Guild Wars 2

Rasimir.6239:

Faab.8049:

1. Scale event chains based on number of people contributing to event (so outside certain radius, no effect on difficulty)

Actually from what I’ve seen, the meta event chains already do scale very well, and you need way less than the full map population for success. The problem isn’t too few people, but rather people not looking at what they’re doing and doing more bad than good for the events.

For example, as long as people mostly cluster around the main pact encampment in VB and leave most outlying rally points to die off, there’s no way VB will reach a t4 night, even if there’s literally nothing else to do on the map except defend camps and gather supplies. Same with night bosses, people even have shouting matches on map chap which boss to do first, without realizing that it goes much smoother if they split up and tackle the bosses simultaneously in smaller groups.

Just the other day, a friend and I defended and supplied one of the outlying pale reaver camps by ourselves through a full night cycle. There really isn’t need for many people, they just have to learn to spread out, do every part of the metas, and pay attention to the event mechanics at hand, instead of blindly clustering to the tags like moths to the light.

Sighs … people are herd animals, so to say. Whenever someone has a lamp up, many people will flock to that lamp. To get T4 at night you’d have every mentor/commander available to go to a camp/escort point so you have your map well lit up with apples/lamps. But as things are … people either mull around aimlessly or they’ll flock to whichever lamp is currently on.

I’ve done my fair bit of shouting to get things organized but I never managed to get camps covered.

I guess we have to wait for a big community or guild to organize that – with 2 people assigned beforehand to each camp and then it does not matter what the other people are doing …

GW2 lacks one thing before all others: Ingame voice … map typing just doesn’t cut it and oh so many people seem to be allergic to TS never mind the cost issue for a 100 people TS server

Straylight.7529:

sephiroth.4217:

If I understand this right:

You’re complaining about players who are complaining the game THEY bought under the pretenses of “casual, grindless MMO” is now a grindfest with no room for casuals?

They have every right to complain in my opinion, they did after all make a purchase based off marketing tactics produced by this company. A selling point to most players now rendered void.

Arenanet made it very clear that HoT is going to offer the most challenging content to date. Everyone who spent 15 minutes googling the expansion before purchasing knew that. Those who didn’t only have themselves to blame.

Well, challenging is one thing … from my point of view some thinsg are not challenging but annoying and they didn’t advertise that they would offer the most annoying content ever …

(a) Adventures NEEDED for mastery points and them being closed down a lot of the time – some of them only during the metas, others until a meta has reached a certain level.

(b) All maps being timer synched. Which means if you log on 10 minutes too late you might well have to wait 2 hours before you can have the next go. If you only have 2h or so of play time …

© Tyrian masteries not being able to be unlocked via WvW. Want to craft legendaries? Want to access those Pact Traders to get rid of your karma … well, quit WvW and play PvE instead.

(d) Killing smaller guilds by denying them things they could do before and putting that behind one huge material/gold sink in order to allow them to do again what they could before.

None of this is challenging … it’s just plain horrible design and if they had stated those things BEFORE they put it on the market I bet they’d have sold a lot less HoT copies.

warbignime.4610:

If you think these are gate, then you might as well say that to everything. Almost all rpg are level gated, gear gated, story progression gated. And if we go further then Dota is also level gated, item gated, farm gated. If that’s how you look at things everything in video games are gated.

There is a difference, though, how to pass those gates. As for the level gate you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want as long as it gives xp. Same for gear acquisition.

HoT masteries, though, lock you to the four maps and throw a timer at you as well. Tough time if you can play for 2 hours and log into the game 15 minutes after DS started, You MIGHT be lucky to get onto an active map but chances are you won’t.

While one could argue that – except for ranger pet acquisition – HoT masteries make only sense in HoT, the pact commander line offers a bit for every player outside of HoT and legendary crafting does as well. Now – as a WvW player you are completely locked out – you cannot advance any of the Tyrian masteries by playing WvW – you have to do PvE. Now, if that isn’t a shoddy concept.

FogLeg.9354:

The meta events are simply too long and require too many of total map population. Cut them into event chain chunks of 1/3 or 1/4 from current length and allow each one to be completed separately. Then it does not matter if half the people are doign HP, gathering materials or gliding around.

Also, none of the waypoints should ever be contested.

Not yet sure about TD and, of course, not DS but VB or AB require like 5 ppl. to do the metas … Tarir needs like 20 people.

I’ve done VB metas solo (with or without a few random “join the lamp” players). Pale Reavers can be done solo completely (expect to die a few times in the ruins), leftmost Outpost takes ages with the part collection and you need a few people for the bombs around the tree. Frogs can be done solo up to the point where the Wyvern lands and central post likewise.

At night I never see people deffing the camps so there is not really a difference between you being alone or in a full map … :/

The night bosses need a few people … big crowds make them scale up in a bad way. We did the Wyvern on the rock with 5 people and it was a rather smooth ride.

But you can do ANY daytime meta for ANY VB outpost with as few kitten people easily. So on a map with 100+ players as a cap … who cares for 10 – 20 people who do HPs? You could just as easily make any node unharvestable during metas and whatnot …

Fire up your tag (apple or lamp) and start shouting in map chat to get things organized …

maddoctor.2738:

Daddicus.6128:

Odin of Ark.4860:

Regular masteries can be lvled anywhere in central tyria. And its not hard to level maguuma masteries at all. Dragons stand is pretty great for XP.

