ranged professions, necros are the least projectile reliant class. We just happen to have a couple skills that are projectiles.

Dark Path and Deathly Swarm home very well, my complaint is the fact they ride on the ground, so they are not very helpful in WvW scenarios or some dungeons.

The projectiles that we use cast for a long time, have long cooldowns, and have a very slow movement to the enemy. This makes for very clunky combat in such a fast paced game.

This is almost completely related to off hand weapons, though there are others as you mentioned.

I’m still pretty new to necromancer. I’ve been trying to play a power build using dagger and axe main-hands. The main professions I normally play are Thief and Ele (D/D). Both of them rely on being very mobile and very fast. The Necro is neither of those things.

Ultimately that’s fine since it has a higher HP pool, but the two things that bug my the most are the fact that all of the skills take so long to cast and there are so many projectile related skills. The lack of mobility is also quite annoying, but that would be easily overlooked if the other problems didn’t persist.

For cast times: This causes me so many issues in sPvP because the style of the game is fast paced. There are so many ways to CC me. In fact, sometimes it feels like I’m stunned, knocked down/back, or crippled about 90% of all my fights. I have a hard time getting any of my skills of to set up any combos. Getting more than 1 or 2 skills off in succession feels like the maximum I can ever do. On top of the fact that vigor is so easily acquired on most other professions and projectile blocking skills as well as normal blocks prevent the skills from connecting.

And then after the long casts I have to deal with very finicky projectiles. There are so many skills that SEEM awesome, but in practice they are so flawed. The projectiles move slow, are easily out maneuvered, and sometimes just plain don’t do what they say they do.

Taking a look at some of the skills I’m referring to-

Deathly Swarm: Awesome idea for a skill, but takes forever to reach the enemy. I feel like it misses far more times than it hits.
Enfeebling Blood: The 3/4 cast time doesn’t seem like it should be an issue, but even after that cast time, the skill does not take effect immanently. It takes another 3/4+ before it ‘lands’. You have to basically gamble to where you think your opponent is going to move to have any hope of this working.
Reapers Touch: It some fantasy world this applies regeneration to me and my allies. Not in this reality though. The bounce distance must be microscopic. Even when it eventually hits, the health gain is laughable.
Spinal Shivers: This one hits instantly when it’s cast, but takes 1.25 seconds. By itself, that’s fine because the effect is really nice. But when combined with the other long, slow skills, it just adds to the sluggish feel.
Unholy Feast: The second that this takes to cast doesn’t sound like that long, but when you are trying to use it for the retaliation against a melee opponent, it feels like an eternity. All for a measly 3 seconds retaliation. The only time this skill makes any sense is during a group fight when no one is paying attention to me so I can at least get a longer duration if I don’t get CC’d first.
Life Blast: Nothing wrong with this skill but like spinal shivers, when combined with the other skills each 1 second cast feels longer than the last.
Dark Path: Great idea for a skill, but in reality it’s so easy to dodge because the projectile is so slow.
Spectral Grasp: Another great skill in concept, but is also another projectile. So many times this skill has been blocked, dodged, or evaded.
Consume Conditions: That 1.25 second cast feels like it takes 2 hours when in the middle of a fight.

Why do all these skills have be projectiles on top of the long cast times. It adds up to make the necro feel very clunky and almost gimmicky.

What are you guys thoughts?

How can you post the link, completely seeing how the website (and her name) is spelled, and yet get it wrong anyway?

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

If I was awarded $1000 for a halfcourt basketball shot but the person behind me was awarded $10, that would be unfair.

If we both took the shot again, suceeded, and were awarded $500 each, then that attempt would be fair.

But then Person #1 would cry foul. Why am I suddenly getting rewarded less? Other person be kitten this isn’t fair.

Though I’m afraid we’re starting to argue about subjective interpretations of the word “fair” which won’t have a conclusion at all. I wanted to keep this discussion objective, but I obviously failed miserably in my original intentions. It’s good to know that you’re passionate about your opinion and willing to articulate it though.

