Guild Wars 2

Are you going for World Completion? xD

Since Druid has staff, the Revenant staff meta will no longer be attainable and Bifrost will drop in price since pets can wield staves now too

Why would I play a necro minion master if the minions can only wield warhorns and druid pets get staves? Besides, the minion AI doesn’t know how to use utility skill properly and spams blood is power with no cooldown, killing themselves. Meanwhile, ranger pets spam signet of stone which is clearly overpowered

I think Anet has confirmed Druid reveal this week, especially since we’ve got the Druid art up all over social media which has literally always been the case when there’s a reveal during that week.

And I’m sure Scrapper and Druid will be fine. They had enough on them to show brief glimpses of them during the first trailer months ago, it’s not like they just created them. And less player testing? I guess, but technically so did necromancer and mesmer which weren’t available in some early GW2 demos. These elite specs will be fine, no worries.

Exclusive rewards are fine but if they come back in the future that’s always good too.

I have some old items that aren’t obtainable anymore that I’d like to see come back so other people can enjoy them too. The only thing that shouldn’t be changed is how HoM skins work cause those are still obtainable if you go back and play GW1. The problem is items that are entirely unavailable, period. Tribal armor and various pieces from some other sets are unavailable. They ought to be re-added, but nobody is saying that they should be easy to obtain.

Besides, PvP has its own exclusive armor sets now.

So first of all there are a variety of things to take into account here: Tyria is a fictional world, and a world that exists as a video game. So things in Tyria are meant to be interpreted in more flexible ways when there is direct player interaction.

Example: are there really infinitely respawning nodes of copper throughout Tyria? I’d venture that harvestable nodes like that aren’t exactly in line with the lore. A variety of other things aren’t in line either.

My interest instead lies in a few things that we know are relatively finite. One of these is magical energy. I’m not an expert but I’ve been engaged with the lore for a while now and it seems like the Elder Dragons function on a cycle of Absorb Magic -> Sleep -> Magic Seeps Back Into The World -> Awaken -> Repeat. The bloodstone (not the little ones but the huge one that was eventually broken) was created by the Seers to protect magic against Dragon corruption.

So I suppose my interest lies in Tyria’s relationship with the Mists. It doesn’t seem like the Mists interact with any other realm apart from Tyria as far as we know, although the Six Gods and humans must have come from somewhere since they’re not native to Tyria. Is it true, then, that magic is a finite resource that the Elder Dragons could conceivably dry up? If one can escape to the Mists and still have functional magic?

And more to the point: obtaining magical energy from the Mists themselves? Could it be possible to harvest energy from Mist Fractals for use in Tyria as we know that Fractals infinitely reset and are stuck in a time loop? Unlike resource nodes, we know that Tyrian adventurers are able to retain resources and items obtained in the Fractals, in fact Dessa uses this to entice people to stabilize fractals for her. Since items have some sort of magical energy (otherwise many things would be useless as armor, especially light armor), is it conceivable that Mists energy could sustain people in a post-Dragon Tyria? Or perhaps could the Dragons absorb more energy than they “began” with if too much Mists magic is introduced into Tyria?

Another question: is Mists magic finite or infinite?

I agree with you on many of your points except Mordy’s “Corruption”. Your example of destroyers is apt: Primordus corrupts rock and stone to become destroyers. These things were not ‘alive’ before and now they’ve been animated.

I think you overlook what exactly a plant is. Plants begin as seeds that then grow due to absorbing nutrients and sunlight and water. In fact, a plant physically is its nutrients and other sources of energy because you literally cannot create matter out of nothing. The nutrients provide energy and building blocks for the plant. So our anomalous friend Mordremoth must, in some sense, corrupt these building blocks and the corruption comes out as a plant. In the same way we can digest plant matter to maintain our human anatomy, so too can Mordy take the nutrients and building blocks of soil and organic matter and grow its corrupted plant matter.

That’s the only way it makes sense, to be honest.

Note for weekly days: I’m guessing the Key drop from level 10 story resets with other things that reset weekly (like the gold cap on mail or guild bank withdrawal). I forget what day it is but I think it’s Sunday?

