Guild Wars 2

Danikat.8537:

As other people have said it’s not going to be ‘fixed’ because it’s a deliberate part of the profession design.

It’s not like they intended to allow every profession to use every weapon and simply forgot to add the rest, or haven’t had time/resources to do it yet. Which weapons a profession can use, how they use them and how many they have are a big part of what defines them and makes your profession a meaningful choice.

Also those with the fewest options generally have other mechanics to make up for it. For example engineers only have 3 weapons (and a total of 3 possible weapon combinations: rifle, pistol/pistol and pistol/shield), but they have kits which give them another 6 possible weapon skill sets and 4 extra skills from their profession mechanic (tool belt) where the warrior only gets 1.

Is this sarcasm? Because…

What’s more is that the team is also working very hard to finding a way to make it so that every profession has access to every weapon and their own weapon skills for those previously locked weapons.

Source

They actually were planning on doing exactly that. Plans change, obviously. But you can’t say it was never intended. (The bolded “to” that doesn’t make grammatical sense above was originally “on,” but the forum filters kittenized it.)

I just want zodiac to come back. I can’t believe chaos and tormented came back, but not zodiac.

mercury ranique.2170:

Maybe Arenanet just doesn’t want to make as much money as others. They sold a lot of copies at the initial release and have kept on selling steady since. They also sold a good amount of stuff through gem-sales.

Another trick Arenanet is doing is to limit datatraffic from the server to the client making servers less expensive.

So I’m pretty sure that Arenanet is making money and looking at the quarterly reports of ncsoft (Arenanets owner) it is actually one of thier bigger money makers. Keep in mind that GuildWars2 sales where a lot higher then GuildWars1. I think for Arenanet that came as a pleassant surprise too and that they aimed much more to a number closer to that of GW1 when they developped it.

BrooksP.4318:

Theory?

They launched GW2 as a hybrid B2P with a F2P model by relying mostly on cosmetic sales to sustain income while releasing smaller LS content. The mentality of limited gem items is to build hype to drive sales.

Though…

The model hasn’t worked well and they are reverting back to a expansion based model while limiting focus on cosmetics and LS. This also might be the reason they recently decided to scrap selling future armor skins and just do outfits.

At least thats my theory.

They always said they would release expansions. They have also been clean on the fact that they wanted to investigate to release it as releases simular to the living world releases. They have been experimenting a lot with the living world. And with limited success. Not financially dissasterious, but cause it just didn’t work as well. Season one was too temporary. Season 2 was too small and locked into separate parts.

The reason why they stopped releasing armor skins is obvious. An armor skin design is much more complicated then a skin AND they have to have a good amount of new skins for HoT.

They did not always say they would release expansions.

MiniEquine.6014:

Guhracie.3419:

Begone, forum bug.

What, exactly, is the forum bug?

When a new page is created, you can’t see any of the posts. The only way to get rid of it is to make a new post.

Begone, forum bug.

Crossflip.4390:

MattyP.6954:

All core-game changes will be available to all players, even if they don’t have HoT.

New Content, such as:

• Masteries
• Elite Specializations
• New Zones
• New Living Story

…won’t be available unless you buy HoT. This is and will always be the case with MMO expansions.

As of now, the only “Core game changes” I am aware of are the trait rework that comes before the xpac and the two mastery lines for legendaries and fractals. Both of those cater to niche hardcore parts of the playerbase, so really all we’re getting is a big balance change that adds very little in terms of gameplay hours.

I believe you are mistaken about the two mastery lines being available to core game players. Based on this quote, from this article:

The ability to train Masteries is unlocked at level 80 for all players that own Heart of Thorns.

And this quote from the legendary article:

In Heart of Thorns, you’ll have access to a special Mastery track for unlocking precursor crafting.

I am not sure of the source on the fractal mastery track, but given that mastery is a HoT feature, it seems reasonable to conclude that it won’t be added to the base game, either.

No more new currencies. Use karma or something.

As for the rest… get rid of double fractals. I don’t even dislike fractals, myself, when I have a group I know, and I hate the double up. How many threads need to pop up before ANET at least makes some sort of commentary on it?