Did you read his post? He CAN’T GET THERE because he’s been gated out. For crying out loud, read before you post something so stupid.

You can get to DS only using gliding. You don’t even need bouncing mushrooms.

And how do you get to the islands and the chest without updrafts at least?

maddoctor.2738:

HtFde.3856:

In addition some of the numbers are highly biased and questionable. The claim that revenant has more “skills” than the whole of GW1 for example. If so, then why does every revenant running Shiro with a hammer have the same 10 skills? Oh yes, the traits might be different – the skills are the same. The revenant example shows how misleading numbers can be as the revenant has 0 variation in its active skills – they are defined by your weapon and your legend. Your sole choice then is what key to bind the skills 6-0 to, but not which skills 6-0 to take because they’re set in stone.

Revenant has more skills than EotN not GW1 in total, that would be insane.

How is the number biased or questionable if it’s exactly the number of skill and traits you can use as a Revenant? Those are all the skills and traits available to a Revenant, of course most of them come in bundles and others must be on specific slots but that doesn’t reduce the amout of unique key presses available to a Revenant.

Funny how you say Revenant has zero variation in their skills and then you add that “they are defined by your weapon and your legend”, isn’t choosing legends and weapons a CHOICE done by the player?

PvP wise it is a bit of a nightmare … you see the rev you see the weapon and you know what you’re facing. Being able to add a bit of surprise would be nice … broadcasting what facetts you are using isn’t helpful either (if you run Glint) …

Raziel.4216:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Raziel.4216:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Most of those numbers make me laugh. WP, POI and vistas hardlyare things to find. How many POI’s are really interesting?last time I found an interesting POI was when I found what was left of GW1 LA, or ToA in Godlost swamp.

And how is that relevant? he’s comparing the exploration aspects of the game, were you amazed at every landmark in GW1? no, but they still count.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Traits yeah half the time I end up having to use traits I don’t want to use with this new system. GW1 system gave you far more choice.

EoTN had less active skills and you can’t possibly claim that adding stat points was “more choice” than choosing traits.
Still, numbers don’t lie and GW1 is far behind, the objective evidence is not on your side.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Skins, yeah EoTN reskined some armor, I’m sure.if we looked closely to the skins in GW2 we would find most where reskins also. Nothing hing wrong with that, but me personally most of the new skins in HoT are not great at all. Exalted are probably the best looking.

Noone claimed GW2 had no re-skins, the guy was comparing both games, without removing re-skins and HoT is still ahead.

Yeah your a HoT fan boy, I can see. Numbers are irrelevant when it comes to having fun or not. You can throw all the numbers you want, fact is, a vast amount of people are unhappy with what HoT delivered. I still think EoTN was a better game. HoT has a good story, that about it for me.

Calling those who don’t agree with you fanboys makes it less likely for anyone to take you seriously.
Numbers are relevant when people claim one expansion added a lot more content, numbers demonstrate if that’s true or not. The objective evidence is not on your side, feel free to provide some that favors your point, or simply accept that -dramatic pause- reality doesn’t agree with you.
It’s either numbers or everyone’s bellyfeelings, I’ll stick to numbers.

Like with a meal where the number and variety of vitamins, minerals and whatnot do not mean anything if it tastes awful (and yes, it can have tons of good stuff in it and still taste rotten) you cannot just disassemble anything into numbers and then claim that you understand it or have it properly analyzed. With things like games there is an emotional aspect as well and if you leave that aside and just concentrate on numbers your analysis is without meaning.

Same with cars – you can have great numbers with a car (miles per gallon, horsepower, accelaration, etc.) but if the form is not appealing noone is going to buy it – the great numbers nonewithstanding.

In addition some of the numbers are highly biased and questionable. The claim that revenant has more “skills” than the whole of GW1 for example. If so, then why does every revenant running Shiro with a hammer have the same 10 skills? Oh yes, the traits might be different – the skills are the same. The revenant example shows how misleading numbers can be as the revenant has 0 variation in its active skills – they are defined by your weapon and your legend. Your sole choice then is what key to bind the skills 6-0 to, but not which skills 6-0 to take because they’re set in stone.

In addition to that … I think there was a good reason why GW1 offered to save and load skill templates and why GW2 does not …

Number-wise GW 2 offers a lot more choices than GW 1 did. Just think of all the armor and their stats – that offers – on paper – far more combinations than GW 1 with its quite simplistic approach. If you take a look at viability, though, you’ll find most armor types (or rather the corresponding inscriptions and insigniae) to be lackluster.

As of lately condition based damage has finally become viable for PvE but well played zerker still rules.

So, anyway, disassembling something and just looking at the numbers isn’t working in most cases. Trying to understand how a pizza tastes by looking at its chromatography chart is a futile attempt.

kuritsutian.2987:

But… but… but …
I meant it as a boss ….. —pouts--
Wouldn’t be the first time to be called that … and I am a guy >.>

If polital correctness would kick in … would the proper term be “parental person”?

Fluffball.8307:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Pocket raptors are probably my favourite critter in the jungle. The more the merrier, I say.

I actually wouldn’t mind a pocket raptor adventure, where you got to play as your character and just faced an unending horde of them. That would be so much fun.

Hm, how about you get two Paragons as sidekicks, had to run into a cave using the shouts from the sidekicks – aggro and ball up as many raptors as you can and try to kill them and a big veteran who’s at the end of the cave with one hit … oh, er, we already had that, didn’t we?