170 is pretty high tbh, even though I’ve got it on some characters I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to put it that high. About half that (85 or so?) sounds a lot more reasonable.

WvW needs more hero point nodes now that it no longer counts towards world completion. The amount available in WvW ought to be able to bring people to the required amount with a fair amount of effort.

Legendary isn’t a new tier. The current tier of legendary (ascended) has been in since November 2012 approximately. While they have added more items that can reach ascended stats, they have not actually added a new tier.

So no, legendary armor is not a new tier any more than adding ascended armor crafting when ascended equipment already existed was a new tier.

The elite spec slot isn’t unlocked until level 71 anyway tbh, just like the elite skill slot isn’t available until level 31 no matter how many hero points you have. This is just another character progression thing.

I’m sure you can all argue on about the pros and cons of having elite specs earlier but I doubt that anet is going to change this with a little more than a month of development left. Most everything is already in place.

Each spec is character-bound because this is a character progression thing. It is no different with elite specs except that they require level 80 and cost more hero points.

The blog post says that the precursors to the full precursor will be account-bound but that the precursor itself will be a tradable exotic. So it’s kinda both? I suppose we’ll find the truth when HoT comes out.

On-topic: it was possible to fill the exp bar in the beta silverwastes zone, but to unlock it you needed a Central Tyria mastery point which were not available during the beta.

Heart of Maguuma Mastery Points are different from Central Tyria Mastery Points

The mini mystic dragon I cannot stand

It sounds like someone burping while also being the engine of a motorcycle and it’s terrible I’m glad people have started putting them away omg

It’s an endgame thing to use elite specs. I love herald so much that leveling my rev will feel stilted but there are plenty of things I can’t do on an under level 80 character. The point is to have a goal to aim towards!

These elite specs are an evolution of the core professions, so lore-wise our characters can only figure it out after mastering themselves up to level 80. Game-wise, if we just had all content available before level 80 then the level system would be pointless anyway. I think it’s okay to have some things that can only be advanced at level 80 such as elite specs and masteries. They’re meant to be a thing that one works towards after reaching the 80 cap.

I’m going to use Chronomancer and Herald for sure cause I enjoyed them a lot

Don’t think I’ll be using Dragonhunter cause it just takes away from my current crappy guardian build that I enjoy playing. And I don’t think I’ll be using Reaper unless I overhaul my necro, which could be interesting I suppose.

I don’t have an 80 ele and I’m uninterested in all kinds of warriors so Tempest and Berserker are up in the air. I don’t really have a thief but Daredevil seemed kinda fun when I tried it.

I want to use Druid and the unnamed Engie elite but we don’t know anything about them yet! So we’ll see.

Tyria. The gold sellers have always been here. Sleeping deep beneath the earth. Beneath the sea. Waiting for the time to rise.

Jokes aside, the last time I saw a gold seller was a week or two before GW2 went F2P. The only thing that seems to have increased gold sellers was the announcement a few months ago of HoT, which just increased player population (and gold sellers) in general.

Necrid Horsemen from GW1 were also mounted. This isn’t that new tbh

That being said this just amuses me even more because of all the threads on the forums begging for mounts. No mounts for players, folks.

I thought that the AI was similar to the first BWE but that the NPC’s health pools were much lower as they seem to die very quickly.

Those giant veteran frogs are a huge pain to fight though

I’m not a huge fan of heats myself but I do agree that this particular portion of Verdant Brink is less than thrilling.

Although, functionally, the repeating event chains are essentially Hearts in how they work, except they’re repeatable and always give exp. The only thing missing, and I think you’re right about this, are events that aren’t part of the day/night event chain cycle.

I’m holding back from disliking the zone entirely only because we’ve only seen the map in bits and pieces: we have yet to see the entirety of Verdant Brink together. I liked the map in the first beta weekend a lot more than this one. I’m intrigued by a number of things in the map, though, like the Corpse Grove and other anomalies.

