Guild Wars 2

It’s not doomed, sorry.

Yeah I’d probably avoid the mastery despite its other advantages if the swiftness wasn’t toggleable
(I hope something similar occurs for the Chronomancer speed trait because I don’t want to have to switch builds and unequip shield and wells every time I want to go normal speed)

The number maps will be enough that actually spending the time to train masteries is worthwhile and doesn’t feel like repeating content.

Since the glider line and the other masteries aren’t necessarily quickly unlocked, I can only assume that there will be at least four maps, most likely more.

If that’s too few? I don’t know what to tell you. The zones in GW2 are much more richly detailed than those in GW1 and generally have more content available compared to the space given. In GW1 you had patrolling NPCs and maybe some chests here and there, the distance in maps was artificial and served no real purpose apart from “x many enemies are between you and your goal”.

In GW2, there are different events in the same area, varying enemies, adventures, event chains, mini dungeons, jumping puzzles, friendly NPCs, various plot tie-ins, etc. A single zone in GW2 is worth 3-5 zones in GW1 imo. Besides, I don’t have any interesting memories from any single GW1 zone apart from the cities. There were too many and it often felt like a chore to get from one location to another. Even in GW:EN I couldn’t have cared less if there had been fewer maps than they gave to us.

Generally my opinion is that more maps is often just filler content than actual content and to focus upon actual content is to make the expansion the best product it can be.

I bet some people will see that HoT has fewer maps than they wanted to have and go into the expansion already disappointed rather than give it a chance to be worth their money. Personally, I’d ask people in general to be less pessimistic (honestly the forums have been full of doom & gloom for ages for no good reason) and to give the expansion a try before saying it’s terrible.

Personally I’ve enjoyed the small portion of Verdant Brink we’ve been shown so far as well as the Revenant and elite specs we got to try in the beta.

apharma.3741:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

(PS The Verdant Brink map we’re getting today with beta is 25% of Verdant Brink itself, not the entire HoT maps)

I wouldn’t know because I didn’t pre purchase due to lack of info and I am not blessed by Zommy.

The info was in this blog post lol https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-first-beta-weekend-event-begins-august-7/

While we should have more human-like options (with softer skin and fewer non-human facial features) I think that it’s a disservice to say:

Hot Boy.7138:

It’s not the carved-wood style that is aesthetically less pleasing.

Because aesthetically, each style of face is pleasing or displeasing to different people. Personally, I find the human-like faces to be too cliche, but neither type of face is less pleasing than another type. If they add more human-like faces I’d like them to add more bark/plant-like faces since I think too many of the current faces (especially for sylvari women) are human-like.

I’ll always support more customization for glows, but I don’t think they can change eye color customization like that at this point in the game’s development.

From what we’ve seen, HoT will extend waaay down towards Rata Sum from Verdant Brink

If those “three maps” are that large then that’s a good thing! But I doubt the maps would be that big. We’ll likely be getting more than 3 maps.

(PS The Verdant Brink map we’re getting today with beta is 25% of Verdant Brink itself, not the entire HoT maps)

BWE1 for GW2 was in April 2012 and the game itself was released in August, but GW2 was a full game and they were testing server capacity and other things like that.

I would say that HoT will release sometime this year tbh

Also hype isn’t really important…making the game a good product is what’s important. I would argue that GW2 shouldn’t have been released until 2013 at least so it could be a more polished product. All of the hype for GW2 died easily between 2008 and 2010, and once they released the trailer it spiked, then died again.

I don’t think their goal is hype but everybody keeps talking about hype like it’s this all-important thing. Just be patient so we can get a quality product.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Palador.2170:

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

It’s interesting how many people wish to believe that there will only be one playable PvE map at release with other non playable maps such as a city or a guild hall. Is this a common thing with other games that they only have one map when an expansion comes out, so that this theory is justified? Is it likely they would charge up to $100 for the expansion, have only one map at release, and not have an explosion on the forum and the devs are not able to forsee a player reaction like that, with only one playable PvE map after a year of working on the expansion?

From the blog post

“For example, we’ll only ever be showing the first story chapter and parts of the first map of the expansion during beta weekends to ensure that an entire world of discovery and excitement awaits you on launch day when you venture deeper into the jungle. After all, Guild Wars 2 is the game where the journey is the goal!”

That hardly sounds like one playable PvE map at launch.

Plus, they’ve said multiple times that there will be multiple explorable PvE maps but people choose to ignore it because they all want an excuse to say HoT has little to no content, when that’s not true at all.