I do think that in the end we will have to agree to disagree. In the end you want the free market to be supreme and I want equality to be the ultimate goal. Those two concepts have a very hard time being friends.

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

No, it’s fair by definition.

Taken in a vacuum, yes.

But we’re not working in a vacuum here. You’re comparing your system to the system we have right now, which is a player-driven market. And under your new system, certain players will benefit, while others will suffer.

So it’s not.

That’s not how fairness works.

If I was awarded $1000 for a halfcourt basketball shot but the person behind me was awarded $10, that would be unfair.

If we both took the shot again, suceeded, and were awarded $500 each, then that attempt would be fair.

I was unfairly awarded beforehand. Just because my award comes down in amount does not mean that I am being unfairly treated. It’s the exact opposite because fairness accounts for the balance of 2 or more entities/rules/regulations/etc. to be universally identical/functionally similar (based on subject matter).

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

What is unfair is that just because someone happens to like a dagger or greatsword better that they should be punished by paying more.

On the flipside, isn’t it also unfair then, that someone who actually wants a focus or a torch have to pay the same price as a GS/dagger, whereas in a player-driven market he’d most likely pay much less?

No, it’s fair by definition.

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

I do see your point but, while that’s it’s better to have that option than do have them be character bound, a more fair system would be to have them bought through vendors like cultural armors or dungeon merchants and erase the mystic forge from the situation all together. This is the more elegant and fair solution, by far.

Which begs the question, why is a constant, set NPC vendor price more “fair” than a market-driven, player-dictated price?

It depends on the specific prices set of course, but players who want one of the less popular Legendaries (like the focus or the spear) will be hosed. Market-driven prices puts a premium on demand. With constant NPC prices, players will even have less motivation to go for the less-popular Legendaries. Do you really want to get an underwater Legendary, when at the same price you can get a GS legendary?

Just something I’d like to point out. I am a firm believer in the opinion that the market should dictate everything. Whether your method is “fair” or not isn’t as clear cut as you try to make it.

Of course there’s the option that Anet sells these precursors for 5000G each from an NPC. Is that also fair?

I never said what the price from the vendor should be set at, because I haven’t thought about where it should be set at. The important thing is that they ARE set. But yes, all legendaries should have the same price (except water ones, which should be cheaper since we spend less time underwater) because that IS fair. What is unfair is that just because someone happens to like a dagger or greatsword better that they should be punished by paying more. The incentive for making legendaries should not be reliant on cost. If people don’t like how certain ones looks, it means they weren’t designed well enough.

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

I’m not comparing the two.

Forgive me for misunderstanding you, but this is what I understood from your post.

Geikamir.6329:

There’s no way for him to know that he could have bought it before hand, because there is no way to find out how lucky you are going to be until you gamble.

This is absolutely true. There is a ton of uncertainty if you attempt to use the MF to obtain a precursor. No one refuting this.

Geikamir.6329:

And even buying them does not have a set price. It has constantly changing goalposts based on the whims of other players. So even that you don’t know what the cost will be going in.

And then you say this. If you’re not trying to compare the uncertainty of obtaining a precursor on the MF to the “uncertainty” of purchasing said precursor on the BLT, then what are you trying to imply in this statement?

Again, there’s always an “uncertainty” with the BLT. You never know what Anet or the players do. But this “uncertainty” is only a problem if prices for precursors increase infinitely (Because I highly doubt you have a problem if they went down.). Which again, is unlikely to happen in this economic system. If players just continue to accrue gold, they will eventually reach a point where they can purchase a precursor outright, without any chance of “failure.” This is far greater amount of “certainty” than using the MF.

Despite my overuse of the word “certainty,” I do hope you’re understanding my point though.

I do see your point but, while that’s it’s better to have that option than do have them be character bound, a more fair system would be to have them bought through vendors like cultural armors or dungeon merchants and erase the mystic forge from the situation all together. This is the more elegant and fair solution, by far.

