Guild Wars 2

And saving Laurels for Ascended Armor and Trinkets means the exclusion of using Laurels for anything else. When I first reached 75 Laurels I immediately acquired a Mini Goedulf. I personally don’t have buyer’s remorse but I’m sure many folks now regret any such frivolous purchase.

Last night a complete stranger who apparently started playing GW2 a short while ago marveled at the Queensdale champion train. Just couldn’t believe that there was a game where new players and experienced players fought side-by-side sharing the challenge and the reward. He/she couldn’t think of another MMO where that sort of thing occurred, and apparently she/he has played in a lot of them. I must confess I’ve never thought of it in just that way before but golly, there’s some truth to this.

Sure there’s sometimes unwanted drama with the existence of the train itself; but I can’t ever recall anyone complaining about the levels, classes, style and talent of the participants. It’s just one big happy family. Not so in say, PUG dungeons.

The last time I’ve seen the Ehmry Bay champ train at Frostgorge Sound was when folks disbanded after defeating Jormag. I’ve been guesting to Yak’s Bend which has what I feel is the Goldilocks number of folks in the train most of the time. Just have to remember that after the Wurm they go to the Troll next and THEN the Drake Broodmother.

After the nerf it’s just very hard to compete with the Queensdale train which always has reliable numbers, and all the champs except for the spider are events (which help with Daily and Monthly achievements) and drop karma.

Imagi.4561:

When people who kill champions outside of the zerg are no longer subject to public shaming for being “selfish” and “rude”, I’ll be willing to consider their “freedom” as an actual topic of debate.

I think there will always be a few bad apples; but I suspect that your experience is more a reflection of your server than anything else.

While I guest at other servers I’ve found Ehmry Bay to be very pleasant. So long as you’re not going out of your way to ruin the train folks there seem to live and let live.

And I recall a particularly nice moment where a few folks at Frostgorge Sound politely asked the train to skip the Quaggan so that they could tackle it on their own. There was a universal response of approval and folks cheered them on and did not interfere.

If crafting or RNG drops are the only way to acquire them then the answer is absolutely ZERO.

UrMom.4205:

I’ve never understood why people run the queensdale train instead of the frostgorge train. Whenever I run the frostgorge train i get significantly better loot. Is there a real logical reason to do the queensdale over frostgorge? serious question.

I prefer Frostgorge as well. However, when the Daily and Monthly achievements include “events” then Queensdale is far superior since all but the Spider are events, while only the intermittent Quaggan is an event in Frostgorge.

I think the trains are wonderful and there need to be many more of them. I do agree that Queensdale isn’t really the best spot for one.

The best solution is to kitten the kitten out of anyone who whines and complains about them.

My level 217 Red Dragon just boarded the Starship Excalibur on its way to Tatooine to meet with Buckaroo Banzai. So no, not much has changed.

Initially I went on a spending spree. Extra character slot, extra bank tab, an armor skin, a three-pack of minis, a self-style hair kit, a name change contract, and a modest in-game cash infusion. Maybe something else I can’t remember. Then when I heard about Ascended I decided to protest in the best way I know how. ArenaNet hasn’t seen a coin of real cash ever since. Now I am frugal and convert in-game money to gems. Last purchase was a 25-pack of Transmutation Crystals.

True, GW1 always treated us to slices of Pumpkin Pie and bottles of Hard Apple Cider.

As a percentage of a server’s head count the zergs are a pittance. And at least they ADD to the population of a couple zones. If you really want to see more folks in zones we should remove all instanced content from the game. When you’re in an instanced area of the game you have removed yourself from any zone. First logical step is to expunge all dungeons and personal stories from the game. I mean, if your primary goal is to reduce empty zones this is a far more sensible approach than breaking up the zergs.

Personally I would be delighted. However, I’m not unmindful that many players have already invested a lot of time and effort into acquiring them. They would have to be somehow duly compensated.

That said, I have protested ArenaNet’s betrayal of its core values and many promises the only way I can. They have not seen a penny of real-life money from me ever since. I’ve learned to be frugal and convert in-game money to gems instead.

On the other hand, if they got rid of ascended I’d probably buy at least $50 of gems just to celebrate.

I sent a bug report about this a while back. Just ended up salvaging mine. Really sad because I generally like most of the Pact skins.