They said each map would have three regions, so there will likely be more than 3 maps

I don’t see the point of imposing a limit on using tomes of knowledge. The fastest way to let a profession be understood properly is to let people play it at level 80, not level 43.

The elite spec though? I dunno. I’m interested to see how it changes the rev before I make any judgement as to whether it’s too hasty or not.

Ghotistyx.6942:

It’s the lore of the Stormcaller that’s important, not so much the skin. The skin and the picture referenced are of the mouthpiece to the Stormcaller. http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/e/e2/Horn_Hill.jpg
This is the real Stormcaller that puts the charr ritual fires out by summoning rain.

I mean yeah I remember that from GW1 (and Rurik’s AI being a pain) but since we’ve already got the stormcaller skin I’m not sure how much more relevant that giant broken horn will be in GW2? I mean, they COULD add lore to the elite specs but they haven’t really done that. Where does a Chronomancer get their time powers? Why do Reapers use greatswords and shouts? They added a tiny bit of lore with Dragonhunter but it was fairly dissatisfying and didn’t seem relevant.

If they do happen to expand upon the lore basis of the elite specs I’d certainly be interested but I’m not sure how Stormcaller itself is relevant anymore but as a charr trophy.

I don’t get it.

If one were to subscribe and get unlimited transmutes, hairstyles, and bank space, I would mostly be concerned with how the bank space would be handled if someone stopped their subscription. Also how often d’you think people change their hair and armor? Transmutation charges aren’t too difficult to come by, it’s possible to save up and get unlimited haircuts right now, and you can also save up and get bank space.

And you said it too: “ANET probably doesn’t sell very many people 50 transfiguration charges a month, nor 30 markover kits, nor 30 black lion keys” because people don’t necessarily want that. I don’t see the point to a subscription in a game where you can support the company through the gem store…or you don’t. It’s much more freeing than a sub, and a lot less exclusive.

I just…I don’t see a point to adding a sub. Maybe I didn’t understand your point entirely. But as GW1 was successful with no sub, so too is GW2 currently extremely successful with no sub.

rotten.9753:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

I’m just confused as to why precisely warhorn would be worse? We don’t know its skills? Ele could use it entirely differently from other profs? I don’t get why it’s inherently inferior?

Warhorn has the worst skins, the legendary is broken for 2 years now and every (?) single animation is blowing a horn. In other words, it’s the worst offhand there is.

So it’s pure aesthetics rather than mechanics? If people don’t like the skins then that’s nothing that can be truly discussed as its an opinion.

Animations can be added though, I mean look at Mesmer greatsword and Revenant staff.

skullfaerie.7203:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

I mean, Chronomancer also got an offhand and the shield skills seem pretty good.

It’s not so much about getting an offhand weapon per se, it’s about said offhand being the warhorn.

Mesmer+Shield is just in a completely different league, in that it always had the potential to be good (imo anyways).

I’m just confused as to why precisely warhorn would be worse? We don’t know its skills? Ele could use it entirely differently from other profs? I don’t get why it’s inherently inferior?

Kodiak.3281:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Why would warhorn be bad? I suppose everyone has an opinion but rejecting Tempest outright because of the weapon choice is a bit premature imo

I mean, Chronomancer also got an offhand and the shield skills seem pretty good. Who knows how good the EIGHT warhorn skills will be in addition to the inevitable utility skills?

Besides, Anet are adding more elite specs in the future so Ele will probably get a sword at some point.

Weapon matters a lot more when you can’t swap to another set like the rest of the classes.

I mean yeah but as I noted warhorn will give an additional 8 skills because of elementalist element attunement swapping (which effectively makes warhorn give more skills to ele than greatsword to necro, shield to mesmer, and longbow to guardian)

I believe you’re referencing this item http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mountaincall_Warhorn

It would be interesting if there was a tie in but we’ve already got this skin in-game

Why would warhorn be bad? I suppose everyone has an opinion but rejecting Tempest outright because of the weapon choice is a bit premature imo

I mean, Chronomancer also got an offhand and the shield skills seem pretty good. Who knows how good the EIGHT warhorn skills will be in addition to the inevitable utility skills?

Besides, Anet are adding more elite specs in the future so Ele will probably get a sword at some point.

Trahearne never stole credit for killing Zhaitan or anything.

I’m looking through my screenshots and the only thing he says is “The world owes you a great debt, Commander. As long as I am Marshal of the Pact, I will see that debt honored. My only regret is that I was not there to see Zhaitan fall. But I shall look forward to the skaalds celebrating your triumph.”

??? Where does he take credit for everything the player does? If anything, players want to take credit for forming the pact and leading it when they did no such thing.