Ursan.7846:

Charismatic Harm.9683:

This is a “Hindsight is 20/20” argument. It’s a perfectly valid point though. With the ~1000g he spent on the rares, he COULD have purchased the precursor that he wanted outright….but he didn’t.

I think you misunderstand me. My entire point is directed at Geikamir’s attempt at comparing the level of uncertainty in purchasing precursors from the BLT and obtaining it from the MF.

Which is an absurd comparison.

I’m not comparing the two. I’m saying that combined they create a horrible system that promotes unfairness.

He didn’t know he was going to spend 1000g trying before he actually did. And that’s a fact.

I don’t care that it urks you as you don’t care that the entire system was built based on the principle of unfairness. It’s unfair that some can get rewarded more for contributing less. And unfairness isn’t fun. Except for the minority (the lucky).

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

I didn’t say no players do that. I said no one bought the game to do that. When you go into a casino you go in to gamble, that’s the purpose it exists.

I don’t follow your logic. Just because people didn’t purchase the game explicitly for a certain feature, it shouldn’t exist?

I highly doubt people bought the game to do jumping puzzles either. Should they exist too? (Yes, there are many people who don’t like them.) In fact, I’d say going into an mmo expecting no RNG is to be a bit unrealistic.

Anyways, while I do respect your opinion, the system that’s in place is what we have right now. Within the constraints of the current system, if the OP actually had sold those 4000 rares and purchased the precursor outright, he would not be having this problem. If you so vehemently oppose the system, then the Suggestion forum is that way.

There’s no way for him to know that he could have bought it before hand, because there is no way to find out how lucky you are going to be until you gamble. Likely around 99% of all precursors were made from gambling, so someone has to do it. And even buying them does not have a set price. It has constantly changing goalposts based on the whims of other players. So even that you don’t know what the cost will be going in.

Legendaries are the end game for PvE. It’s what players have to do when they’ve completed the story line and maybe even leveled some alts. It is the only thing LOTS of players are still playing for. Jumping puzzles are a side joy that can all be completed in a day. They are vastly different things.

Expecting no RNG is not the problem. It’s the variation between those that win and those that lose. It’s HUNDREDS of hours worth of variation. And that’s not fun. Well, for anyone other than the few select winners.

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

…laurels rewarded for achievement points?
Select one:

• ‘soon’
• ‘when it’s ready’

• ‘different system’

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

No it’s not. Not all gambling is involves casino. No one bought this game with the intention of going in to gamble currency to make more currency. No one says “I want to make a legendary because there’s gambling involved.”

You’re right. The MF doesn’t serve free drinks. It is not a casino.

Also I know what your opinion is and I believe it has discussed to death already so I don’t care too much to talk about it. However, I would appreciate it though if you don’t project your own opinions on the playerbase as a whole though. Gambling currency to make more currency? Yea, many players do that. Willingly in fact.

Also if you don’t like RNG that much, the Suggestions forum is that way.

I’ve heard your opinion and don’t want you to discuss it any more either. >.>

I didn’t say no players do that. I said no one bought the game to do that. When you go into a casino you go in to gamble, that’s the purpose it exists.

If you don’t like my opinion, and the opinions of others, the [X] button on your browser is that way.

Ursan.7846:

Geikamir.6329:

But this isn’t a casino, this is a video game.

That is false. The MF is a casino within a video game.

No it’s not. Not all gambling is involves casino. No one bought this game with the intention of going in to gamble currency to make more currency. No one says “I want to make a legendary because there’s gambling involved.”

Gestankfaust.4216:

The major majority thinks the dailies are fine.

Prove it.

How some of you guys think that achievement points will reward laurels is beyond me. He clearly says it’s going to be a different system.

Ursan.7846:

I have a question. When you lose money in a gambling casino, do you blame the house?

But this isn’t a casino, this is a video game. And he didn’t ask to let the mystic forge make him risk, he wanted a legendary. Which is the end game for PvE.

Random is not the answer, because it’s only fun for the few select winners.

Red Falcon.8257:

Here is a fact for you guys:
Every single solution to endgame progression any company tried in the last 20 years of MMOs led to complaints.

