Guild Wars 2

Beastgate since Beta

phys.7689:

stuff about RNG

I am deleting my comment in the hopes of not derailing this thread about traits any further.

It really annoys me when I see devs talking all over the place while pointedly ignoring this thread.

Yeah, Jon came in around page 41 to tell us that nobody has been watching and to hop on the hamster wheel again. Recently Gaile came in, copying and pasting Jon’s hamster wheel post.

Its been six months with this garbage.

By now platitudes will not help. If they had communicated throughout this thread, maybe we would tolerate them. By now, however, this issue has well passed its “sell by” date. The only thing that would satisfy me is specifics on what is going to be done and when.

I know fully well that such a thing is not going to happen. Maybe in another 20 pages we will get a non specific platitude from a dev but that is all we will get.

[deleted]

I would prefer a “deal with it” regarding the traits. At least that would be honest.

Tachenon.5270:

Well, my NPE elementalist hit 80 this morning. She has 23 skill points and 11 traits unlocked. Whee.

Edit on 12/22/2014: I think the amount of traits I earned via unlocks was 37 or so, not 41. I had lost my unlock list.

My experience leveling a new character to 80 with full traits:

I decided to give the new trait system a fair shake on a post April character, buying as few traits as possible. I dedicated all play time on my new Guard to unlocking traits. I managed to unlock 41 of them by:

• Being a huge PITA to other players: badgering people in map, guild, LFG. I did dungeon unlocks w/ 2-3 pugs per dungeon, starting when I was approx. lvl 60. You can imagine how that went.
• Taking some time (sometimes days) to get enough people to kill lesser done Champs like Kol Skullsmasher.
• Waiting for Anet to fix bugged events, coming back a few times a day for weeks. That worked with the Dredge Commissar, I gave up on the Foul Bear Chieftain after over 3 weeks.
• Wait for spawns, check repeatedly.

I bought the rest with my stash of scrolls:

• The 50% falling damage from OS JP right off the bat.
• The rest of WvW. I am not very good at level, much less upleveled. And… overgrown grub.
• Bugged events as described above.
• Dungeons I could not get a group for and got tired of asking, like Arah.
• Events that are near impossible to do, like Rhendak the Crazed.

The only part that I enjoyed was when I hit Orr because I love the place. Well, except for 1 Temple nobody was doing (Bath). The rest was a teeth gnashing frustration-fest. I will not be leveling any more alts unless this is fixed or they give us a better way to obtain Scrolls of Knowledge (I am not into grinding for champ bags).

I think about players new to the game and know why they are often deciding to go without traits as has been mentioned repeatedly in this massive thread.

I don’t envy them when they try to get into dungeons or WvW.

zenleto.6179:

Gregori.5807:

~~my racism story~~.

That’s absolutely appalling. Did you report the person as well? Sometimes I don’t get humanity.

Yup. Probably more than me; a few people in chat were WTFing over this.

Edit: ok, that’s odd. My original post is gone but it… lives… on. The forum belched.