Klangy.8293:

Also for collection (so you get ascended weapon) this is also just not a “easy” thing that will get handed out to everyone. Earn your stuff. Or get exotic and do what ever you want instead. If u want shinys make the effort for it..

You guys don’t get it … now how about football teams who want to play in major league would have to qualify by playing chess? Would sound strange? YES!

I do not mind working for something – I just don’t believe that playing platform style mini-games have ANYTHING at all to do with a MMO and I’d be hard put to remember any other game that had such a completely alien mechanism built into it other than for pure fun and enjoyment (like Fallout where you can play mini games as well).

SirDrygan.1823:

HtFde.3856:

SirDrygan.1823:

Pocket Raptor literally dies in 1 hit. My ele just shout them to death without stopping. And my ele is glass. I tried and they literally killed my ele in 2 hits. But my ele can wiped out 2 groups without using 1,2,3,4,5 of my skill bar. I only use shouts. fire and shock. I usually just run pass them though. Since they don’t drop loot.

Well, that works for one group – in AB you have 4 or 5 groups in a row and I wonder how the timer ratio between cooldown and respawn is

If you are spec like my Ele, first hit will get a flameburst or something. It’s a rune thing. Then that fire shout and the shock shout. And at least 80% of 2 groups will be dead. Then that evasive arcana dodge in fire attunement, and you get another group that is on fire. And my ele is using runes that prolong fire duration, so, most of them will die from the fire…….

Since my Ele is struggling a bit in HoT (I played her in WvW most of the time as a D/D bunker but there have been a few changes (especially so might) that this build is no longer working really well … could you perhaps link your build? I’m trying air/water + tempest but you seem to running a different spec.

Rasimir.6239:

The other day, my 12-year-old on her fresh-to-80 mesmer, proudly told me: Mom, thanks to these pocket raptors, I have finally learned how to dodge well .

Personally, I’d love to have a miniature pack of pocket raptors . They’re adorable (and, as others said, easily counterable on every class).

Ponders … whould it actually make sense to create a mini that might be 3 pixel high?

Chiccotot.7296:

^OMG Smokescales are stupid.
I blink away and guess what? It’s still attacking me with the mist/smoky attack thing that they do.

Well, anything with a channel attack will do so. Those claw attacks from the guys in Orr do the same – follow you into invisibility and a blink as well. So when I approach one of those channelers I usually have scepter 2 ready for the block (+ a nice condition to reward their effort) and then (!) blink away.

SirDrygan.1823:

Pocket Raptor literally dies in 1 hit. My ele just shout them to death without stopping. And my ele is glass. I tried and they literally killed my ele in 2 hits. But my ele can wiped out 2 groups without using 1,2,3,4,5 of my skill bar. I only use shouts. fire and shock. I usually just run pass them though. Since they don’t drop loot.

Well, that works for one group – in AB you have 4 or 5 groups in a row and I wonder how the timer ratio between cooldown and respawn is

Viledoom.7203:

I used to be an Revenant like you, then I took a pocket raptor in the knee.

gou.2197:

also, are they hardcoded to not drop loot?

Indeed, seems the little swines don’t even carry any loot at all.

They’re tiny! How could you expect the poor things to carry something big as a greatsword for some player to loot it from them?

Erindriel.2351:

Allow me to set a scene here; I’m a level 80 revenant in exotic heavy armor.

Why do those little buggers kill me in 5-7 hits? It’s literally impossible to walk from point a to point b without being gang-racked by the little kittens and brought into downed state. Logically they should break their little teeth on my metal boots! =p

Please get rid of them. They’re nothing but an annoyance!

I agree that their damage output is somewhat strange – especially if you happen to be the point of interest of two groups and their sync attacks makes for a huge spike. But as a Revenant … just use the facette that gives you the 33% movement speed and run – when you near them and you see that they will attack dodge roll, use staff 5 and you’re out of reach already and if another group is close use staff 3 after your dodge roll … will put you in combat speed most likely but I manage to run through raptor alley in AB without dying and there’s 4 or 5 groups of them in a row.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

HtFde.3856:

You don’t get it

Many people HATE them.

How many of the people hating adventures would hate them if they could avoid them ?

I know I wouldn’t hate them then. I’d just ignore them and never think about them. Just like I do with PvP.

Nods, I said in another post that it is a mindset thing. I don’t really like jumping puzzles but I completed them all. Because on some days I felt I could tackle them and as soon as frustration set in (Etherblade one comes to mind) I stopped and did something else. Now, those JPs were never tied to anything and doing them or not was completely optional. And I know I’d feel the same for those adventures if they would not be needed for (a) mastery points and (b) the class specific ascended weapons.

By making them mandatory the attitude towards them changes and what might, at worst, be indifference turns into hatred.

Dark Saviour.9410:

I enjoy minigames and the like as relaxing distractions, but these… most are not so relaxing when the gold threshold is so tight. XP has been the limiting factor for me thusfar anyway, but I know some of these I’m going to just have to forego. :-(

Well, it’s a mindset thing, I think. When you do them just for relaxing with nothing but maybe a title tied to it you can approach them in a relaxed fashion. When it’s the only source of mastery points still left for you and if you need a specific one for your ascended class-specific weapon … well … I guess one just feels way less relaxed.

Therefore I think that a lot more people might enjoy those if they were a thing to do when one feels like doing them instead of not liking them because they are a “must-get” at the moment.