If it’s dungeon RNG = “boohoo RNG bad design”
If it’s dungeon tokens = “boohoo token grindy bad design”
If it’s daily activities =“boohoo I need to play every day bad design”
If it’s easy to get or cosmetic = “boohoo game has no endgame”
If it’s karma grind = “boohoo but I don’t like events bad design”

Name one way that would make everyone happy.
You know what? There isn’t.
People will continue to deem “forced” and “grindy” everything and the opposite of everything.

This is what happens when you try to appease too many different mind sets. The people that make those complaints are very different players with different gameplay desires.

darkace.8925:

Guild Wars 2 is a vast improvement over Guild Wars. Why? It fixes so many things Guild Wars did wrong; such as stagnant gear progression and a lack of end-game.

Revolution.6301:

You can’t call Gw2 an improvment over the original Guild Wars

Too late…I just did.

You seem like you’d be a perfect candidate for insert any MMO ever made. You’d really enjoy it!

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

caiomacos.1694:

How do you get max stats in GW2?
Unfortunately, since the addition of ascended gear, grinding.

well, all mmorpg have some grind in them.

at least the grind in gw2 have a 100% method to get max stats.
i dun play other mmorpgs much.
could you name me other games that have some 100% method to get max stats?

thanks!

“Guild Wars 2. Sucks less than other MMOs!”

kenshinakh.3672:

I don’t think Ascended is a grind, or doesn’t force you to grind for it.

Granted, getting ascended is harder than exotics, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a grind. The way I see it, you get your neck ascended through Laurels from Daily and Monthly. You can get your rings through FoTM or Laurels. And I think there was something from Guild Missions too, but I have to check on that. But you don’t have to “grind” to get your rings in FoTM. Just do one or two levels a day, and you’ll progress through levels 1-20 at a decent pace, without really grinding.

What happens when someone took a break from the game a day before laurels were added. And then comes back in 2 months? They will be behind everyone else and unable to catch up, because there is a time gate in front of them. That is a time-based grind, no matter how you want to spin it.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Minion of Vey.4398:

The goal of a game should not be to suck less than the competition.

if we get max stats too easily people complain there is nothing left to do.

remember what happened shortly after launch?

There are other ways to provide content than higher stats. In fact, ascended gear IS NOT actual content. It’s time-gated, pseudo content to give us something to keep logging in daily until they release expansions for us to buy.

Victory.2879:

Make ascended items tradeable before worn. Problem solved.

In fact, for 99% of the casuals, making dungeon gears, fractals gears, and all the various ‘currencies’ tradeable would solve their gripes and make the game more enjoyable for everyone.

Games with dailies remind me of ‘Battle of the Immortals’ where mobs gave so little experience per kill the ONLY way to level up was…dailies. Dailies are tedious, repetitive, and force you to do something you don’t really want to be spending your time doing.

I agree. The thing is, they won’t do that. If they did that there would be no time-gate for the ‘content’. Which means they wouldn’t be able to force people to log in each day to stay up-to-date with gear. The monthly updates don’t provide enough actual content to keep people occupied, because they have too few people on their live team.

darkace.8925:

Geikamir.6329:

If you like gear grind EVERY other MMO was designed for you. If you don’t like the gear treadmill, what MMO do us players have? It was supposed to be GW2.

So now, with the addition of ascended gear, you cannot play Guild Wars 2 without grinding for gear? You cannot enjoy whatever it is you enjoyed about the game before the addition of ascended gear?

I don’t enjoy being disadvantaged, no.

Without ascended gear you would be unable to enjoy the game?

critickitten.1498:

That’s the sign of a poorly designed event.

A well-designed event should cater to the people who play for fun, the people who play for a challenge, and the people who play for loot. It sounds like this one isn’t properly designed for distributing loot, so it’s running into problems.

The solution is to adjust the event so that it provides adequate rewards in all stages, so that people don’t want to lose that territory to the centaurs or what-have-you.

