Guild Wars 2

kitanas.3596:

OP, to answer your question: areanet has stated that they want you to be out having fun, not preparing to have fun.
How long does it take to organize a raid?
and is that time Having fun, or preparing to have fun?

I for one don’t like to craft, I don’t care for world completion and couldn’t deal with a legendary grind – all these things are a part of GW2 but not “fun” to me. So I just skip ’em and do the things I find to be “fun”. None of my GW2 buddies is engaged in all aspects of GW2, everyone picks and chooses their own fun.

As long as raiding isn’t forced on people to stay “geared” it’s content which you can choose to skip without being ‘left behind’. Lastly, for some people, preparing to have fun adds to their enjoyment of the game – leadership and tactical skills are just as valid as skills in combat.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Here’s an argument against raids that has nothing to do with gear treadmills or power tiers or any of the rest of those perfectly-valid arguments that Warcraft players keep telling us we’re overblowing.
<snip>
Answer: not nearly as many as you think, and not enough for raids to not be as divisive as Fractals are. A ten-man dungeon difficult enough to require prior coordination and active communications would be very inaccessible to the general playerbase, and while Warcraft players are cool with that – when they don’t actively encourage it as a measure to get all the dirty scrubs out of their game – the rest of us are not, and nor is ArenaNet. This is a game for all of us, folks, not just the top five percent who find soloing Arah to be a bore and are sick of having nothing challenging to do.

How’s that for a reason why raids are a bad idea in this game? Or am I just another scrubby old GW1 player squawking mindlessly about anti-anything Warcraft?

This argument is at odds with ANet’s manifesto, specifically the part about GW2 aiming to be a serious e-sport game, which requires at least the same level of “prior coordination and active communications” that pushing the PvE envelope would.

I’d raid for extra emotes, gear progression be kitten !

I think Therion hit it on the nail with his post. I love GW2 for what it is, but it doesn’t offer the possibility for the sort of victory (or fail) that I loved so much about WoW: big fights with 40 people all focussed on a single mission. Those fights lead to comradery, drama and a feeling of community which I think can only be achieved by offering people a challenge which pushes the envelope.

Now, I know ANet’s manifest includes the mantra “everyone should be able to see all content” – but pushing the envelope doesn’t necessarily preclude anyone. Like hearts, raids could include the option to contribute to the event/raid by non-combatants. It could include a spectator mode, enabling even the most casual to at least see the content.

I don’t want a gear-threadmill (nor level-cap raising, ever!), I want to have the opportunity to wallow in TS/vent silence on a fail, or roaring cries and YMCA-tunage on a win !

You’re confusing honesty with transparancy.

Some poster in some thread saying ANet isn’t honest doesn’t make it so – I’ve found them to be honest. And they’re a business- transparancy and business don’t always mix.

My $1300 PC runs GW2 maxed out. Sure, FPS drops to about 40 in bigger groups, but usually it’s around 45-60. A decent SSD and gfx card makes a big difference.

It’s your server.

Desolation is very active, including the low/mid level zones (at least those are far more active than WoW Frostwhisper was passed vanilla), LA is always overflowing (sorry) with LFG/LFM criers and trakittenalk.

Each day, every day.

Soon they’re going to be even better.

It’s the stream that has low FPS, obviously.

My $1200 PC (with GTX 660 Ti) runs GW2 maxed out, with added SweetFX, at between 45 and 60 FPS – only feature that cripples the FPS is super-sampling of textures.

Surely, it could be even more optimized, but you evidently don’t need even a $1500 PC to run it in full force, let alone a $3000 one.

TS, you’re confusing your personal opinion with fact and basically posted a long list of assumptions, /thread.

Not having a problem using shortbow on my thief, it’s awesome.

Recycled some names from work by Jack Vance, and the Judge Dredd comics. One char-name is based on an elite skill.