You used “special snowflake” unironically and it makes it difficult for me to take you seriously. Also whether or not dervs wore dresses (and whether or not that’s bad somehow?) is subject to interpretation but I urge you to look up the real-life whirling dervishes who clearly influenced GW1 dervish design and animation.

But on-topic: all the folks have said it already but yeah, Derv was great for a bit after release then it simply wasn’t. If we’re all going for the “best” profession and said “best” profession deals the highest DPS, that’s a purely mathematical standpoint. As others have pointed out, the point of playing a profession is usually to play whichever is the most fun.

You seem to enjoy playing warrior in both GW1 and GW2, so why stop? You clearly dislike the aesthetic of dervishes but enjoy the aesthetic of revenants (maybe?). You could always play both professions, or still main a warrior even if Shiro revenants prove to be “better” DPS-wise, couldn’t you?

Also, unlike dervishes, our previews of actually playing revenant have been less than impressive so you likely have little to worry about until they re-balance the profession.

What are you even grinding? I’ve been playing since headstart and never felt like I was grinding.

Granted, I’ve never actually played explorable mode dungeons (apart from fractals) so maybe that’s where that was.

But more on topic, the point of legendary weapons IS the skin. The stat bonus is just extra incentive they added later. Having all exotic gear be equal allows for the endgame to essentially be collecting skins and looking nice. Which tbh is much better than “BE MORE STRONGER” but that’s just my opinion.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

So it may be a bug?

I’ve no idea. Sometimes I don’t trust my memory so I might be wrong.

But this is how I think Sharkmaw was originally constructed and eventually fixed. Maybe they wanted to make it difficult to enter again? It’s hard to say if it’s a bug or not.

Just by the way, a while before LA was destroyed Sharkmaw used to be this difficult to enter

however, sometime before LA was attacked, they fixed this problem. I guess it’s back again.

Emtiarbi.3281:

Do you guys think that we can have 2 elite specializations at the same time? for example being a Chronomancer and AwesomeEliteSpecializationName at the same time?

Just like Elite Skills, you can only have one elite spec equipped at a time.

The third spec slot is the only one that can have elite specs equipped in it.

Shalloe.4867:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

In GW1 there was a button you could map and press so you could target yourself. I honestly don’t see why that couldn’t be re-implemented in GW2. It harms nothing.

In guildwars 1 you had to target yourself say as a monk to heal yourself so it was useful. GW2 has no support/heal skills that you need to target yourself and would just be completly useless and a waste of time to add it.

I mean technically GW2 is built directly on top of an old GW1 build so the feature SHOULD still be somewhere in the code just like emotes like /jump and /flex aren’t labeled “Unknown Command”.

I know that I’ve felt a few times like targeting myself just for heck of it but was unable to without someone else targeting me. It might not mean a lot to folks who are hardcore “everything must be useful for playing the game” but if it comes out eventually I will happily support it. Not a priority.

In GW1 there was a button you could map and press so you could target yourself. I honestly don’t see why that couldn’t be re-implemented in GW2. It harms nothing.

Seeing other people’s gear/stats, however…that’s not good.

Tumult.2578:

So we earn the points in the core game but cant spend them unless we buy our way in?
Might want to consider what will happen to the stuff you earn in Hot that will only be spendable in the next expansion, which you may not want to pay for.
As for accuracy, there’s only speculation here. Nothing is fixed or permanent. Most who’ve played this game for awhile recognize that.

Well since Elite Specs might also be available with later expansions or even a regular update in the future, who knows if hero points will be used in the core game. I’m merely stating what we know.
They’re building the game to function as a whole, so it would be silly to think they wouldn’t take HoT or any future expansions into consideration. I’m not a huge fan of all of this doom and gloom.
I’ve played GW1 since 2005 and GW2 since the BWEs and I have no reason not to believe what Anet tells us tbh.

Tumult.2578:

The information in this thread can’t be accurate.
Hero points were earned in the main core game and should remain spendable in the main core game.
There is no requirement that we get Hot.
Answers to this threads question should at least state what we can spend them on in the main core game.

Stuff saying that extra Hero Points are usable in Elite Specializations are the only thing that’s accurate.
There is no requirement that anybody get HoT.
You cannot spend extra Hero Points on anything except Elite Specializations, the first of which are being released with HoT. You cannot demand answers that do not reflect reality.