I generally like the OP’s thoughts. A one-time transmutation stone purchase for each appearance. Swapping between say three different sets of armor would require one transmutation stone for each and every piece of armor totally eighteen (twenty-one if including backpacks).

As it stands now my level 80 toons pretty much stick with the same set of armor.

I have no proof; but I believe the drop rate range for ectos shrank about the same time that Exotics started dropping globs of dark matter. That would mean the answer to the OP’s question is the beginning of September.

Flash.6912:

6000+ hours here and no pre drop or MF eva. But made tons of legendaries by farming champs hard

a t s e will love to hear this.

They’ve already nerfed the cash and dust in the bags.

I do like the idea of the champion bags being tradeable.

The inflation in the economy is being caused by a variety of sources, not just the Champion Bags. Speed clearing dungeons with glass cannon builds, for example, is having a huge impact but that occurs in instanced environments that everyone else doesn’t see. The Champion Trains, especially in Queensdale, are receiving much more of the attention because they’re so kitten obvious.

Ashabhi.1365:

I think it would be great, except for one thing….

I would love for there to be something to commemorate one of the great characters in the game — but for the reason stated above it needs to be placed in a Level 80 area.

It would be nice to save builds. I’m certainly not expecting it to ever be free in GW2. The BLTC item has proven that will never happen. That said, I do think it would be reasonable to have an additional, alternate underwater set of traits. We already have that for the skill bar.

Many of us would be happy to help but we need a LOT more information.

Is it just me or do the overall appearances of our characters in GW1 look better than they do in GW2?

(1) My friends and I love and/or loved leveling. At least for our first few characters. After a while it becomes a drag and I guess that’s what those Level 20 Experience scrolls are for. Please don’t touch it. It is NOT a waste of time.

(2) Want to keep all areas of Tyria occupied? Then all events, quests and hearts should have their booty increased exponentially versus the time they haven’t been completed. Suddenly the lonely places in Tyria won’t be quite so lonely. Players would search all over Tyria for the most remote locales in hope of cashing in.

(3) Folks who haven’t played in a good while shouldn’t be counted in a server population numbers. I would even encourage kicking them out. Then the tallies would be more realistic and we could seriously talk about server merging.

If you blinked you missed it. Antitoxin Spray for 25 skill points. Talk about a game changer!

juno.1840:

Qaelyn.7612:

Grinding is self-imposed. That’s true in all MMOs and especially true in this one, from what I’ve been able to tell so far. I was actually shocked at how small the difference is in stats between super-expensive and very affordable items.

If this was GW1 the difference would be zero instead of small.

If only they had somehow overhauled and upgraded GW1 and never made GW2….

Phadde.7362:

The most enjoyment I get from dungeons is running AC (i.e.) with guildies when we’re all about level 40. Usually some of them that’s fairly new to the game, so you really have to think things through (since a level 80 scaled down is actually much stronger than someone of the minimum req. level).

Actually, I love those runs…

Yeah, while scaling down to match the level of where you are is a great idea, it needs to be harsher. For example, if you’re in a level 15 area you shouldn’t have access to your level 20 utility skill or your level 30 elite skill. That would add to the challenge.

I work in the QA department for a large company and while I realize Guild Wars 2 is a huge, huge program I find it appalling how many obvious easy-to-spot bugs enter the game and how long it takes to fix them. Fixing these three runes (including Perplexity) should be child’s play. If only there was a child around to fix them.

Not that reality has much to do with this game; but I applauded when Short Bows were given less range than Long Bows. It made perfect sense. A larger bow size means greater string size, and the farther a string can pull its arrow back, the greater the arrow’s velocity and the farther it will fly. That said, Short Bows should have been boosted in other ways to make up for the loss of range. Still waiting for that.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

What about a trait like Toxic Landing for example? Does anyone ever use that? There’s a lot of traits that never see any use. And I’d rather see those improved or replaced, than to see useful traits be nerfed into uselessness.

I had to comment on this, as I just so happened to have used Toxic Landing yesterday evening. However, I don’t normally have that trait selected. On those rare occasions that I want to fall, usually as shortcut, and I want to reduce the likelihood of dying, I change the trait slot temporarily and then return it back to its original state.

In that regard it’s a perfectly fine utility skill. Just not one I would use more than a handful of times a year.