Gaile, if you are watching this, here is a copy and past of posts breaking down skill point requirements and level requirements for trait unlocks. The crumbs of trait unlock changes Jon tossed to us have not been added. I posted it earlier in the thread but I doubt you, or Jon, saw it. I have no clue if it is going to be seen now:
~~~~~~~

How many trait points are needed: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/31#post4214959

Drop rates for farmed scrolls of knowledge https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/31#post4214929,

My wife’s Google document showing the level inequality between player and traits (http://tinyurl.com/q6vgf93)

… were posted to show how difficult it would be for a new player and, hoping against hope, that Anet pays attention to it.

The Google document does not tell it all. For instance, it did not address the variances in difficulty between traits at the same level, from “hey, cool, I stumbled over this as I played” to “holy hell, I’ll have to beg my guildies for help with this”, to “%#$@!! I’ll never be able to do that”, to “the effing thing is BUGGED”.

Gaile, while I appreciate you coming in after Jon posted his stuff and vanished, what he said was not generally well received. That is why your post is not getting good reception. Here is what I heard Jon say:

“Sorry, we weren’t paying attention to the thread we started and don’t care enough to read your suggestions now. I’m here now because we were badgered to come to this thread in the “Communicating with You” thread. Here, have a hamster wheel: crank out more suggestions to keep yourselves busy so you don’t complain.”

I will only be satisfied by 1 of two things:

1) a significant change for the better
2) a dev finally coming clean and telling us that we are kitten out of luck, live with it.

I believe the avoidance of this issue for so long followed by Jon’s hamster wheel and his vanishing are the dev version of #2. In a way I would like it if they said it; I would admire the honesty, unlike when Chris Whiteside basically called us stupid for misinterpreting the Manifesto after the devs pulled Ascended on us.

I also have not forgiven them for that. However, I managed to move on. With this trait thing, all of it is backing up in my craw.

In WoW DPS meters did not tell the tale.

I was in a dungeon where we wiped, wiped, and wiped more times than I can count. A member of the team, a Hunter who loved to CC and was excellent at it, switched to her personal CC build, and locked down the mobs that were wiping us.

We finished the boss and she was harassed into leaving because her DPS was low, despite her telling everyone what she was going to do and everyone thinking it was a good idea beforehand. And… despite her being the reason we finished the boss.

I was almost kicked once on my Hunter because my DPS was low when, due to the tank sucking, I switched specs and pet tanked a dungeon, us completing it fine.

So, these addons did not show the whole picture even in WoW.

The OP’s post reminds me, yet again, of why I left WoW and do not want to ever go back again. I left WoW soon after Failbot hit the airwaves. The raiding community had already been toxic as puppy and that elevated its toxicity to an artform. Every new performance meter did this, Failbot toxicity was just my limit.

Here is another thing that Recount does not take into consideration:

This game has things like the “spotter” trait for Rangers (I am forgetting the name of the equivalent on Guards), which I always run. By doing that I am decreasing my personal DPS and upping group DPS (thus making me not look as uber) by not choosing a higher DPS trait.

I was in a party about a year ago with a guy who didn’t know his class. It was 4 guildies and this guy, who was a pug.

It took us longer to run whatever dungeon we were in but he listened, tried, learned, and was a very nice guy. He was a nice enough guy and we had so much fun in the first dungeon that we ran two more dungeons with him.

I will take a guy like that over an elitist any day.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Aaaaaand 2,500 posts basically ignored. I can’t believe all we’ve had so far is “Sorry, wasn’t paying attention there, could you maybe summarise the most superficial changes we could make?”

Its more like "Sorry, we weren’t paying attention to the thread we started and don’t care enough to read your suggestions now. I’m here now because we were badgered to come to this thread in the “Communicating with You” thread. Here, have a hamster wheel: crank out more suggestions to keep yourselves busy so you don’t complain."

I think they may have nerfed the Scrolls of Knowledge droprate or its bugged. Out of the last 31 bags I have opened I got… zero. Out of about the same number, my wife got… 2. I hope its bugged or we just have had some bad luck.

If this is true, the trait issue is going to get vastly worse for new players.

I managed to level a Guard to 80 under this system and got full traits. I did it mostly by doing the tasks, including things like waiting weeks for something to be available and pestering guildies and friends for help.

Aside from being a miserable experience, I used Scrolls of Knowledge due to bugged events, things like the Overgrown Grub, things I needed now but were too high level for me to get, etc.

The trait messup itself was bad but not that bad because I thought they would realize how horrible it is fix it relatively quickly. How it has been handled has gone beyond horrendous.

I have problems with the game and am vocal about it (like traits) but I love the game.