My preference is for armor to be released in the game and outfits to be released in the gemstore. I imagine they’ve got their artists working on assets for Heart of Thorns right now, and that’s why we haven’t seen many newer sets of late. That being said, the dearth of content/updates is really not helping maintain any interest in the game, and that ties in to the last armor set being lumi.

Gerrand.3085:

Agreed. Fully translucent armor all the way…

Any and all armor additions are good but I don’t know why people bother suggesting more of them when we’ve only had about 3 sets of free armor added to the game since release. (glory, carapace and surely one other?)

Luminescent, all three ascended, mistwalker (I think?), and the guild armors, off the top of my head.

Rebound.3409:

Guhracie.3419:

I’m actually slightly more hyped than I was to begin with. I’m going to wait for reviews on the content before I make judgements on it, but I’m pretty pleased with the elite spec reveals so far. I’m picking out some weapons “just in case” I do end up getting the xpac.

You are hyped about features that are not part of the expansion pack. They will be implemented in an ordinary patch prior to the expansion.

No, the specialization system is going to be implemented before HoT. Elite specs, like the Reaper, Chronomancer and Dragonhunter- those are going to be part of the expansion.

Why is this in the Heart of Thorns subsection? We don’t know anything about the new incoming legendaries yet, do we?

I’m actually slightly more hyped than I was to begin with. I’m going to wait for reviews on the content before I make judgements on it, but I’m pretty pleased with the elite spec reveals so far. I’m picking out some weapons “just in case” I do end up getting the xpac.

I’m proud of my “Avenger of the Dispossessed” title.
“Been There. Done That” as well. It took me ages to get, and I got it a few months before the announcement that PvP maps would no longer be required.
I’m proud of Tarnished Coast.
I’m proud of jumping Coddler’s Cove, finally.
I’m proud of an extensive array of RP characters, but particularly of Pouncy Silverkit.
I’m proud that I’m on dulfy’s site in one of the galleries.
I’m proud of my modest collection of skins.

My favorite in-game thing that ever happened was in Labyrinthine Cliffs. A bit of open world RP was going on, and it was right after the jaguar cub was introduced in the gem store the first time. There was a shady vendor who was selling exotic animals that did not seem very well-cared for. And since it’s such a small map, and emotes carry so far, it was almost impossible to miss.

So, the human female was particularly distressed over the state of a jaguar cub in the bunch, and she couldn’t afford it. I got on map chat and said, “[human male], if you don’t buy her that cub, you’re a monster.” And half the map started discussing the roleplay that was going on, including the two roleplayers. It was just delightful, and nobody was rude.

They ended up upending (huh, try saying that out loud fast) the cart and liberating the animals and, apparently, she released the jaguar cub into its natural habitat or something. I just loved how invested the whole map was in the fate of the jaguar.

My best moments in the game usually involve other players, but as far as events go, the Marionette event really stands out. I think Vinewrath is also really well designed.

The noir scene where we were introduced to Marjory was fantastic.

Lord Faren subverting the “damsel in distress” trope.

Playing Toypocalypse with my friends in 2013.

Playing SAB with my friends. Also in 2013.

I’m sure there are more that I’m forgetting.

I see yesterday stealth removed the guild banker at the old mystic forge site. Classy.

Not every single art asset is going to appeal to every single person in the game. Luckily, there are an abundance of black lion sets to choose from.

Warcry.1596:

I don’t see anything wrong with it? Krytan Forager, Queensdale events and WvW Caravan can be done within 10 minutes.

It’s an anomaly that shouldn’t exist. None of the other dailies double up in similar fashion, and fractals appeal to a small subset of PvE players.

So you reorganized the dailies, but didn’t bother to take out double fractals? Wow. Just. Wow.

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Kyuff.4875:

As a Scandinavian I must admit you are perfectly correct. It all boils down to the fact we brew the best Ale.

Source ?

I’ve bolded the source of this information, since you appear to have missed it the first time around.

DarkOcean.8746:

They said on their GW2 Twitter that they wouldn’t be dropping after May 10th anymore. Apparently a very sparse amount of people have been claiming to obtain them still. You can either believe Anet or you can believe the people that could very easily be trolling you into wasting a lot of time.