All of the classes have their plusses (and minusses), but you might want to look at guardian or ranger first. Tip: do your daily – it’s a ton of XP and karma, which you should save for max level, in my opinion. Be sure you gather all resources you come across. Learn the basics – Reddit had a good list (also check the comments there for even more):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/ze2je/a_few_helpful_tips_for_newbies_and_the_uninformed/

Above all: have fun ! Don’t get too hung up on any content you might find frustrating, just go doing something else first, there’s a ton of content.

Kessex Hills is my get-it-done-quick zone: plenty of repeated DE’s and usually some other peeps around to kill the overlord champ with (even if it’s easily doable with two).

Sounds cool, maybe give you a mark of sorts, so people can see you’re an imigrant… on second thoughts, that might be a tad…charged.

While we’re on the subject of a home city, I’d love to have a WoW hearthstone kinda thingy, maybe with a lot less opportunity (if any) to change it. Not so much because it saves a few seconds time, but because it gives a sense of your character belonging. In WoW it made a big difference to how I felt about a character by putting home to OG, UC (or even TB).

In a PUG I would take it as an offer of giving the item to someone who needs/wants it, possibly as a gift. But -hey- maybe that’s just the small vestige of optimism left in me.

Disagree. Raising the required vote to three is debatable, but getting rid of the feature would mean one player can cripple four others by not cooperating.

Why not just substitute your own playlists ?

Housing: agreed, but I seriously doubt it will materialize in a form I would appreciate, which is “free-form”. The idea of open-world player housing makes me reel thinking of the strain to the game’s engine, and I doubt it’s feasible. But sure, I’d love it.

Hall of monuments: didn’t really play GW1 passed the tutorial, so no opinion.

Guild vs. guild: absolutely, bring it on, kittens ! (I did type kittens, BTW )

PvP sandbox: sounds even more daunting than player housing, and I doubt the engine / network code was designed to handle it.

Chevalier, excellent post, you’re making me reconsider joining more than my current guild of IRL buddies

Still…guild drama does have something going for it: emotion. Once people get riled up, chided, openly appreciated or otherwise engaged, they tend to stick together more. Or at least that’s how I saw it back in raiding WoW days.

Having your name displayed to enemies in PvP as a reward would be great, i.e. you have to “earn a name for yourself” in battle – before that you’re just fodder, which is as it should be.

What I’d like to see even more is a tier of titles which express something about your playstyle.

For example, someone who tends to have a strong focus on leading others towards objectives could earn a title which instantly broadcasts to friendly players that this is someone with experience leading, which would probably make them more willing to group up and follow ‘orders’. At the same time, it would broadcast a greater importance as a single target to the enemy. Both these effects would strenghten group play.

As an another example, a player skilled at making solo infiltration runs (by e.g. ninja capping) could earn a title like Spy, which broadcasts to friendly playerw that this player prefers to go it alone so maybe isn’t a good choice to team up with, and marks him for special attention by the enemy. Introduce something like “Spy hunter” next…etc.

Great talk BTW !

Edit: spelling.

FLFW.3105:

But we should give Anet some credit i think. To think of ways to make game even worse than it currently is takes some skills , ill give you that.

So you’re saying you just paid to troll here ?

Hope you’re getting your money’s worth.

I’ve read no posts by people banned that have convinced me that any of them was not aware of doing something which they shouldn’t have been doing. If you need to ask, it’s not a bannable ‘offense’.

Hawkmoon.5849:

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

Hawkmoon.5849:

Yes, there was a Dev or CC/Mod post saying this was okay. The obvious reasoning behind this being an acceptable practice is the financial gain for ANet.

So, because it doesn’t benefit you, the player, financially, it’s ok… Anyone else seeing a pattern in what’s ban-worthy and what isn’t?

They’re running a business. What did you expect? Charity?

I think you missed the idea behind my post, good sir: I was making an obtuse reference to the recent Snowflake Incident, in which players were banned for using currently existing in-game practices of manufacture/salvage.

I was essentially saying, if you can make money without buying gold from the TP, it’s probably ban-worthy, but because this is not financially motivated, it’s safe.