Kite.2510:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Old skill points = Spirit Shards
Leveling up + old skill challenges = Hero Points
“Leveling” at level 80 in HoT = Mastery Points

Spirit shards are used to buy stuff for the mystic forge
Hero points are used to buy skills and traits in specializations; the extra 213 hero points will be used to unlock Elite Specializations and their related skills
Mastery Points will be gained by gaining experience and “leveling up” in HoT

So HoT will introduce it’s own currency…
That doesn’t change the fact that we’ll have unused and useless hero points left, unless the Elite specialization costs exactly 212 hero points. (not counting the krait obelisk in the home instance)

How about having a mechanic unlocked once you learn everything, where every extra hero point you have after that will count for your character’s Karma/gold/magic find.
And if something new get added into the game, you’ll have to learn it before getting that bonus again.
Of course that bonus will have to count the percentage of the additional HP you have, so you won’t have people moaning if some new skill reduces their bonus.

They’re going to introduce more elite specializations after HoT, too. So they’ll be useful for those as well.

Old skill points = Spirit Shards
Leveling up + old skill challenges = Hero Points
“Leveling” at level 80 in HoT = Mastery Points

Spirit shards are used to buy stuff for the mystic forge
Hero points are used to buy skills and traits in specializations; the extra 213 hero points will be used to unlock Elite Specializations and their related skills
Mastery Points will be gained by gaining experience and “leveling up” in HoT

What would Guild Wars 2 gain from allowing you to play as a child? What could possibly be the purpose of such a feature? Guild Wars 2 follows a pseudo-realistic framework in which children act like children and thus do not have the the physical or emotional maturity to keep up with adults. Like RL.

If you want to get technical, any sylvari player character is the equivalent of a child. However, if your goal is just “prepubescent or teenager” then you’re going for an aesthetic rather than actual children. What possible reason could you have to want to play a child specifically in Guild Wars 2?

I understand there are other games with child protagonists (legend of zelda games were mentioned) but how does such a thing improve Guild Wars 2? I can think of no reason. You want short characters? Asura. You want young characters? Sylvari. You want hairless characters? Human. I just…I don’t understand. Why would you even want to play as a child?

This is fantastic, now can we have major characters who are trans? Or even Sya here could become more important?

Also, quick question @ the devs: who is the voice actress for Sya?

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

I just keep being confused by ppl naming it specializations. While it may have been renamed to that, in essence they are CORE PROFESSIONS. Specializations are what they are, a new subclass.

They announced the Elite Specs as “Specializations” but later specified that we have two categories: Core Specializations & Elite Specializations.

Professions are not specializations. Specializations are what they’ve changed the Trait system to.

Mostly it’s a semantic issue, not a really important one. Just like professions are called professions, not “classes” like some people call them. Folks aren’t gonna stop calling profs “classes” so I doubt it’ll always be clear what specialization means because of the word’s association with primarily Elite Specs since the announcement.

webtoehobbit.4201:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Also they’ve officially announced that there will be more than one zone. I’d recommend changing “1 Zone” to “Unknown Multiple Zones” tbh.

edit: Also Nightfall & GW:EN both introduced the Hero system for anybody who bought either or

Yes, I assume there will be more than one zone, but this comparison is only based on what has been OFFICIALLY announced. Like I said in the first post, as they reveal more OFFICIAL information, this will get updated

I mean, all I was saying is that technically they really have “officially” announced that there will be multiple zones. They have said it. Officially.

Also they’ve officially announced that there will be more than one zone. I’d recommend changing “1 Zone” to “Unknown Multiple Zones” tbh.

edit: Also Nightfall & GW:EN both introduced the Hero system for anybody who bought either or

Nah I don’t care about the character slot, I just noticed that the two expansions that Anet has created — Eye of the North and Heart of Thorns — were and are very differently priced. Why price GW:EN at a lower price and HoT at a higher price? It confuses me.

One of the reasons that people are defending the $50 USD price tag is because other MMOs have released expansions at that price. But hasn’t GW2 attempted to make a name for itself by trying to go against the grain? More importantly, why aren’t we comparing HoT’s price tag to Eye of the North’s price tag? Both were expansions that required the base game and provided a bunch of content.

However, GW:EN was cheaper. I forget the exact price but I’m pretty sure it was less than $40 at pre-order. Why is HoT so expensive? I understand that it’s a lot of content, but tbh it’s an expansion. Not a full game. I find this $50 price tag to be attached to full stand-alone games like GW: Factions or GW: Nightfall. As far as I can tell, HoT does not provide as much as either Factions or Nightfall did and is itself not a standalone game.

So I’m just confused. Why $50? Even if it was $40 I’m willing to bet that there would be nowhere near the amount of complaining on the forums and in-game as there is now, even if $40 is still fairly expensive for an expansion.