I would not play in either Dry Top or Silverwastes with the intention on getting a portal stone.

Their twitter message actually says “This is the last weekend portals will be dropping.” This is not as specific as saying “Portals will no longer be dropping after May 10th.” A weekend is made up of two days, so it could indicate that they’ll drop until the next weekend, or it could be a poorly worded statement that the weekend in question was the end date. Either way, it’s really tiresome that they have a “News and Announcement” forum area that they don’t even use.

Zok.4956:

Than they really should change their announcement. The portal drop announcement is still on the forum start page:

Hey, ANET, it would really be to your benefit if you could centralize your news.

I’m with Lanfear above, except I’d be shocked to see the new trait system in the game any sooner than two to three months.

One thing you could do to prepare for the new system is start in on skill challenges around the world, since those are going to translate to hero challenges. As for me, I’m just not playing any of my trait-deficient characters until this system launches.

Of the three we have so far, and based purely on the info we have right now, this is how they seem to rank according to how I like to play:

1. Reaper
2. Chronomancer
3. Dragonhunter

If I do get the xpac, I can see my necro getting a lot of use from the Reaper elite spec. I don’t really play mesmer, but time manipulation is cool. I am skeptical of the Prayerranger’s effectiveness.

How I expect them to pan out based on what has been speculated so far:
(To clarify, this is the stuff I’m most excited about based on rumor/speculation and the revealed stuff.)

1. Engineer. The core changes, paired with flying drones and a hammer… yeah. Engi elite might be the HoT make-or-break moment for me.
2. Necromancer. This surprises me, honestly. Going to need to nab a chaos greatsword, just in case.
3. Revenant. New profession! I’m all over that, and it seems very interesting.
4. Ranger. I’m really interested to see GW2’s take on the druid.
5. Thief. This will still probably be one of my most played professions, despite being so low on this list. I’m iffy on the speculated rifle, but I do think the core changes are interesting, at least.
6. Warrior. Eh. I love Warrior in PvP, but I’m not terribly curious about their elite spec or anything. They already have access to most of the weapons. I think the more interesting thing to do would be to change up their class mechanic and perhaps how they utilize some of the weapons they already have access to.
7. Mesmer. Just not a profession I am fond of. Chronomancer does look very interesting, though.
8. Elementalist. While the elite spec could bump this up a bit higher, it’s pretty low on my list of priorities.
9. Guardian. Longbow is just uninspiring to me. Most of the Dragonhunter information did not seem particularly exciting. I’ll be interested to hear what people who main guards have to say about it.

CodeHavoc.7926:

Zaoda.1653:

dietzero.3514:

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/15/gw2-reaper-necromancer-elite-specialization-livestream-notes/

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-reaper-necromancers-elite-specialization/

Not sure how you missed the fact that only Reapers get it.

I figured the whole ‘chill on fear’ thing may have been applied to all other trait lines, because there have been other classes like the elementalist where a trait (like blasting staff) was just added in as a feature to the ele, rather than a trait. So I figured with the Reaper being, what seems like, all about the chill condition, it may have been applied to fear all across the board like they did with the blasting staff trait, but my fears (excuse the pun) have been addressed now and it seems only to be with the Reaper, so I just won’t be able to run Reaper when I also want to fear people off ledges etc. as it would be counter productive to my build.

You do realize you can still fear people off ledges right? There’s a trait that chills on fear, meaning if you don’t want to have chill upon fearing then don’t use that trait.

It’s a minor trait in the Reaper line, so anyone playing the elite spec automatically has it. Also, the OP admitted to a misunderstanding of the information given already.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Guhracie.3419:

Pookie, I suspect engie will be last to get the showcase, but I’m pretty hopeful that it will impress as well. I’m really thrilled with the speculated hammer as their new weapon.

I usually run thief, so I’m very interested in their spec, but I have yet to see rifle done well. I wish they were getting maces or axes, but I know the reasoning for the rifle is sound.

Depending on how these next few months shake out, I’m really considering getting the expansion.

Yeah, my hopes are def high for that hammer and the mini drones.

i do have to say with the Reaper, they’ve pushed me much closer to the “want to buy” category as well. I’ve been doing thief a bit more myself lately and have been really enjoying her a bit more so I’m excited for what they might intro for them as well.