What are you even talking about ? My last char reached cap with almost 20G to spent (I don’t craft, nor salvage). That might not be that much, but it was more than enough to deck him out with some pretty sweet looking weapons, dyes and whatnot, all without buying gems or getting the mythical ban you’re talking about.

At least reading stuff like this makes me feel fine not having joined a ‘serious’ guild after leaving WoW. I get bossed around quite enough to get the wage package in, and since you don’t need to join a guild to do any of the content, there’s little reason to put up with armchair führers, IMO.

The social coherence created by raiding is what held (and holds) (PvE) guilds together, at least in e.g. WoW. The need to organize 25 people to show up well-prepared and on time and follow raid leader directions leads to all sorts of interactions which bind people together and/or strengthens the guild – if it pulls through. If it doesn’t, it always leaves a bunch of players looking for a new guild, keeping the pool of guild candidates fresh.

I’m hoping DE’s with more scope and more involved world champion fights will bring the need to organize, and with it will come solid PvE guilds.

TS, your post is so full of bias, presumption and lack of understanding that I’m not going to respond to it, except to say that you’re wrong on all points.

Desolation PvE is very active.

Desolation world PvE is very active.

Desolation PvE is very active.

Not comparing it to other servers, since I haven’t needed to try another, but Desolation world PvE is very active. If you do pick it and need a hand feel free to PM, I’d be happy to help out.

I like an abundance of clone options, e.g. cloning when dodging, which probably explains why my DPS isn’t as high as it could be, but I feel like I can take on a crazy number of mobs at the same time and just condition-’em-down while an army of me laughs at ’em.

When showing off I even like to do a /sit mid-combat and watch a phantom (specced for more HP) chissel down the mobs while they’re running after my clones.

After trying every combination I settled on greatsword / staff, and since then I had no trouble juggling three or four mobs two or three levels higher than me (when still leveling), and I’m not even close to using my shatters efficiently. At 80 the survivability of my mesmer is excellent.

Blink is a great lifesaver too, and awesome too because it’s a little bugged so you can landsurf after you blink (the animation doesn’t engage unless you change movement)

Edit: and one more thing someone probably mentioned: keeping your gear at level is very important for a mesmer. Since I don’t craft and so got a ton of cash to spent I upgraded him every five levels to greens. Three levels would be better, it really makes a big difference.

Don’t know if it’s “top” or has “the best” community, but Desolation world PvE is active all day. I usually do my daily before going to work, playing around 5:00 AM (yea, I’m crazy like that), and even then I’m not alone, not even in low or mid level zones (yup, alt-o-holic).

Popping your dragon cherry is admittedly a great thing, gratz !

Having never enjoyed doing it before, I’ve spent most of my almost 500 hours playtime on alting because I’m still loving the leveling, working on my third toon now (a thief, after capping & gearing warrior and mesmer).

I know it’s been said too many times before, and some people are very cynical about it, but leveling really is (part of) the endgame, at least for me. Compared to the utter desolation of WoW’s low and mid-level zones, seeing all zones I wander through bustling with soloing peeps and plenty of karma trains is absolutely great, and it’s going to be even greater once they get the achievement tokens in.

If you feel you have to rush leveling, perhaps you’re really not enjoying the game. I savor it, taking my sweet time just enjoying the combat and exploring – finding hidden content in caves and such has lead to the best time I’ve had with guildies in this game too.

Edit: spelling.

Don’t know if it has the highest PvE population, but Desolation is very active, including the low and mid level zones.

Why not try both in WvW (PvP or PvE) and see which you like best ?

Better still: level both, I’m loving GW2 alting.

I’ve leveled a warrior first, which was fun. Then I finished a mesmer, and it was absolutely amazing, to me: original playstyle, versatile, high survivability and utility, loving it. Tried the necromancer in beta, and that seemed sweet too – I’ll probably start on that next after I finish my thief, which is awesome as well.

I didn’t mention the Lost Shores patch or event, and nothing about it bothered me to be honest. I did try the events, didn’t like ‘em, then moved on to doing stuff I do like, which is tons. It didn’t change my perception of ANet reading mine and everyone else’s forum posts.