I know that there are many camps on this issue but I personally enjoy exploring Verdant Brink. There’s less “open fields” exploration and more “search for hidden clues in a giant mansion” exploration. It appeals to me, but I sympathize with people who aren’t thrilled with this sort of exploration. Hopefully when the entire map is released it’s better, or the other three maps in the expansion have varying kinds of exploration.

Also I agree, bring back vistas!

I think Gaile’s response really sums up what’s going on here

The purpose of the test is to get players to play: yes. But it’s also unimplemented content and requires developers being awake and functioning to be able to see feedback as it comes in and information about potentially game breaking bugs as they come in as well. Therefore the time has to be based around the developers, not the players. Besides, it starts in the middle of the work day for Americans and generally after the work day for Europeans. One could argue that EU folks get a better chance at accessing the content than folks in the US. But there are always people who don’t fit into their schedules and it’s impossible to fit the scheduling so everybody can participate.

Once HoT comes out, it will be out permanently and you won’t be constrained by any beta test schedule! I’m more looking forward to the full release tbh

The purpose of the Hero Point system is that each spending of points is permanent per character.

While the implementation of the Hero Point system wasn’t touted as a ‘reset’, in practice that’s exactly what it was. We have known that Elite Specs would cost hero points since before the Hero Point update, if you wanted to save up for an elite spec you could’ve done so from the moment you created a character.

All of the content released by HoT isn’t supposed to be immediately accessible, especially something termed elite specialization.

F2P players can also get Laurels from Achievement Reward chests unless I’m mistaken.

tobascodagama.2961:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mechanics that require you to stop DPSing during certain periods only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers during periods when you can attack the boss. Mechanics that require some members of the party to sacrifice DPS steps only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers for the rest of the party.

Raid mechanics don’t break the zerker meta, they double down on it for classes that can’t tank or heal (most of them). They amplify the significance of existing DPS discrepancies between classes.

I see a lot of PHIW types going around chuffed to bits that the “zerker meta” is going to be “broken” by raids. But, in reality, they’re the ones due for a rude awakening when they find that they can’t just walk in to an encounter with their kittenty gimmick build and expect to get carried by the rest of their party. The meta players they hate so much don’t give a kitten and will happily equip whatever they need to equip in order to beat the content.

This is true and the the fact that so many people want to actively avoid the mechanics to just get rewards disappoints me. But it’s their choice tbh

The only counter I can think of is the more damage you deal, the more damage your opponent deals in all forms. Thus higher DPS builds wouldn’t really be wanted since you’d just be killing everyone faster.

Zerk gear is boring and I’ve never used it tbh, if some people want to raid with zerk that’s their choice. I’ll avoid zerk groups with raids just like how I avoid zerk groups in dungeons and fractals and all other content.

Besides, Anet has commented on the requirement of toughness gear to get past certain parts which makes it sound like Raids aren’t just DPS DPS DPS 24/7 which honestly is a godsend.

Raids are PvE content and require PvE gear and skills to complete. It’s supposed to be difficult content, but PvE content nonetheless. Streamlining gear in this fashion would make it feel less like my character worked for her gear and skill level through exploration of Tyria and the Jungle and more like I entered into a PvP match against AI opponents. I oppose this.

Thanks for the definition of attunement, whoever gave it!

on-topic though: I agree that anybody should be able to try it and should be able to fail it, even if the failure is that they somehow didn’t train their updraft mastery for glider by the time they start raids. It teaches them what they need to do to continue while not barring the entirety of the content from them. Then, when they’ve later trained updraft mastery, they can come back and have a feeling of satisfaction that they’ve managed to get past that part of the raid.

xarallei.4279:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

ReiCH.6273:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Why wouldn’t you have exclusive rewards for specific content? Even Tequatl has exclusive rewards, and Fractals, and Dungeons, and Dry Top, and the Silverwastes… What would be the purpose of not having exclusive rewards?

Very correct, now all they have to do is implement legendary armour, skins, minis and titles for the top tier in pvp and wvw and the game will be able to offer something for everyone …

If you want the rewards for certain content, then you have to do that content. That’s what exclusivity means. What are you getting at?