This is exactly right.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

This can be turned around to “pure skill based games” like MOBA. Not everyone likes those either. And FPS games like TF2, much the same. I meet people who absolutely abhor chess, and that’s as close to pure skill as you can get.

Also, I can perhaps see the carrot you’re talking about, but where’s the stick?

darkace.8925:

And some people DO like carrots on sticks. Just because you don’t, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be.

If you like gear grind EVERY other MMO was designed for you. If you don’t like the gear treadmill, what MMO do us players have? It was supposed to be GW2.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Geikamir.6329:

How bout give everyone equal stats and let skill and effort decide who deserves to win/move through content?

Because, generally speaking, those games tend to turn away far more people than they keep. They can be beautiful, wonderful games . . . but if people can’t play them then they won’t.

Not everyone likes carrot and stick game play. Just because that’s the current ‘generic’ doesn’t mean it has to be.

darkace.8925:

somsom.5201:

Or any of the myriad of groups starting to require Ascended gear. We all know that Exotic is a requirement now. To suggest that Ascended won’t be at some point…please, don’t kid yourself.

Name one thing…just one…that I cannot do unless I have exotic equipment. Not ascended…exotic. Just one…

You can do lots of things while being unnecessarily restricted. But not many people like to be disadvantaged.

How bout give everyone equal stats and let skill and effort decide who deserves to win/move through content?

Well, really that’s exactly what they want us to do. They want us to keep logging in daily to do the pseudo content that they’ve provided until they are able to push out an expansion for us to buy that has actual things to do.

If you do more than just that, you’ll start to realize how minor all of their monthly ‘updates’ really are. They have too few people on the live team to do anything of substance.

-Yes.

-We don’t know.

darkace.8925:

stof.9341:

They did? Didn’t notice. So far we had to run fractals to get the rings. Then they added a time gated way to get them with laurels. Problem is, I HAVE to use those laurels to get the necklace, so I cannot spend them for rings. So in the end, they didn’t really add a new way to get the rings.

As for that, then necklaces still only have one way to get them : Laurels. The mystic crafted one doesn’t count since it’s only one bad stat set it provides.

So far, they didn’t add new ways to get the ascended gear I for me.

Obtained from Fractals? “I don’t want to grind a dungeon for BiS gear.”
Obtained from Dailies? “I don’t want to wait to get BiS gear.”
Obtained via Gold? “It don’t want to grind gold for BiS gear.”
Obtained from Gem Store? “I don’t want to pay2win for BiS gear.”
Obtained from challenging fights? “It’s too hard to get BiS gear.”

What’s left? Do you people seriously think BiS gear obtained with no investment of time or effort?

With very little time investment, yes. I don’t need the game to grant me stats to tell me how good I can play. I’d rather let my skill decide.

GW2 was supposed to be our refuge. Free of gear grind, just as GW1 was. If you want the treadmill every single other MMO is waiting for you with open arms. The players that don’t like that have no where else to go.

The amount of people that would complain about not being able to get cultural armor refunded pales in comparison to the amount of people that would happily use this feature.

Rezz.8019:

15% tax has one purpose only. To stop or at least drastically slow down the power traders.

And to take additional money out of the game.

Just make it to where the personal story starts over with new choices. I don’t see what the problem with that is. Or even, I’d be ok with it just randomly picking things for me. I just want one of my characters to visually look like a different race.

John Smith.4610:

Akaji.1296:

John Smith.4610:

My job isn’t necessarily to prevent swings, it’s to know what they will be ahead of time, and make sure the swings will be predictable and understandable.

Are there multiple people in charge of that, or that dedicate a significant amount of their work effort towards it? It seems like a lot to handle for a single individual (and IIRC you have many other responsibilities as well) given the market size and the relative difficulty of predicting human (i.e. usually irrational/sub-optimal, but sometimes brilliant) behavior.

I work with several designers whom I would consider experts in mmo economies, so we can sit and chat and make sure we’re all on the same page.

Was there anything (that you will tell us about) that was a really big swing that was unexpected (whether totally or was larger than anticipated)?