I’m most worried about Warrior though since they already have access to most of the weapons in the game so what does that mean for them in the long run?

For me, I feel like warrior is already just fine. The spec would have to be extremely interesting to get my attention. Moving forward, I feel like a new weapon won’t be necessary for each elite spec. Maybe a new way of using an old weapon, or just new mechanics introduced.

Yeah. Loot tables are not really a thing (except for a few specific named weapons that come from champ bags, I think) which means that everything can drop from anywhere. Using the mystic forge by forging 4 rare or exotic greatswords into a new one tends to be the best option. Best of luck!

(Heart of Thorns will have a way to craft Dusk, but there’s no eta on when HoT will launch.)

Mar.4839:

I’m surprised (well I shouldn’t be) at how quickly people seem to think “Rise” is its only shout. It’s best to wait for the PoI tomorrow, hopefully they show the traits as well like they did with Dragonhunter.

I’m just glad there’s an actual dark hood in the game finally that lets you cover your whole face! They delivered on the vibe I was hoping for!

I can guarantee that anyone who thinks “Rise!” is the only shout didn’t actually read the article.

To fit in with the area-of-effect theme of the greatsword, the reaper gets a full set of shout skills. All of these shout skills act as attacks that can hit up to five enemies and scale in effectiveness based on the number of targets struck (and yes, you read that right—reaper shouts deal damage!).

DevilLordLaser.8619:

So not terribly off from the Banshee speculation, and also very much the mass AoE cleavemonster people were hoping for with. Damaging/enemy-focused shouts – and if you don’t like the sound of “Rise!” in a big messy fight and some of the things it can do, I got news for ya, buddz – melee cleaving greatsword, and also based on unkillable horror monsters.

Wait a sec.

Heh…no, seriously. Did anyone see the line “We pulled elements from slow but seemingly unstoppable horror monsters like Pyramid Head and Jason Voorhees to try to craft the feeling of a relentless pursuer who becomes extremely deadly once they close the distance to their prey” and not think “dude, dududududuuuude…babycats is about to get real up in here”? Yes yes, I get it, nobody likes the notion of slow. Frankly I’m not a big fan either, but there is still the option of taking MH Dagger under the claymore for faster attacks, and given how heavily chill-focused this spec is, I’d be very surprised if at least one of those big honkin’ murdershouts wasn’t something designed for hefty Chill uptime. That and we don’t actually know how much Cold Shoulder will extend existing Chills. I don’t think a 33% increase would be uncalled for, given the spec’s focus and general theme.

Besides. Assume for the moment that Cold Shoulder’s damage reduction vs. Chilled is 10%, like Putrid Defense in Death Magic. Taking both means that any enemy who is both Chilled and Poisoned, which should be fairly easy for a Necromancer to contrive, is now dealing 20% less damage to you. That’s more than half of Protection’s damage reduction, and Necromancers can gain Protection pretty easily, too.

Gotta say, I’m liking the sound of Death Magic/Soul Reaping/Reaper. Given that we know relatively little about the Reaper thus far, true, it’s hard to tell what would mesh properly with it…but Death’s extra defenses help a melee Necromancer, and frankly the concept of a five-fold Death Nova off “Rise!” sounds pretty entertaining. SR gives you faster movement while in Shroud as well as a fat gigantic Crit boost to really punish enemies with that scythe. Not as much normal-mode damage as Spite, of course, but something’s got to give, and Death has some hefty options for extra punch. Toughness-to-Power’s a nice conversion to get in Deadly Strength, especially at 14% in Shroud. As I recall Ryn’s currently sitting around 1300 Toughness. Add 180 from the upcoming new Death minor, and you get over 200 extra Power while in Reaper’s Shroud from Deadly Strength and slightly over 100 out of Shroud. 3 and 7-ish stacks of Might worth of Power, respectively, just for existing. I’ll take that.

Yeah…I am quite looking forward to seeing what this sucker can do tomorrow.

I love this post. Way more detailed than I could’ve written, with all the excitement I couldn’t convey.

Pookie, I suspect engie will be last to get the showcase, but I’m pretty hopeful that it will impress as well. I’m really thrilled with the speculated hammer as their new weapon.