He wants exclusive rewards for pvp and wvw. Not the same ones as the raid gives. Which I agree with. Those game modes need more love and while a legendary back piece is a step in the right direction, it’s not really enough.

Ah okay that makes sense, sorry for being obtuse ^^;

The more exclusive stuff per gamemode, the better imo

ReiCH.6273:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Why wouldn’t you have exclusive rewards for specific content? Even Tequatl has exclusive rewards, and Fractals, and Dungeons, and Dry Top, and the Silverwastes… What would be the purpose of not having exclusive rewards?

Very correct, now all they have to do is implement legendary armour, skins, minis and titles for the top tier in pvp and wvw and the game will be able to offer something for everyone …

If you want the rewards for certain content, then you have to do that content. That’s what exclusivity means. What are you getting at?

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

How is every other MMO having them as part of their core game so EVERYONE can enjoy them escaping you?

GW2 has dungeons and fractals and WvW and PvP and world bosses, etc etc in the core game. Raids are not fundamental content. I mean, this is GW2, not every other MMO.

I know that your point is that you understand Raids are behind HoT but you believe they shouldn’t be behind HoT. That doesn’t make much sense to me. Releasing a type of content for free while releasing the rest behind HoT will raise questions as to why they’re not just releasing HoT content all for free anyway, if something as huge as Raids can be free. Besides, “Challenging Group Content” was one of the primary signatures of HoT, and as that content literally is Raids, it’s going to be released with HoT.

Back in GW1 the battle between Kurzicks and Luxons was a Factions-only PvP event, people with Prophecies and Nightfall could not (and cannot) access Alliance Battles. Nor can they access Urgoz’s Warren and The Deep.

I mean, especially because Raids are one of the main selling points of HoT, I doubt that it will change. Your point about how it would be better if it were free can apply to literally everything else in HoT as well, and then we might as well not pay for it. I think it’s just fine that Raids are part of Heart of Thorns.

Why wouldn’t you have exclusive rewards for specific content? Even Tequatl has exclusive rewards, and Fractals, and Dungeons, and Dry Top, and the Silverwastes… What would be the purpose of not having exclusive rewards?

I’ve been confused this whole time since Anet mentioned the word attunement cause I have no idea what that is apart from the elementalist thing. Is it something related to WoW or some other MMO?

Regardless and on topic, it’s fairly clear that whatever that will be required for certain aspects of a raid will become obvious with time. Anet isn’t expecting people to succeed the first time, they want people to figure it out. And people who can’t do something without a certain mastery…won’t be able to do it. People have figured out how Agony in fractals works, they’ll figure this out too.

Maybe? But isn’t the reward of having all of the legendaries simply…having all the legendaries? If they add anything, they would add a title akin to GWAMM with no AP attached.

I can see them adding a collection achieve for the fractal weapons though for sure. Especially since getting specific fractal weapons will be possible with the HoT update.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

nehezbegar.1065:

Check movies from Gamescom 2010 and 2011, there used to be over 600 hearts

The game didn’t exist in 2010 or 2011, so no, there didn’t “use to be over 600 hearts”.

GW2 has existed in some form since 2007 when development changed from GW: Utopia to GW: EotN & GW2. By 2010 & 2011 GW2 was far along in development.

This poster is indicating that when people went into the old map screen during those events, the map progress thingy showed 600 or more hearts. I dunno if it’s true but it seems possible.

I can see your point and I’m sure Anet is taking this into consideration for the next set of elite specs they’ll release. Remember, this first set of 9 is only the first of many elite specs.

Who knows how or when they’ll release the future ones but they will come out.

Nah this won’t happen and doesn’t work sorry.

It would be nice if they add map completion rewards, but please don’t bring back Hearts. Orr did just fine with map completion and no Hearts.

Yeah this would be great. Whenever I play GW1 I always enjoy just playing around with all of the emotes available. So few emotes made it into GW2 and it makes me sad.

Plus if they ever get around to it, it would be nice to have a few emotes that work underwater.