One of the things that I see dissatisfied players do is want the game to fail. I want the game to change in certain ways, such as, again, traits. I don’t see the logic of wishing for the failure of a game that you (the generic “you”) once loved. Why not wish positive change on it?

I want Anet and GW2 to massively succeed.

Keysha.2815:

Conncept.7638:

They responded in the trait thread, in which they said that trait acquisition will almost certainly be getting another major overhaul.

They did. They came in, said, in effect, ‘we never read this thread, now we want you to give us some GOOD suggestions for some tiny fixes we can do, to make you shut up, until we get around to doing something, someday.’ Thus admitting they do NOT read the forums until they have to, even though they repeatedly say they do. And the ‘major overhaul’ is as non-specific, nay, nebulous, as all their other promises of what may be coming.

… then he quoted a post from one person listing four items, said he would take it back to the dev team.

And was never heard from again.

The OP’s experience with leveling (before yesterday) is how I felt when I was leveling my first toon. I felt that way throughout most of leveling (no gated traits back then). While not leveling, I still sort of feel this way in Orr.

THIS, I think, is a very important post. Anet, if they want to survive, need to pay attention to this post.

I am hoping Anet reads this post all the way through. There are a few argumentative posts but, please, Anet, listen to these new players.

Oh a thing that nobody has mentioned yet: the new trait system.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/first

RIP Hauling Keyster, I barely knew you… repeatedly.

1) being able to do more than one thing per click, e.g. being able to bring a box up to type, say, 250 when buying ember powder or having an option to “use stack” of whatever stacks are in your bags.

2) Add the “follow” option. I don’t want it to be lazy, I want it because I am arthritic. My mouse hand is screaming at me by the time I complete, say, mapping a main city. No, auto run does not cover all of it. You do have to steer. Actually, #1 is because I am arthritic as well.

3) Have it so that eventually, even if your RNG sucks, you will get the item. Make it take a long time but, as long as you work for it, you know you will get there.

Just to let you know, the reason Isaiah Cartwright came in is because enough people hollered at Chris Whiteside to say something in this thread.

After enough of us kept at him in the Communications thread, he said this:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Kohlteth.3715:

nvm, you posted after, did you visit the Trait thread so you were not derailing this one ?

Izzy is thinking about it right now.

Thanks for reminding me.

Chris

The above comment came because he was hammered about it after saying this:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

GuzziHero.2467:

A question for you, Chris.

Can you confirm whether or not there has been any discussion about player feedback about…

- the new trait system
- the megaserver
- roleplaying and what seems to be Anets attempt to destroy it?

Cheers!

Hi Guzzi,

I don’t want to want to derail the thread, but yes absolutely we have discussed player feedback about these areas of the game.

But seriously let’s not derail the thread.

Chris

Chris Whiteside.6102:

GuzziHero.2467:

A question for you, Chris.

Can you confirm whether or not there has been any discussion about player feedback about…

- the new trait system
- the megaserver
- roleplaying and what seems to be Anets attempt to destroy it?

Cheers!

Hi Guzzi,

I don’t want to want to derail the thread, but yes absolutely we have discussed player feedback about these areas of the game.

But seriously let’s not derail the thread.

Chris

If you, or someone in the dev team, would just post in those threads it would mean quite a bit.

Yes, you would take flack. If this had been addressed in a timely fashion, it would have been much less flack. The longer it goes, the more flack you are going to get and more resentment is going to build.

This new wardrobe function means that, if I don’t want to be fugly as I am leveling, I have to use those kitten transmute charges.

Because of this I like outfits while leveling.

No. I just can’t bring myself to throw it out. I have zero interest in ascended anything (other than the trinkets via laurels and guild commendations) but it goes so far against the grain to delete it.

I let the stuff clog up one alt until that alt can’t hold more then make it into bricks. Maybe some day anet will give me a use for it or let us sell it.

I am 52 and my wife, who also plays, is 50.

The fact that we are older, married, and play together elicits more “oh how cute”s than I can remember.

I have to agree as well. I am loving Season 2 so far and really enjoy the Dry Top map. Thank you Anet!

Thank you very much but, while we listen in TS (and the various other chat programs), we don’t talk. I am going to edit this in to my original post.

Also, we are looking for a home primarily for our alts who need more than just the two of us for unlocking group traits.

… preferably on Blackgate for my wife and I that does not require 100% rep. We also have TS (and all the other voice chats) but, while we listen, we do not speak. Generally this has worked well for us in dungeons and other group events.

We have been playing since Beta and I have 4 80s, one of whom only has 33 traits unlocked (4 were bought), and have plans for at least 1 more alt. My wife has 4 80s, a level 69 with 25 traits unlocked, and has several other alts she is leveling.