I usually run thief, so I’m very interested in their spec, but I have yet to see rifle done well. I wish they were getting maces or axes, but I know the reasoning for the rifle is sound.

Depending on how these next few months shake out, I’m really considering getting the expansion.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Now THIS is how you introduce a new class.

Not gonna lie, this one has me REAL excited aaaaaand that one skill in the vid with the hand grabbing the dude and pulling him back better be a shout called “get over here!”.

If not, make it so.

For reals.

Still….dem in the thick skirmish skills. oh yes. I am ready.

Agreed, this is the first spec that has really caught my attention, of the three they’ve featured. (Chronomancer seems like an interesting concept, but mesmer isn’t a profession I’m really inclined to play.) I’m pretty excited to see what else they have in store.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

But again you must read the reactions of the ppl in every forums and games …

GW2 Devs must takes the holidays Breaks (Christmass + Summer) = that means -3 less contents months

I’m not sure you understand how holidays work for adults. Or summers.

Mordeus.1234:

The professions that don’t have access to the staff are Engineer, Thief, Warrior and maybe Revenant. Could you see them using the staff as a magical or melee weapon? I don’t see the harm in bending the rules like they did when the Mesmer started to use a Greatsword as a ranged magical weapon. I could see them giving the melee use of a staff to the Warrior as an exclusive.

Besides the staff already has some skins that look like they could do some damage plus some ornamental ones. It even has skins that turn the staff into a scythe. They could always release a set of skins for the staff that turn them into military style polearms.

There probably will never be a new category of weapons that represent the polearm, since the staff and aquatic spear are already so close. Well at least until all the existing options are exhausted.

Even if they granted the melee use of the staff to one profession, I don’t see how that would ever rule out adding a polearm weapon type or turning the spear from aquatic to ground combat. It’s not irreversible, especially since you can’t give a melee staff to the Guardian and they would be one of the big names to benefit from polearms.

They’re giving staff to the ranger elite: druid. This has been confirmed already.

As to the rest, I agree with A Volcano: It’s magic. That’s how they’re balanced.

I’m afraid I cannot give you a level 80. They appear to be account-bound.

Upvoted for Valkyrie Profile reference. I loved that game. (But for reasons already mentioned, I don’t think it’s a good choice for the elite spec.)

Genesis.8572:

Guhracie.3419:

If you make it a mastery, anyone who doesn’t buy heart of thorns loses access to it.

And? People who play the game in most cases buy the expansion if they want to keep playing. Saying that it will cut out the non-expansion buyers is just an empty threat.

There’s no “threat” in what I said. It’s a fact. There are people who don’t buy expansions. I’m not presently planning on buying it. Locking people out of an ability that’s been part of the core game is an issue. It would be like saying, “Oh, and by the way, now you can’t access Lion’s Arch unless you buy Heart of Thorns.” If you don’t see how that’s problematic, I don’t know how to make it more clear.

If you make it a mastery, anyone who doesn’t buy heart of thorns loses access to it.

Hey, ANET? It would go a long way if you could simply confirm how many points each skill challenge in the world will be worth. I mean, I’m assuming it’ll be more than just a 1:1 conversion, since we currently do not gain anywhere near 400 skill points for leveling to 80, and that’s the amount of hero points our leveling will now translate into. Interestingly enough, everyone, we used to get 1 skill point per level, which was 80 skill points for reaching level 80. 80 multiplied by 5… Huh. I’m no good at math, but that seems to be 400 points.

Mesmer is strong in fractals, at least the ones I was running with. I agree with the above about knowing your weapons, though, and about the fact that meta is fine, but you can do what you want. In PvE in particular, it’s just hard to play a class well without benefiting your group. I’d always rather bring someone in their chosen playstyle rather than enforcing the meta on them.

I always assumed they were mesmers being melodramatic.

Donari.5237:

Manuhell.2759:

Either Paragon or Seraph/Seraphim*, i would say.

*due of the multiple pairs of wings

The game already has “Seraph,” and they are specifically the human military. I’m pretty sure the profession won’t be named something with that amount of confusion potential.

I think the wings may just be artistic license, or a blue shading of the current black wings.