Gynok.1756:

Reviera.5183:

“I See No Tomarrow” I agree with you. having the elite stuffs is meant for the Elite, not for the little kids that want it easy all they way.

Just saying Elite is elite not basic or even intermediate. its elite, lvl 80 stuffs, if you cant look for your spec points(that’s kitten easy), then you don’t really need Elite specs. just place the core game and get bored of the same shazz.

Adding new rewards on old content isn’t really considered new. I’d rather play new content which rewards me the new elite specialization than grind the same old stuff we have been doing for 3 years.

To some extent this would be interesting and it’s kinda what I expected when they announced elite specs: that we would unlock them somehow within HoT similar to how one unlocks the ability to switch between secondary professions in GW1. But that’s not what’s going to happen and wanting it now is likely fruitless. If they add it in the future, that’s great, but this is the system we’re getting when they ship HoT.

And it’s not that bad. Revenants who aren’t lucky enough to read 80 tomes of knowledge will have to participate in the mainland Tyria content before exploring HoT. Getting hero points from central Tyria doesn’t take too long as it doesn’t require actual map completion to just grab the points.

Plus as I said earlier, there will probably be ways to get hero points in HoT itself once it comes out.

Nah I hope they require trait/armor/weapon changing so raids force me to use builds I don’t usually use. I’m the type of player who gets stuck playing one build forever, but I’m always surprised when other builds are fun to play as well.

It just seems artificially limiting to lock builds tbh, and create an artificial type of difficulty instead of making the content itself challenging.

I mean, it’s called an elite spec right? So getting it shouldn’t be simple.

In the core game, with five core specs, you are rewarded enough hero points from leveling to unlock all of the core specs. The other hero points allow you to have more customization while leveling up but are extraneous once you reach level 80.

Once HoT comes out, these extra hero points can be used to unlock elite specs. Personally, I did map completion back when WvW were required so I have hero points from mainland Tyria and WvW. I also spend time to 100% each of the new maps (Southsun with no hero points, Dry Top, and Silverwastes) and I have over 200 hero points. That’s more than enough to unlock the entire elite spec under the new system.

But that’s only one character, I haven’t done map completion on my other characters yet. Personally, I think getting hero points one by one to unlock elite specs is a good thing. Plus, I’m sure we’ll be able to unlock hero points in HoT itself!

Also, if you want an elite spec but don’t want to work for as many hero points, get to level 80 without unlocking all core specs and instead use hero points on your elite spec. You won’t have all core specs unlocked but you’ll have your elite!

in GW1 getting an elite skill required you to search out and kill a boss with a signet of capture equipped. To unlock all elite skills, it took ages to hunt down and kill every boss with a unique elite skill. If you want to unlock the entire elite specialization, it’s also going to require work to unlock since it’s not just a single skill you’re unlocking. It’s a trait line, a unique armor skin piece and weapon skin, and a number of unique skills. It’s not supposed to be simple.

Besides, plenty of people play game modes they don’t like to get content that they want. Back when Map Completion required WvW I entered into those zones even though I dislike WvW. And even though they’ve gotten rid of that requirement, participating in WvW is a requirement for gaining a legendary weapon through the Gift of Battle. If you want the elite specs, you’ll have to participate in the content that rewards you with the elite specs.

Besides, elite specs will probably be unlocked for HoT accounts in sPvP so if you’re primarily PvP then there’s no need to worry.

Behellagh.1468:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

This is the full core game with logical limits in place. It is not a trial. You can join a guild at level 80 with full ascended and do a set of fractals on a f2p account. It wouldn’t be easy, but it can be done.

You can also buy gem store items on f2p accounts, including Season 2 of the Living World. Someone on a F2P account has certain social and economic restrictions, but they can do pretty much everything a full account can.

EDIT: I mean clearly ascended items would be more difficult as some of the easiest ways to get them is through laurels (which free accounts cannot get apart from AP rewards maybe?) but they are still obtainable

Other games that have gone to F2P have content and professions behind pay walls. We simply don’t have that here.