Almost certainly the toxic mantle and gloves:

http://dulfy.net/2013/11/05/gw2-toxic-dyes-mantles-and-gloves-in-the-gemstore/

Morrigan.2809:

I have been trying to find red weapons for my Necro and finding a red axe/warhorn, scepter/dagger is impossible

They may not have any glowing or particle effects… but I’m quite fond of the Pirate weapons and they’re predominantly red.

I don’t really consider any of my toons to be alts. Is that weird? They share loot, rewards and playing time. And yes, this means none of them are exceptionally well-equipped.

Qaelyn.7612:

This is my fault, everyone. I started playing two weeks ago and discovered champ farming the other day. That’s why it was nerfed — I’m cursed.

Aha! This explains everything!

If you discover anything else in the game that’s lucrative please let us know in advance so that we can adapt accordingly.

rizzo.1079:

Zerole.7306:

Champions died regularly long before the champ bags were introduced.

Not really…

Truth. At most, you would kill a Champion once and that was that.

I do agree that the Train running in Queensdale, a starting area for humans, was at times problematic.

But if you wanted to slow down the trains you didn’t have to spoil the loot. Just slow down the spawn rates. You would no longer have a continuous ongoing cycle going on most every hour of the day. It would have been an occasional looked-forward-to event instead.

Dat kitten .7091:

Why would this be done, though? That was the only decent way to make gold outside of playing the TP (which is not really “playing the game”).

Here’s hoping for a lucid and reasonable explanation in the Release Notes. That all said, cut back on the rewards for defeating Champions and you’ll be reducing them to window ornaments. No one will ever bother with them again, train or no train.

Thank you John for your response. That said, cutting back on loot is one thing; but when opening a champion bag and receiving NO cash at all, that’s another thing altogether. Nonetheless, I look forward to reading the release note in the near future.

Oh, I need to try that.

I have no desire to commit blasphemy against the RNG. That said, if these dyes have any glowing or particle effects the demand will skyrocket.

Just wanted to thank Kristen for keeping us in the loop. You’re putting your colleagues to shame. I for one liked the change but I am wholeheartedly sympathetic to those who were unhappy with it.

What’s particularly appalling about this change is how it never made it to the Release Notes. Just a carefully stashed away nerf that ArenaNet was otherwise too embarrassed to admit. If it was just game balancing they would have owned up to it. No, the real and clear motivation is the hope that we’ll buy more gems with real-life money. Which is something I have vowed to stop doing and have succeeded for several months now.

Don’t be so proud about your dungeon speed clears and temple runs. Be assured that ArenaNet is coming after those next.

Oh, and as for Scarlet Invasions, much of the income came from killing the champions so forget about that.

On the other hand, the incentive to kill a champion outside of a train has dropped precipitously.

No doubt that ArenaNet needs to change encounters and bosses to better interact with the current system. That said, even the mention of implementing the Unholy Trinity would certainly mean the departure of this player.

I only have problems with folks that are going out of their way to spoil the train. Otherwise, just move to the next champ and life goes on. I still recall when a small party politely asked the Icezerg in map chat if they could tackle the Champ Quaggan on their own without interference. The response was nothing but positive and folks cheered them on and wished them well. And yes, we just bypassed them and let them have their fun/challenge.

Paraphrasing Animal Farm… all classes are equal but some are more equal than others. Currently Warriors are the most equal by far.

Seems like the changes were made with the best of intentions. That said, perhaps a switch could be added so that dye reverts to its old behavior? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and apparently these changes won’t please everyone; and yes, some of the dyes out there are expensive.

Funny, when I see folks just standing around with this kind of gear I just think of a certain William Shatner skit on Saturday Night Live.

I would stop all work on future content immediately and go back and fix all known bugs and address all balancing and game mechanic issues.

Admittedly an exception to the norm, but a few weeks ago someone spoke out in Map Chat. A small party wanted to see if they could tackle the Champ Quaggan on their own and asked if the Icezerg could pass it by. It was such a polite request that the response was nothing but enthusiastic and filled with well wishers. And AFAIK no one bothered them until they finished.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything. This was the right one.

Do a search on Tequatl Killer Squad [TKS]. I’ve seen it mentioned every now and then although I admittedly don’t know much about it.

And yes, I finally helped down Tequatl thanks to TTS.

Sardonia.8196:

Just make ascended gear acquireable through the same methods as exotics. No time gating etc. Just at a slighlty higher cost. This way people can basically play the way they want. It is just that simple. At least to me it is.

Is ArenaNet hiring? Oh, you’re probably overqualified.