Long bow … I’m so torn which one to put on my sylvari guardian. Though Chaos and White Hart are looking best to me right now, there’s a few good ones for her. Opinions? (I don’t have the last two, so it would take major effort to get them).

Wings of Dwayna is my favorite, followed closely by Sovereign. But White Hart is pretty good, too.

Ralanost.8913:

Pretty annoyed. If I knew they would be giving this out I would have tried harder for a beta invite. The hell? It’s like promotions isn’t talking to the dev team and vise versa. Pretty annoying to be honest.

This is for the stress test beta that happened several weeks ago. You couldn’t have done anything to try for an invite for that one.

There’s just no way to turn this into a constructive discussion. ANET has come out and stated that there’s nothing to the rumors of “lucky” or “unlucky” accounts. Whether you choose to believe that or not- whether it’s even true or not, there is literally nothing we, as players, can do.

This isn’t like leaving feedback. It’s an issue of “either this theory is true or false, and I am not buying that it is false, therefore it is true.” That’s not a point at which discussion can even happen.

There’s Frostgorge Sound. Additionally, since your level scales down to match the zone you’re in, you can map complete anywhere you haven’t already been and still get the same loot/xp you would as a level appropriate character. But Orr can be entertaining in its own right- however, it is a completely different feel than the rest of the world. I rather enjoy that, myself.

They can’t be forged?

If you see a person using an exploit, you should report it.

You can put any four weapons of the same type rarity into the forge and get another one out.

Did they ever state that the hero challenges around the world would award a single hero point? Because the leveling points are getting quite a boost. I’m wondering if the challenges are going to award 5. (It seems like a nice number.) That would certainly improve things for the WvW crowd.

It’s not at all the same system we have now. Not even a little bit. Traits are going to be bundled into a “reward track” system with skills and other things (armor/weapons, I think?) and it will take 465 hero points to unlock all of those tracks. You’ll earn 400 hero points just from leveling to 80, and traits will be accessible from around level 20ish. The rest of the hero points will be gained from doing skill challenges (blue chevrons) on the map.

One thing I’m wondering is if one skill challenge will award one hero point, since it’s not like we get 400 skill points for leveling. It seems like a reasonable deduction to think that skill (hero) challenges might award more than 1 hero point.

All of the tracks will be unlocked automatically in PvP.

Unknown.2189:

I spent alot of gold and gems to get the SAB minis because I want the Super Assassin mini very badly. Well I managed to get the ones I needed before they removed them from the chests.

Only thing is.. now i have to wait for SAB to return(if it ever does) just so I can get a continue coin to put in the forge. It sucks that the coins are account bound. Bunch of friends still have coins. All I need is 1! >:|

I’m pretty sure they still drop from jumping puzzle chests.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

lakonas.4317:

A small drop of positivity:

ANet said, that you get 400 hero points for getting to 80. You will need other 65 to get full unlocks. But is 400 not enough? Surely, you will not need every skill in the game to enjoy playing.

If someone already has every skill and trait unlocked, then yes they need every skill. If they can’t figure out how to keep everyone where they currently are when it comes to unlocking everything then they should not change it. It screams incompetence.

Are you sincerely suggesting that leaving the current system in place is a better option than getting a completely new system?

It doesn’t scream incompetence. It’s not the same system. You cannot both change things fundamentally and also keep everyone where they currently are. It’s not possible.

This response is just mystifying me. I have been waiting for a new system for a year. So far, based upon what we know, this is just overwhelming good news. I cannot believe that you want to quibble over something that may or may not even end up impacting most people in live, as we don’t even know what it’s going to look like. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, here.

Belzebu.3912:

It is disappointing now, when it was released it seemed quite nice.
New skins that you could apply for free, pvp skins and wvw badges from all your pve efforts , free gold, gems and laurels, also when it was released many players already had a lot of APs so in a matter of weeks people got tons of rewards from no where.
The problem is that the economy inflated, better rewards is easily obtained and the AP chests keep the same.

And when it was released, each chest had a handful of PvP skins in them, as mentioned above. That lack could’ve been filled with a couple of transmute charges or something, but it was just brushed aside as a relic of the past.