I know (personal thing, I know) from my own experience that I am not really a big fan of jumping puzzles but I did them all and whenever I felt frustrated (talk about the etherblade one) I just stopped doing it and did something else and returned whenever I felt I could have another go. So it took me like 2 years to go through all jumping puzzles but I did actually enjoy my attempts.

Kraggy.4169:

HtFde.3856:

Ayrilana.1396:

I hate being forced to do the story to get MP.
I hated being forced to do JP’s to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill specific champions to get MP.
I hate being forced to do entire event chains to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill things to get MP.
I hate being forced to do PvE to get MP.
I hate being forced to do scavenger hunts to get MP.
I hate being forced to do adventures to get MP.
…
Etc etc etc etc

Not everything in the game will be something that you enjoy.

Don’t try becoming an author on a professional basis … it’d be a desaster.

How old are you? Let’s talk about split time reaction when you’re 45+ and have had a rather stressful work-day. At 20:00 I’m not at my best and even at my best I’d lose hands down against a 16 year old – age does that to people.

Being an author usually requires the ability to spell correctly, though I guess you can out-source that to your editor, so you have a skill that need brushing up if you wanted to become one.

Nods, English being my third language I think I can live with that knowledge

Hailfyre.1935:

Day 1, waited an hour for a veteran mosquito to spawn so I could turn the tables on it and harvest its blood instead. Feeling ridiculously legendary right now.

Thanks, Anet.

Any vet mosquito will do? If so, the hero point near the crossover from VB to AB has a fast respawning mosquito vet, if I remember correctly.

Garathorn the Brave.3162:

Yeah, we get all the nice new areas to explore (and the scenery is amazing) but have you tried to solo explore Dragons Stand without Ascended gear and Legendary weapons? Agro 1 single mob and you’re dead in seconds! Don’t get me wrong…it’s a challenge trying to figure out how to do more in the game as a soloist but it seems that it’s becoming a lot more difficult these days!

Mainly playing solo myself and since I play all classes with about the same interest I don’t have a main and I think I may have 3 or 4 ascended armor pieces across my characters and like 4 or 5 ascended weapons, also spread across multiple chars.

Exploring DS solo isn’t possible because of the meta. Certain parts of the map are locked until the meta progresses. But everything available on a fresh map I find easy enough especially so since the groups patrolling DS are a mixed group. I also solo VB metas if I cannot find a full map and hope for players joining in (having bought the commander tag helps).

Combat in HoT is not rushing forwards and spamming your skills (at least not with multiple enemies) – it’s more a rush and attack – dodge/block/retreat – close and attack again circle. Once you know which enemies to go for first and once you packed some kind of condi removal (2 vet tormentors can really ruin your day) and once you learn when to evade/block and when to attack even the groups of 5 in DS don’t pose much of a threat. Its also fairly easy to just run past them – most groups will stop chasing you after a really short time.

Usually stealth classes (thief, mesmer, engi) have it far easier as they can run in with reckless abandon, lead the group away from where you want to go, stealth and break aggro. Classes with block or high moblity will also do nicely (warrior, elementalist).

Classes that lack both face a bigger challenge … my necro or my guardian usually will have to fight their way through as they cannot escape as easily. Ranger can try to use the pet as distraction which usually works quite well.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Oh yeah, the VB treasure mushroom, I totally forgot about that. Someone called that on map chat, and I, still blissfully unaware of such rubbish at that time, went there, as did a lot of other players who didn’t have a clue what was going on.

I really want to know who thought of all that, so I can follow this person’s career and avoid what other games they work on like the plague.

Giggles – I imagine a lot of players gliding in to a player who called for help and all they see is a guy who’s seemingly attacking air and who’s running around a lot … hillarious.

Now, it might have been OK if the treasure mushroom would become visible to other players once he has been attacked and brought down to, say, 75% life …

Your intention regarding the one(s) who thought this out is too narrow, though. Things like these are implemented by one or two developers but there’s usually a board that decides on the concept and also a board or a QA team that checks the final implementation and it ran past those people … you might want to include those in your “people to watch” list.

Manasa Devi.7958:

A boss that’s required to gain maximum rewards in the dreadful meta-cycle of the very first map, requires 4 levels in a mastery you can’t even unlock until you reach the 3rd map, before you can effectively contribute to cancelling his mass insta-down attack.

When I first met the guy, I needed 5.8 million more experience and I couldn’t even start earning it at that point. And then there was half a dozen people ranting and raging at two dozen clueless people that we needed to use CC on him.

If there’s a yearly prize ceremony for bad game design, this should surely get a nomination.

Won’t make it to 1st place, though. 1st place will go to the treasure mushroom. Especially the one in VB as it sits in one of the most unhealthy places in GW 2 I have encountered so far + it has the “Defend Soldier” event that spawns in additional enemies. It’s conveniently located close to a waypoint and a get-together-or-die HP but as most players cannot see the group event from where they are (waypoint, HP) and even if they do they cannot see the mushroom … bleh!

Swift.1930:

Fengzhou.9853:

You CAN design a map and give the aura of danger and challenge without going overkill on the cheese. One shot mechanics aren’t skill testers, it’s lazy design.

This was something that confused me as well. I tried blocking, dodging, blinding, flying away with a glider… nothing worked. Am I missing something? What kind of attack should completely down random people from full health?

Talking the axe champ here?