We have asked for help with the group content unlocks from the guild we are currently in and in map with very little and infrequent success. We do not want to be a bother to people who just don’t want to do it and its obvious that this is the case with a lot of this content.

We are looking for a decent sized leveling guild where we can get help with these unlocks and where we can go onto our geared 80s (exo’s and ascended trinkets except for my new 80) and help others.

It would be nice if the guild also does level 80 content but that is not that important. We can log into our current guild for dungeoning.

For the record, since I am one of the outspoken ones, I am doing all of the unlocks via playing the game as possible.

At lvl 72, I have 24 traits earned while playing, 3 bought… all WvW (because saying I suck at PvP is an understatement). To say buying these things puts me in a foul mood is an understatement.

My posts about how many trait points are needed: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/31#post4214959

My post about drop rates for farmed scrolls of knowledge https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/31#post4214929,

My wife’s Google document showing the level inequality between player and traits (http://tinyurl.com/q6vgf93)

… were posted to show how difficult it would be for a new player and, hoping against hope, that Anet pays attention to it.

The Google document does not tell it all. For instance, it did not address the variances in difficulty between traits at the same level, from “hey, cool, I stumbled over this as I played” to “holy hell, I’ll have to beg my guildies for help with this”, to “%#$@!! I’ll never be able to do that” (WvW for me), to “the effing thing is BUGGED”.

I wish Anet would say something. I know why they are not but its going above and beyond here. In this case, I think they should bite the bullet and post to us.

(July 29th: edited the bit with the links because I had put the wrong ones)

phys.7689:

Gregori.5807:

Here is a breakdown of the number of skill points you can earn in game up to level 80 if you do every skill challenge in the game. In comparison, how many skill points you need to have to purchase all traits and every utility except heals and racial.

[Cut for brevity. See original post here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/31#post4214959]

~Amount of skill points needed above and beyond number you earn (not counting racial and heal utilities or Mistfire wolf):
111.

did you guys also count elites?

Yes for the elite traits, no for racial elite utilities. Mistfire wolf is not included.

I just edited the first paragraph and last line to include what I had left out.

Edit July 19th: my wife redid her spreadsheet and found that she was inaccurate. Hence, I am editing my post to reflect her new numbers. Healing skills are included now. Here is her post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/32#post4219622

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a breakdown of the number of skill points you can earn in game up to and including level 80 if you do every skill challenge in the game. In comparison, how many skill points you need to have to purchase all traits and every utility except racial (they vary between class and race) and Mistfire wolf.

~Total skill points needed to unlock all utilities that are NOT racial: 143

~Total skill points needed to purchase all traits:
Adept: 60
Master: 100
Grandmaster: 100
Grandmaster final: 100
Total: 360

~Skill points available from skill challenges:
Below level 30: 72
Between 30 and 60: 48
Between 60 and 80: 39
At level 80: 20
in WvW: 13
Total from skill challenges: 192

~Skill points available from the leveling process (to 80): 75. Add skill challenges to the 75: 267.

~Amount of skill points needed above and beyond number you earn (not counting racial utilities or Mistfire wolf):
236.

Engineers need 3 less for the skill points for their utilities.

(my wife did the work, I formatted it)

I decided to find out exactly how hard or easy it is to get Scrolls of Knowledge via champ bags.

~I farmed 147 orange champ bags: I got 27 scrolls.
~My wife farmed 52 orange champ bags: 12 scrolls.
Total: 199 champ bags: 39 scrolls.

Here is my wife’s updated Google document (w/ corrections… thanks to those that helped) that shows the recommended character level for each activity to unlock traits vs the level where the trait is available:
http://tinyurl.com/q6vgf93 .

This does not include how difficult each unlock is, nor does it include bugged unlocks, of which there are a few.

Most of the content we farmed them in was: EotM, Dry Top, and the World Boss chain.

Imagine a new player on their first character. Remember how many events a low level character can do that will generate champ bags, especially if they can’t run EotM. They may be upleveled there, but that does not change their gear score and not all people, including 80s, like going into PvP.

I am leaving this here in case a dev does happen by and sees it.

I am loving Season 2 so far. I also thoroughly enjoy Dry Top. I am a JP addict and part of my pleasure from Dry Top is that jumping is so much a part of it and we get to continue to jump the Zephyrites’ way. And… we have so much to explore via jumping with the Zephyrite’s boost.

Good job Anet!

The Foul Bear Chieftain (required for a trait) is also bugged out. “Killing the Ogre leaders of Sapper’s Delve” requires us to talk to Scout Tahiri.

I have been trying to find this scout for 2 weeks. I have not been the only one trying this. A couple of them I remember from previous attempts. It is obviously something a lot of people are having problems with.