Sure level locks on some but the F2P game allows you to level to 80. They can’t withdraw from guild banks, they can’t mail items or coin, they are limited on the TP and they can’t convert gold to gems. Toss in the chat limits and this is just restrictive enough to safeguard chat and the economy and be just annoying enough for the F2P player that buying an account/expansion is worthwhile.

Technically the Revenant and HoT maps and skins are behind a paywall.

I’m not sure whether you’re agreeing or disagreeing with me? It’s clearly not a trial since people technically have the ability to do what people could do 3 years ago with the game and more, while also having social and economic restrictions to prevent abuse of the F2P system.

This is the full core game with logical limits in place. It is not a trial. You can join a guild at level 80 with full ascended and do a set of fractals on a f2p account. It wouldn’t be easy, but it can be done.

You can also buy gem store items on f2p accounts, including Season 2 of the Living World. Someone on a F2P account has certain social and economic restrictions, but they can do pretty much everything a full account can.

EDIT: I mean clearly ascended items would be more difficult as some of the easiest ways to get them is through laurels (which free accounts cannot get apart from AP rewards maybe?) but they are still obtainable

Before reading the restrictions thoroughly I was a bit concerned myself about f2p. However, I’m convinced that Anet has done well and has worked to prevent many issues from even being a thing. Plus it lets me invite friends to play the game who otherwise wouldn’t have the money for anything other than general living expenses!

I’m a long time ‘veteran’ myself, having played gw1 since 2005 and gw2 since the headstart. And I think that this is no way ignores us who have been playing for a while.

My only issue is if somebody bought the core game from some retailer within the past week or month is now probably furious. I’d recommend jumping on refunds for those people. If they do this diligently maybe those people will buy HoT with the refunded money!

Healix.5819:

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

Thanks for this

Yeah F2P accounts won’t get the daily login bonus

MCBGamer.9214:

“We just told them that Heart of Thorns costs 50 USD because it includes the base game, then we made the game free!”

HAHAHAHAHA

Actually they said that $50 is for HoT and that the base game itself was free with purchase of HoT, to be accurate.

Staff has said themselves that they’re not adding a sub model, so let’s move on cause it’s been in the EULA since 2005.

What I find interesting is Anet removing almost all mention of NCSoft from the document, that’s definitely new and unusual.

bladex.9502:

You’re so ignorant and attention-craving…
Stop complaining about issues that aren’t there.
Either deal with it, or move on with your life and find a game that does cater your needs.
After all, you aren’t forced to play this game.

People with an attitude like you shine a bad light on the LGBT community, or any “minority” for that sake.
Everything that isn’t exactly relative to your lifestyle is seen as discriminating and oppressive in your eyes, so you expect other people to go out of their own way, away from their own lifestyle, just so you don’t feel oppressed anymore.
If anyone is oppressing other people here, its you, and you make me feel not welcome in the “gw2 universe”

lol the “reverse oppression” argument amuses me so much tbh

What harm would it do to allow people to choose between the different types of armor and outfits? It would do zero harm and wouldn’t even be hard from a technical standpoint. Stop being so defensive about upholding the boring gender norms we’ve got now.

It wouldn’t make sense for level 30 scrolls to stack with level 20 scroll as they’re completely different items tbh, but level 30 scrolls definitely DO stack with other level 30 scrolls.

I mean, first off: sexuality has nothing to do with how somebody dresses themself. Two lesbian women could get married in wedding dresses and two gay men could get married in tuxedos. And vice versa. Or any other combination.

Secondly: I agree that the arbitrary way video games separate gendered clothing is silly (especially because charr and asura only have the masculine options because masculinity is seen as “gender neutral” even though it’s not) but tbh I think the work put into the wedding outfit (10 different outfits in one) is impressive nonetheless. It would be nice to choose between different instances of the outfit, but it would be nice for ALL armor and outfits, not just limited to this particular outfit.

Even if you had a character from November 2012, it still wouldn’t be 3 years because it’s currently August, not November.

eh just play whichever profession you enjoy the most tbh

I’ve never enjoyed playing warrior and this new elite spec looks the opposite of exciting to me so I won’t play it