There is a trick, indeed. If you cannot see it (or do it) there is the alternate way of sticking together to power rez those downed and continue hacking at the bad guy.

As for my feeble pun … once you can see those invisible mushrooms (some mastery) you’ll also see the axemaster and how he is powering up his attack. Break his bar and the deadly attack won’t happen …. problem is, though, that you need A LOT of guys who can see him to break his bar. Failing that … power rez. You can only fail this one, actually, if you have less than 10 people on him or if people are spread too far to power rez the downed.

Fengzhou.9853:

. Many. Mobs… you can’t STOP and rest, you afk to use the toilet, you die.. It royally sucks when most of the way points cycle through contested events, so even pausing at one of those can pretty much guarantee death.

Nods, a thing that irks me as well.

Solution: Ask in map chat for a party member for a anti-dc group (one party member will do) and when you have to go afk hit “b”, enter your WvW home world, do whatever you must do (unless it takes too long and you get auto kicked). When back again hit “b” again and “exit the mists” and you will be right where you were and on the same map.

Also a great way of emptying your inventory should it get full …

Swift.1930:

HtFde.3856:

It’s not so much the damage as the being able to double-click it out of combat to reselect stats – if legendary armor has the same fearure it would mean a lot more free slots for the character or the bank …

Huh. Something I didn’t actually realize. Not bad. I might need to reconsider my goals slightly O.o (Not that I change build a lot, but still… choice/flexibility is nice.)

Well, as with ascended weapons they also share the advantage of not being soulbound. So if you have a power guardian and a condi necro you can use a legendary scepter and choose Berserker for the guardian and, say, rabid for the necro.

In addition to that … should ANet ever introduce a new weapon tier with even higher stats than ascended the legendary weapons will get upgraded to those higher stats.

I really wish I had one … currently working on Rodgort … I have uses for a torch on three characters (PU Mesmer, Shatter Mesmer on occasion and Guardian) and it seems to be one of the least time consuming legendaries to create and I could do with stat switching …

Well, it’s pretty hard to compare GW1 and GW2 … what I really like in GW 1 is that (except some places in EoTN … Minotaur herds, remember) you can just stop, get yourself a coffee, return and resume play. It’s more a strategical thing with ample time to ponder how to get through … GW 2 is more action and your smart and careful approach to a hairy situation (like the area with the treasure mushroom in VB before you come to the portal to AB) can be oblitarated by a surprise respawn, a surprise event (hey, protect that freshly spawned soldier from the freshly spawned enemies, my sneaking hero) or some other player that pulls a trail of enraged enemies after him and right into you.

Also enemies like the electric Wyvern up in the tree make me wanna cry in frustration. Whoever programmed them should really, really attend some advanced classes … coming from miles away, attacking once, retreating, retreating but running around the central stone, resetting and immediately running to attack as well + what seems to be a random respawn time … sometimes the dead one hasn’t even faded out when the new one fades in already.

Well, a rerigged mesh for a different race is NOT another new armor. But some people will give you one peanut and start spin-doctoring off on proteins, sugar, the shell, never forget that great shell … and try to convince you that you’ve got youtself one hell of a deal.

Personal thing: I spent a long time in EoTN with my chars, getting map completition and “masteries” (the blessings), vanquishing, doing Slaver’s, doing VS farmin in groups and solo and I have to say … I had more fun there than I have in HoT.

And while EoTN got me rich (Essences for speed runners) HoT is making me poor

Well, you got two new classes + their skills, new skills for the core classes as well (though a lot of them are duplicates – remember that Factions is a standalone package and does not require Prophecies), you get a whole continent to play through (though it is smaller than what you get with Prophecies) + endgame dungeons.

So HoT is more comparable to EoTN than Factions or Nightfall.

ZachAttack.3957:

kuritsutian.2987:

maybe most of them are done with the first maps and moving progressively to latest ones, dragon outpost seems more rewarding

Yeah, I usually see a kittenload of taxis for DS.

Well, only for the first minutes after the map has restarted and the question is … how many maps? You can see 10 taxis in lfg – all from the same map …

Tirien.1326:

People that say the population is shrinking, where is the proof then?
Didn’t they just say Active players 3,1 million?

If you can show hard proof that this is infact a lie, and that the game is dead, then go out and find some. If this game feels more alive, more active and has players on all zones, how could it be dying or on the brink on death?

I play WoW aswell, and i swear to God those 5,3 million subscribers where da hell are they? Every single zone i go to is more or less dead, i see no onem, even stormwind is a ghost town, does this mean that the game has less than 5,5 million subs or whatever it is right now? No, just because i don’t see them doesn’t make them not-real.

So the numbers and the fact that it seems HoT did very well, i would say Gw2 is here to stay atleast 3 more years, which is GREAT!

What exactly enables you to draw the conclusion that HoT did well? The fact that GW 2 went f2p and had its numbers rise? Had nothing to do with HoT. So – what makes you believe HoT did/does well.

The fact that GW2 went f2p isn’t a strong success sign …

inch.3769:

Scandi.5693:

inch.3769:

Molesworth.1684:

Am I the only one finding it frustrating that mastery points are tied to these difficult and annoying mini games? It’s nigh on impossible to get even bronze on many of them. Coupled with the fact that they’re often closed, I have given up hope of ever getting enough mastery points to max my level.

Mini games are farely easy to get a bronze on. Any way they are a good way of getting cool rewards and also they are not the only way to get mastery points. There are many ways.