I have decided that I am going to finish one of the two alts I was planning. However, the second one was going to be a re rolled necro. I just wanted a necro in a different race, however, I will be sticking with the one that was grandfathered in.

In case anyone wants to see exactly how bad this is, my wife sat down and did all of the math. It’s posted on Google documents: http://tinyurl.com/q6vgf93 . The legend for the colors is on the right.

This does not include how difficult each unlock is, nor does it include bugged unlocks.

My wife has a much more in depth version typed out that, if anyone wants to see, PM me and I will relay it to you. Its a bit grim.

Ascimator.6735:

Or you could just accept that you won’t necessarily have access to every trait in the tier just because you can equip them already. You don’t complain that you are not granted all the lvl 45 gear once you’re lvl 45, right?
Think of them as goals, not rewards.

Comparing traits to gear does not work.

You can buy any stat combination you want, or at least have workable stat combinations, when you are at lvl 45. Not having every skin available at that level, or at any level, is not going to impact your gameplay.

This is not the case with traits.

For instance, the first trait I always get is the one for reduced falling damage. I am a jump puzzle addict so this, for me, is a necessary trait if I want to fully enjoy the game. No, I am not good enough to not fall so, yes, I need this trait. I also suck bigtime at PvP of any kind, including WvW.

Having this stuck behind the Obsidian Sanctum JP meant that, if I wanted to do JPs on this new character, I had to buy it because, while I can do OS, I can’t do it if any enemies are there. The cherry on top would be that I would have had to do it on my lowbie… without the trait and with low gear.

Luckily I had some scrolls so I could buy it. If I had been a new player, this would have screwed me badly.

Ascimator.6735:

I don’t see how the SP/silver cost for a newbie is so insurmountable, unless they are completely unable of planning ahead and mapping out a general way they want to play their character.

The drop rate for the scrolls is rather bad. I decided to farm my way up to have enough scrolls to buy these things if needed. I went into EotM on a geared 80 and farmed 40-50 champ bags.

I got 7 scrolls. Seven. If the drop rate was better, I would not be as bothered by this. I don’t have enough time to spend many hours in game. As it is I have to choose between spending my game time farming these things in EoTM or doing stuff that I like and slowly, very slowly, accumulating them in normal play.

A newbie would have to farm for them in areas they can get into. He could farm in Edge of the Mists if he knows about it and gets into a good zerg. His frustration tolerance would have to be high because, while he is leveled up, his gear is not. Likely he would die even more frequently than I, a crappy PvPer, do.

The character I rolled post patch is a Guardian, I have been playing since Beta. I have not played a Guard before but have more of a clue than someone new to the game, obviously.

It would be difficult for a new player to plan ahead and farm these scrolls. Then, what if this newbie wants to change his strategy/ finds that what he planned doesn’t work/ etc?

He is screwed.

I am not going to quit the game over this but I think this Guard is my last alt. I am not going to quit buying gems but I will be buying less since I don’t need any new character slots, no more bag slots (I max them), or anything else that goes on a new character.

I have a friend who is a graphics/ art nut like I am. My friend was going to buy the game based on my recommendation, and watching in game videos, at the end of the month.

Then I rolled a new toon and got a look at this new trait thing firsthand. Not only have I not run that toon since I learned, I have had to tell my friends about this, linking them to this thread. I am not going to be “that guy” who sells his friends on a bad, or deeply flawed, game.

I do not think the game is bad, actually I think the base game is the best I have ever seen (despite its flaws), but I do think this game is now bad for any new players and altaholics. I can see that, if this is not modified, this system could cause a distinctly downward spiral in new sales of the game and new players who bought the game without knowing about this leaving rather than being willing to deal with the system.

This friend, after reading this thread, decided this new system was… not for them. It does not sound fun and the game art does not make up for the lack of fun that this system will cause. I suspect that I will get the same reactions from my other friends.

If Anet changes this, even giving us a reasonable version of the new system, I will return to recommending the game. If Anet states that they are willing to listen to player suggestions on modifications to this system, I will supply them. As it stands, I know threads like this just don’t do much.

No, don’t nerf this puzzle.

I can get to the diving spot on the aetherblade easier than I can do this because timed puzzles psych me out. I did manage it once but it was hellish. However, one of these days I will get over this issue of mine and do it easily. I really look forward to that day.

The only thing doing this JP will do is give you a few achievement points. If it drives you nuts, skip it.

I am running a computer and have has a problem for months. When playing, the game will randomly non-crash. Screen goes black, then says ‘no signal’. Sound continues briefly, then stops. Keyboard and mouse lit but unresponsive. This only happens when I play GW2. I have to do a hard reboot to fix.