So Dontain got it done back in november, three months from launch doesn’t seem that long to me.

Did you try to get the Time-Lost Proto-Drake in WoW ?

“Legendary weapon” to me means that I’ll rarely even get to see anyone with one, and I haven’t seen any (on a full server) in almost 500 hours of play. That’s a good thing.

A Jedi/Sith-like profession would be amazing, since GW2’s combat system is the first one in an MMO which has the tactile and fast combat needed to do it properly.

@Udhir: have you tried using .m3u instead of .wpl ? (I guess you have)

Does the character select screen play its tracks correctly at least ?

Try to create a list with only a couple of tracks, see if that clears it. Having experimented with a lot of tracks I did get the impression no .flac files play (if you have those in) and long tracks tend to get played more than short tracks or don’t play at all.

I also renamed all tracks to a simple format (xx.mp3) and cleared their ID3 (v1 and v2) tags.

Also, my silence file is about 5s long, maybe its length has some influence.

How many tracks are in the your lists ? I can imagine there’s a limit above which the playlist might be rejected.

Not stating anything as fact, just things I’m not sure are working properly all the time.
If you really can’t get it to work feel free to PM me the playlists and/or music tracks and I’ll have a look.

Tons of people playing and loving it, tons of people complaing on the forum it’s “dead”.

Both of these facts prove it isn’t.

Yes, they listen (read) everything, evidently.

Being listened to and getting things your way are separate things, for anyone who needs a reminder – keep things in perspective: being a gamer doesn’t qualify you for a position of “game designer by proxy”.

I have every confidence ANet is trying hard to keep improving the game where they feel it’s needed, based on feedback, but ultimately based on their obvious experience in designing the finest MMO so far.

Come on down to Desolation and bask in the glory of multiple Lion Arch overflows filled with LFG/LFM and DE karma trains, both in high and low level areas. With the coming addition of e.g. achievement tokens which can buy asc gear etc. I’m betting on an even brighter future.

Agreed, TS.

The open-world content that’s already in place is great – so great I’m really enjoying just alting without doing instances, but especially the DE’s that are already in place feel too small in scope and too repetitive, like placeholders. Vastly increasing the number, scope and depth of the DE’s in the world is going to lift this game from excellent to peerless, IMO.

You might want to hook up with https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ergonomics-Repetitive-Motion-and-GW2/

I’m not sure if they will change this of course, but technically I don’t see any obstacle to changing it, since the elite skillbar already offers it.

Well, I for one love that “too much stuff is optional”, which in my book reads as “if you don’t want to something in-game, go do something else – your choice!”.

A lot of the game is soloable, and most of it outside of instances. Since I tend to solo a lot in MMO’s anyway, I love that too.

I would like to see a lot more content which is so worthwile (because it’s fun and/or because of great drops) that I feel more compelled to party up outside of instances, and I’m pretty confident it’s coming. In the meantime, having spent 400+ hours in a non-subbed game means money well spent for me.

The sort of person smart enough to abuse an economy is smart enough to manipulate people into sympathy when getting punished. Evidence: the IRL financial world.

Not saying that’s what happened, just saying it’s a one-sided tale.

Orr was made for karmatrains, and it was made well.
It’s just that some people still don’t get that GW2 content isn’t something you rush through to get to your resource nodes of next level – it’s the game, and it’s great. Is it perfect ? No, only bacon is.

If you really feel your character is too nerfed because you keep dying, you might think about picking another set of weapons (and thus skills), or even switch class.

I think I’m not the only one who has experienced that what works for one person does nothing for another. I’ve got guildies who are absolutely lethal with elemantalists without dying a lot, but can’t deal with mesmer, peeps who swear by their ranger but can’t handle the warrior. Me, I can juggle a horde of mobs on my mesmer, but find the elementalist very unsatisfying…

Shorter version: shop around. Try weapons, skills, traits. Try to understand the thinking behing certain builds and see if it fits you. Seriously, you can rule like a king in GW2 combat if you find what works for you.

It’s a free teleport, so it debunked your post. ’nuff said.