No there isn’t. You have no choice but to do adventures to get max mastery.

But surely the point in doing well in the game is to manage to complete all aspects of the pve game including adventures?

Why PvE? Why not PvP? Because you don’t do PvP … well, that’s an objective reson then, coughs. And since when have “adventures” anything to do with PvE? That’s PvT (player versus timer) but NOT PvE.

You tried … maybe ANet thinks your post is worth a gem or two …

inch.3769:

Molesworth.1684:

Am I the only one finding it frustrating that mastery points are tied to these difficult and annoying mini games? It’s nigh on impossible to get even bronze on many of them. Coupled with the fact that they’re often closed, I have given up hope of ever getting enough mastery points to max my level.

Mini games are farely easy to get a bronze on. Any way they are a good way of getting cool rewards and also they are not the only way to get mastery points. There are many ways.

Cool rewards? Like, er junk blues and greens?

Also … count the mastery points needed, count the ones you can get outside of adventures, subtract the numbers and edit your post.

Kraggy.4169:

Vayne.8563:

Kraggy.4169:

Rayden.3695:

yeah, the instanced maps with a ~150 player cap does create an illusion of not so many people playing. Also that might count also the asian region(China) which is separate from NA and EU and probs has atleast as many players.

The number of times I’m plagued with “this map is closing” crap every day I don’t think it’s an illusion.

You clearly don’t understand how the system works. People move maps all the time. Plenty of maps have an event on them or a guild mission people do, and the guild moves to the next mission moves maps. They didn’t necessarily stop playing they’re simply on a different map.

So if you get that a map is closing that means there were enough people to spawn that extra map in the first place.

I have a good idea how the system works, thanks, ‘mega servers’ aren’t new or novel server tech.

However, you make my point for me, if a handful of guildies are enough to create a map and for it to close when they leave clearly that doesn’t indicate a large population, does it?

A handful doesn’t quite do the trick but when we do an organized Dry Top we try to get our own map and ferry people in as needed. We usually need like 30+ people to sync-enter portals (or click waypoints) to ensure a new map after 1 to 3 attempts.

Krag.6210:

Scandi.5693:

Pft, just tried to go back and do more of these so can finish my mastery…and lo and behold they were all locked in every zone. Fun times. When I leave this game it will be due to these things.

Actually, most of them are open most of the time. AB and TD ones are only closed during the final meta event.

Er – no. Why do some people like to post false statements?

I have had to complete the Pale Reavers Meta solo the last 4 times to unlock the junkyard. Fortunately usually a player or two joined because the fight in the ruins is pretty unforgiving an it’s a long way.

The leftmost outpost is even worse because you’ve got to fight two champoins before you can do the glider race. Done that solo and with one or two people as well. And since it takes a bit of time this way there isn’t much daylight left when you’re done.

warbignime.4610:

Rayden.3695:

yeah, the instanced maps with a ~150 player cap does create an illusion of not so many people playing. Also that might count also the asian region(China) which is separate from NA and EU and probs has atleast as many players.

Also I think mega server is still bugged, Anet really should fix mega server and increase player cap for HoT maps.

Ack- NO!!!!

They should decrease it! Because the way it is it doesn’t put enough people on the maps. The maps seem to be capable of holding far more players than are needed. This leads to people taxiing and thus vaccuming players from maps.

You can only cure this by two different mechanisms:

(a) Decrease max players per map (so taxis cannot suck in too many)
(b) Increase the threshold for megaserver so that it puts more people into a map before starting a new one

If you do these things you should see fewer but better populated maps.

BennyKay.6139:

cost me about 1700-1800g to get twilight through crafting dusk. beats the heck out of the 3800g price on TP.

Dusk is less than 1.300 not 3.800!

Why do people always confuse precursors with legendaries. Calculate what you “paid” for crafting Dusk and compare that to 1.300. The cost from Dusk to Twilight is the same – whether you buy Dusk from the TP, find it or craft it.

Swift.1930:

HtFde.3856:

Well, how is “legendary crafting” – that yields a precursor only – different from that?

Haha, but at least precursors are related to legendaries. You kind of need a precursor if you’re going to craft a legendary, right? Mini-games aren’t in the slightest related to adventures! =P

(Is it really called legendary crafting? I’ve completely ignored it because I’m not about to spend 2,000,000 hours on a single piece of equipment that has… what… +2 damage? lol)

It’s not so much the damage as the being able to double-click it out of combat to reselect stats – if legendary armor has the same fearure it would mean a lot more free slots for the character or the bank …

And yes, it is indeed called “Legendary Crafting”

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swift.1930:

These mini-games (you won’t catch me calling them actual adventures) would be functional within a separate and comical environment like the Super Adventure Box. Putting them in the main world as mastery requirements… doesn’t feel right. They’re festival-style mini-games with rewards.

Edit: like other people, I’m not against them being an optional way to obtain mastery points. It’s more that the presentation, the connotation of the word “adventure”, and the location that annoy me.

Agreed. An ‘adventure’ implies something different from what these deliver. There isn’t any shame in calling them mini-games, so why the misleading nomiker? Boggles the mind, it does.

Edit: To be fair, I’ve only tried a couple. May be there’s others which feel less pest control and more ..adventurous. Fingers crossed.

Well, how is “legendary crafting” – that yields a precursor only – different from that?

Harper.4173:

Obtena.7952:

Harper.4173:

Obtena – people wanted a non-RNG method of getting a precursor that they could work at themselves.