Eventlog shows nothing. No crash dump. Someone in-game with me says I stay in game. Have done the following:

Tested power supply (850w), told it is fine.
Swapped vid card into another computer. Works fine for them, both vid cards have the same problem for me.
New MOBO and CPU.
All drivers updated, BIOS updated.
Reinstalled game.
(Did a reformat before going the the new MOBO and CPU)
Checked monitor

Can anyone suggest ANYTHING? I’m getting so tired of this.

Francis.9415:

PVE population will not be affected because of megaserver.

I am curious about server population change, how much this sort of thing affects it.

Is there an accurate way to tell the population of each server, say, by numbers of accounts bound to the server? Anet’s system does not give those kinds of numbers.

I am putting it in WvW because it is WvW related. I am curious about how the T1 NA 2v1 is going to affect population size of the servers in T1 over the long run. I have no clue how much of the total population the mercenary guilds compose.

Since I suspect the mercenary guilds will quit the server on the wrong side of the 2v1 (vs the WvW guilds dedicated to that server which are staying), I would love to know the populations of all T1 NA servers now vs, say, a week or two after the tourney ends.

I am mostly a PVE player who only WvW’s on off tourney times so I do not have an investment in WvW other than hoping the nastiness in PVE map chat ends after the tourney. Hence, this post is not a complaint post about the 2v1. It is curiosity about player movement after this event.

I also wonder if this 2v1 is going to affect the PVE population on the wrong side of the 2v1. My guild (PvX, not hardcore WvW) is not leaving and I doubt others like it will leave… but I don’t know.

I love when Anet does things like dump you in the middle of a warzone. I have some beefs with Anet but this is not one of them.

Right now this guy. Here is an album of screenies: http://imgur.com/a/piVt9

It just worked out that the colors and his glow worked out well with flamewrath armour (yes, that armour) and my dyes.

I think my main will be better when I next mess around with screenies and dyes because I have every dye on the game on him plus I don’t remember how many sets of gear.

Blackgate does, and does Teq. Evenings are a good time, before and after reset and at miscellaneous times.

I would be happy if the difficulty to acquire ascended gear followed the difficulty curve already in place from blues to exotics.

From what I can tell, this curve is not linear… it is exponential… and I am fine with that. It makes sense.

If the difficulty to acquire ascended followed the same mathematical progression as appears to be in place currently (blues to exotics), I would be a happy camper. I am one of those hardline “horizontal progression” people, however, I could handle a more normal vertical progression curve.

There is enough in the game for me to tolerate vertical progression if it is laid out in the manner I describe despite having purchased the game because of the art (which is still there) and the promise of no vertical progression.

If nothing works out in a way I like, I will continue to play, when I play, in exotics. I want the joy back and breaking the HP promise took a lot out of it for me.

jheryn.8390:

Things change. That includes development statements of any kind for any game, project or anything else.

Manifestos can change as well. Sometimes things just go in a different direction.

Perception is also a contributing factor. What one person perceives as true may not be true for another.

Looking at things objectively, I understand why many of you feel as you do thinking that the original statements by developers were not adhered to. When they said those things I am certain they meant to do them. We will never know why or how things changed or even if they did.

Addressing grind, I personally don’t see where grind is necessary to play this game. There are many things anyone can do without having to grind for anything.

There are weapons and armor and achievements that will absolutely require some grinding, but no one has to do these things in order to play the game.

As someone said above, a certain amount of time sinks (grind) are necessary for any game to keep going. Also, there are those people out there, myself included, that enjoy working toward a goal. I don’t mind farming mats because I am working toward a goal. I know that isn’t for everyone, but for some it is great. We don’t look at it as grind, we look at it as a means to an end. So grind to some may not be grind to others. Again, it is a perspective thing.

Concerning statements about the game, I don’t see much of what was in the original statements of the dev and the manifesto as being wrong or misleading. I think this comes from my perception of what was said and my acceptance of change.

Change will always happen. Not accepting that fact, I believe, is unhealthy.

Yes, not accepting change is unhealthy. However, that does not mean I can’t wish things had been as promised and mourn the loss of the game I had bought.

I am not one to say “they broke the Manifesto, I leaving the game!!” However, I can say that I refuse the gear treadmill (that means no ascended or further), play with people who likewise refuse the gear treadmill (or do not mind that I am), and choose to not give them any more money unless things change to something I prefer.

Certainly the game will continue to change. It will either go in a direction I cannot stand or I will find a game I think I would prefer, at which time I will simply leave, or it will go somewhere I like, at which time Anet will get my money again.