Somehow you think a non-RNG translates to cheaper. It doesn’t and I don’t think Anet’s goal was to cater to people that wanted it cheaper either. Not their failure if someone assumes something that doesn’t come true.

Eventually, crafting method will become financially weighted to established methods. There are people where the main factor to choose crafting a precursor isn’t cost. You weren’t ever going to get a system where performance matters. That’s even more exclusive than the crafting is …

I don’t want cheaper – I want alternate.
I don’t want to have to buy the item with gold – off the TP or through a collection.
I want a skill-based challenge (Like Liardri or other hard content) that will reward me with items required for my precursor.

I want my precursor to be made by me spending time getting better at the game and attempting harder content in order to overcome challenges not just farm gold.

Performance being exclusive? sure that’s true – but these are Legendary weapons – they’re not supposed to be commonplace and if the common player wants them they still have the alternative of buying them.

You as well – sigh

We’re talking precursors here – not legendary weapons. To get from precursor to legendary will indeed keep you occupied for quite a while. And it does not matter if it is a crafted precursor or one bought from the TP.

The problem is probably that the mastery trait is a misnomer. Calling it legendary crafting makes people believe that the end result will be a legendary weapon instead of just the precursor required for a legendary weapon.

warbignime.4610:

It’s not meant to be easier either and Legendary should NOT be easy to get.

As for that quote – since people can get it from throwing things into the MF (and get lucky) or get it as a drop (get lucky) … lucky and easy/difficult are two very different things. I was actually very angry when I learned how to get precursors (back when GW2 launched). The crafting to legendary is what I expected it to be – I just never expected them to make the base a rng based thing.

And – please note – we’re not talking legendary weapons here! We’re talking precursors. That’s just the start of the journey. The rest of the journes is the same, regardless where the precursor came from.

warbignime.4610:

HtFde.3856:

warbignime.4610:

TheMightyNewb.6789:

I 100 agree in full, they told us that this new system was for players that didn’t have the luck or the money to acquire a pre-cursor weapon. Yet it requires the same if not more money plus extra time gated stuff to acquire these new pre-cursors, its extremely disappointing to have Anet false advertise so to speak, if it wasn’t for a friend of mine that told me it was a gold sink, i would be right where you are my friend because i was looking forward to this new system but however now i am 100 percent completely avoiding it. like Why could Anet have had 4 collections for each precursor, and when you complete each collection you get 1 item out of 4 to put into the Mystic Forge to then craft the weapon. that makes way more sense to me anyways

Anet never told people that it’s a cheap way, it’s a non RNG way to get precouser it doesn’t mean cheaper, easier or faster to get.

As some items are MORE expensive to craft than buying the thing off the TP it would be faster to create the items (ascended materials, etc.), sell them on the TP and then BUY the precursor off the TP.

So – let us see if the concept itself is feasible:

(1) Is it cheaper – answer is (for most precursors): No
(2) Is it faster – answer is (for most precursors): No
(3) Is it RNG-free (only can say for Bifrost): No

So – why should I even consider spending a single point in that mastery line?

You may try to make ANet look better than they deserve by telling us what they did not say – but what it boils down to (same with Guild Halls, by the way): It’s content that seems to have been put together in haste without any balance. Either that or ANet didn’t believe in precursor crafting in the first place and put a system in place, that doesn’t make sense.

It’s not meant to be easier either and Legendary should NOT be easy to get. For some people saving up 1k gold is impossible but saving 10 gold each day and complete it over 3 month is. It’s a non RNG slow progression towards pre.

Sorry, this does not wash at all.

You make it sound like a banker who tries to tell his customer that paying interest on a loan is actually to his advantage.

When I cannot afford 700 gold outright (which I really can’t) then I’d be stupid to the extreme to craft it with time gated materials with an ultimate cost of 1.000 gold. I’d rather make and store the materials and sell them as soon as their value hit the 700 gold. 300 gold saved and a lot of time as well.

The way they implemented certain achievements required to craft the precursors is not RNG free – that’s a myth.

warbignime.4610:

TheMightyNewb.6789:

I 100 agree in full, they told us that this new system was for players that didn’t have the luck or the money to acquire a pre-cursor weapon. Yet it requires the same if not more money plus extra time gated stuff to acquire these new pre-cursors, its extremely disappointing to have Anet false advertise so to speak, if it wasn’t for a friend of mine that told me it was a gold sink, i would be right where you are my friend because i was looking forward to this new system but however now i am 100 percent completely avoiding it. like Why could Anet have had 4 collections for each precursor, and when you complete each collection you get 1 item out of 4 to put into the Mystic Forge to then craft the weapon. that makes way more sense to me anyways

Anet never told people that it’s a cheap way, it’s a non RNG way to get precouser it doesn’t mean cheaper, easier or faster to get.

As some items are MORE expensive to craft than buying the thing off the TP it would be faster to create the items (ascended materials, etc.), sell them on the TP and then BUY the precursor off the TP.

So – let us see if the concept itself is feasible:

(1) Is it cheaper – answer is (for most precursors): No
(2) Is it faster – answer is (for most precursors): No
(3) Is it RNG-free (only can say for Bifrost): No

So – why should I even consider spending a single point in that mastery line?

You may try to make ANet look better than they deserve by telling us what they did not say – but what it boils down to (same with Guild Halls, by the way): It’s content that seems to have been put together in haste without any balance. Either that or ANet didn’t believe in precursor crafting in the first place and put a system in place, that doesn’t make sense.