Ezpz.7612:

EDIT: So many people are missing the edit at the bottom of my next post I’ll just make it the first thing that shows up here. I have used the words dps meter throughout these next two post. Anytime I say dps meter, I also mean amount of health revived meter, healing done meter, dodges meter, buffs given meter, debuffs applied meter – essentially a complete picture of what people contribute in dungeons. A dps meter would be only one facet of the overall implementation.

While what you are describing is not quite a failbot, it is heading towards a failbot. While you are talking about people choosing who sees the readout, we should fully well know that group leaders would require you to show this to get into group.

As far as the failbot thing, I remember when that was implemented in WoW. It took the annoyingness of the DPS meter and multiplied it x 100.

I quit within a couple of months because Failbot, and other things like forced pugging, caused an already unpleasant gaming atmosphere to plummet even further.

cesmode.4257:

Id be thrilled. Even if they removed ascended and put the infusion slot on exotic. Id be thrilled. They would have nearly completely won back my business. Id spend in the gemstore again, on day 1.

Me too.

caiomacos.1694:

Peetee.9406:

What if the majority of players like to grind?

If I liked grinding I would buy a game that is based on it (and there are tons of grind-based MMOs), and not one that promotes itself as the opposite. But maybe thats just me.

Yup.

I was excited to hear that a game like this one, or what it was supposed to be, was being released and preordered it for exactly that reason. I had pretty much quit MMOs because I hate the whole grind thing.

Sigh.

@StinVec.. let me know what you find out. I am checking out FXAA PPI, ok, my wife is because I am a techno idiot.

My wife had the hard crash that required her to uninstall Sweet FX and reinstall it, which completely resolved her issue. I am having an issue where, in game, the game “stutters” as I call it but I think it is a computer issue due to other problems outside of game.

Here is a screenshot under my current SweetFX settings with no photoshop fancies that my wife can do:

StinVec.3621:

Also wanted to include some more screenshots.
Can view them here: http://stinvec.imgur.com if you would like.
I use FXAA PPI for enhanced anti-aliasing, color richness, bloom effect, sharpness, etc.
I also have side-by-side comparisons with ‘vanilla’ GW2 settings there.

I am using Sweet FX to enhance and am getting close to some of the best graphics shown in these screenies. I am still learning how to do this stuff.

Do you think FXAA PPI is better than Sweet FX?

Hidden Gardens is one of my favorite parts of the game. I have numerous screenshots of that one.

I still run around in, what I call, Vanilla GW2, either leveling alts or on my main just for the beauty of the game.

I am not happy about this nerf either. Frankly, I rely way to heavily on dodge and this is going to result in a lot of deaths until I adjust. This is going to be a serious l2p issue for me until I do this.

However, OP, as you have been told, Rangers are not the only ones getting an endurance nerf.

I saw your blow up over this in the general forum. Really. It is that much of a deal? Do you think exploding like that is going to get Anet to change anything other than deleting that thread (which they did), and remove any chance Anet will ever listen to you again?

Yes, it sucks. Even if we were the only ones getting hit, if it is that big of a deal to you, why stay?

JonPeters.5630:

awe extender.1908:

JonPeters.5630:

Sytherek.7689:

JonPeters.5630:

Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.

As a former AAA PC game developer, I am mystified by the above.

My frost drake’s underwater F2 is instant, but the dry land F2 has a several-second delay — that makes no sense whatsoever. Underwater, I press F2, and the button works immediately; on dry land, clicking F2 does nothing initially, for 2-3 seconds.

Why the difference?

Since you asked so nicely. The underwater skill is an instant skill which doesn’t not require the AI to change it’s think state, as it can fire off during other actions. The land skill plumbs into our animation system which requires the drake to change it think state and execute a new order to the animation system. Both AI think state and animation can’t be running 100% of the time on every creature on the server for obvious reasons (it would create massive CPU usage and generate tons of skill lag) Animations are masked by client side blending, but the AI stuff has no way to be masked. We can make special cases for Ranger Pet F2, but doing so requires time and testing.

Does this mean that we could, once for all, get rid of the delayed F2 / unresponsive F2 by NOT having a pet animation?

I don’t mind having a pet without a F2 animation as long as it can be instant! Please drop the animations and make it like underwater :-))

No because in order for the creatures to attack they are going to use animations. For example I’m not going to spit fire breath out of a drake without it using its fire spitting animation.

I have not been in the forums much so you, or another dev, might have answered this:

Where, during the animation, does the attack itself commence? Does the attack commence at the beginning of the animation, throughout the animation, etc?

From my observation, it does not look like the attack hits at the beginning of the animation. I, for one, would be a lot happier if it did.