Soon.5240:

Dashingsteel.3410:

I was a big fan of the original system. It allowed player freedom. Players could do things they ENJOY and still progress. Thought that was the point of games anyway.
Take away the mastery points and allow mastery bars to be filled with experience only to progress. That would give players freedom to play as they want.

+1

Unfortunately, if they disable the Mastery gating system, it becomes readily apparent that Anet only really created about 24 to 32 hours of new content….

Aw, really … what did you do in GW1? Probably farmed UW and FoW or DoA to get the items for the skins. Taken a look at the provisioner skins? That’ll take a while.

Nevermind that we now have a rng free (mor or less) way to obtain legendaries via crafting precursors. Think that can be completed in a few hours?

So core content is less than a GW 1 “expansion” but it’ll keep you going for a while if you really want those skins. And – let’s face it – unless you went for Kurzick/Luxon title and suchlike in GW 1 you were done with the base game rather fast as well (except, maybe, Prophecies).

Tiburon.8634:

If you’re going to have an adventure, you should be able to see where you went wrong in the game and see where you need to go in the game not in some external youtube video. If, for example, you could walk around the wreckage of the ship and see where the bombs and tendrils are before you start this piece of garbage adventure and plan ahead before you start, it wouldn’t be so bad. But you can’t. You get two minutes to run around and locate them, which is stupid.

Tendril Torchers? It’s not the one I loathe the most …

By the way – you can start as often as you want and map them out and think out a strategy. Then go for it in a serious way … Lag is my biggest problem on that one. Oh – and make sure you explode the mines from range so you don’t get knocked around … never managed gold but silver isn’t too difficult on that one. I just wish the tendrils would show up by pressing ALT or CTRL …

Kuzzi.2198:

Is this thread serious? Please stop crying and play the game.

There are MANY more Mastery Points available than what is needed to max out all Masteries.

Count them – count what you need – subtract the numbers, post again.

Ayrilana.1396:

HtFde.3856:

Ayrilana.1396:

I hate being forced to do the story to get MP.
I hated being forced to do JP’s to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill specific champions to get MP.
I hate being forced to do entire event chains to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill things to get MP.
I hate being forced to do PvE to get MP.
I hate being forced to do scavenger hunts to get MP.
I hate being forced to do adventures to get MP.
…
Etc etc etc etc

Not everything in the game will be something that you enjoy.

Don’t try becoming an author on a professional basis … it’d be a desaster.

How old are you? Let’s talk about split time reaction when you’re 45+ and have had a rather stressful work-day. At 20:00 I’m not at my best and even at my best I’d lose hands down against a 16 year old – age does that to people.

Don’t become an editor either.

None of the adventures really require that precise reaction time to get silver.

Some do … took me like 30 attemps at Masks of the Fallen (or whatever it is called) and I’m still way off on the bouncing mushroom thing in AB. I guess the main problem is whether you play shooters or not. When you’re a shooter person you might be used to move via W key. I’m not … I move via mouse buttons. So I have to stop moving to aim where I want to jump and that takes A LOT of time compared to moving AND aiming.

Dashingsteel.3410:

I just hate mastery points. Why isn’t filling the mastery bar with experience not enough to get your mastery?

Because it would allow you do play the game however you liked because you would be hard pressed to do anything (except for waiting for the idle kick) that would not give you XP and would thus create mastery points.

While this was good enough for GW1 and early GW2 the ANet crew has changed some. Seems they hired a bunch of WoW developers and platform game developers – and those new guys come with an attitude: Hey, no more ignoring all that wonderful content we are ramming down your throat handing you – we’ll just make them so that you HAVE to do them and goodbye to the normal, boring, old-school way of advancing via experience … silly concept, really.

Ayrilana.1396:

I hate being forced to do the story to get MP.
I hated being forced to do JP’s to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill specific champions to get MP.
I hate being forced to do entire event chains to get MP.
I hate being forced to kill things to get MP.
I hate being forced to do PvE to get MP.
I hate being forced to do scavenger hunts to get MP.
I hate being forced to do adventures to get MP.
…
Etc etc etc etc

Not everything in the game will be something that you enjoy.

Don’t try becoming an author on a professional basis … it’d be a desaster.

How old are you? Let’s talk about split time reaction when you’re 45+ and have had a rather stressful work-day. At 20:00 I’m not at my best and even at my best I’d lose hands down against a 16 year old – age does that to people.

Osu.6307:

For anyone struggling with an adventure, check youtube. There are multiple clips of people getting gold for every adventure. Imo, none of the adventures are that difficult, but you do need to do them a couple times to understand the mechanics. Also, since you have to do the adventures to complete a collection, why not get good at them and do them daily for the gold reward. Gold is a guaranteed rare item. Since those reclaimed metal plates are also necessary for the collection, adventures are a great place to farm them and get a nice chunk of XP.

You don’t get it

Many people HATE them.

Many people are bad at these things, no matter what some people manage to pull off on youtube.

Many people feel completely stressed out when they try to do them!

And that is not even going into timers and what a somewhat high latency does to you when you play those like boosters not firing, glider not deploying, boosters firing after 2 second delay when you’re already below the course …

I am sure there is something you absolutely loath to eat. How about eating more of that … maybe you will like it sooner or later? And it’s the same with these … kitten … adventures.