Apolo.5942:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Healix.5819:

$49.99 is the standard price for a full expansion. For comparison, GW2’s original price was $59.99 and the deluxe was $79.99. Whether HoT is actually worth the price of a full expansion is another question.

I’m pretty sure GW: Eye of the North was a lot cheaper than $50. HoT being this price if you already own the base game is just silly.

Plus it had the same amount of content, you got one entire new world on every expansion and a couple of char slots pluss the new classes. Here we get what a couple of maps at most?.

Nah, Eye of the North was a legit expansion and didn’t add an entire new world or character slots. Factions and Nightfall were stand-alone campaigns that were about $50. But they were not expansions like HoT or Eye of the North. HoT should still be cheaper though.

Healix.5819:

$49.99 is the standard price for a full expansion. For comparison, GW2’s original price was $59.99 and the deluxe was $79.99. Whether HoT is actually worth the price of a full expansion is another question.

I’m pretty sure GW: Eye of the North was a lot cheaper than $50. HoT being this price if you already own the base game is just silly.

I’m legitimately confused though, where is the ability to buy HoT without re-buying the base game?

Are they really doing the thing where if you don’t own GW2 yet, you get both GW2 + HoT but if you already own GW2 then you get nothing but HoT?

DragonflyDusk.6582:

This coming from the person who piped in with a real world analogy. Really, you could have left out your entire first paragraph in your original post and the rest would have made sense. Don’t add to the fire when you don’t want it to burn.

I was adding that in as a more accurate analogy to the one the first post used, not in an attempt to start a conversation where people move entirely away from the topic of this thread.

Alright so a discussion of which real world ideologies do what to whom isn’t necessarily productive in terms of figuring out whether the Zintl fanatics were wrong to hand the Itzel wyvern eggs then claim that the Itzel’s deity abandoned them when the wyverns attacked. It’s clearly a method of violence and deception, so let’s leave it at that.

The Itzel were just minding their business when these other Zintl fanatics showed up and started attempting to convert the Itzel. In doing so, they want to erase the Itzel’s own faith and replace it with their own, forcibly. If this doesn’t sound familiar I recommend you take a look at the countless Christian missionaries entering “savage” peoples’ land, often with military forces to back them up. (but not always. then again, we have had forced religious conversion for native american tribes and the associated genocide.) That’s the closest real-world analogy.

The Guild Wars games have used false religion or forced religion as a theme fairly often. The White Mantle worshiped the mursaat and forced any following of the Five Gods away from the mainstream. The Flame Legion used various false gods from the Titans to the destroyers to attempt to keep the other legions in line and to show their own power.

So what I see in this event chain in that context is just a continuance of Anet portraying a group of people who use their religion in a predatory, invasive, and aggressive manner in an attempt to snuff the life out of the religion and culture of another group of people.

Everyone is talking about wanting the Heket instead but the Hylek, Itzel, and the larger heavier hylek are all the modern versions of the old GW1 Heket. All of the Heket models in GW1 looked different, some looked like the traditional GW2 Hylek, some like the Itzel, and some like the heavier frogs we saw glimpses of.

Personally I don’t find them very cartoony at all, especially since we’ve now got tiny mushrooms with legs in the game (which are adorable but all around more cartoony).

Those are human cultural skills, been in the game for ages

In Guild Wars 1 each campaign added two professions but they weren’t necessarily stronger than any of the core professions.

All the exclusivity does is it prevents people from playing as these elite specializations, it doesn’t make the people who have the elites somehow 10x more powerful than those without the elites.

Did everyone collectively forget that Thief also has traps?

on topic: I agree that Dragonhunter isn’t as great a name that they could’ve given it. But that aside, it seems to bring interesting things to profession. I’m no Guardian expert but the way that they use longbow is certainly different from what Rangers do with it.

The skill that resembles the ranger skill also happens to resemble one of the Ice Bow’s skills. So. Dunno about it being a ranger rip off.

Personally I don’t think Guardian is doing anything in the realm of stealing too much from Ranger, and I look forward to learning more about it than just this initial cursory glance.

The two above me said pretty much the same thing but it bears repeating because I keep hearing misinformation everywhere.
The number skill points you have will be converted into the new currency.
Skill points will not be converted into hero points, instead the level of your character + the number of skill challenges you have completed on a character will yield hero points. These are character-based while the new currency based on skill points is account-based.

I’m not a huge fan of participating in PvP in either GW1 or GW2 but I’ve always found it really odd how there was nothing akin to GvG in GW2. If anything like this gets added along with something like the Observer mode from GW1 I would be interested.

I’m definitely excited! I’ve mostly just tolerated the current trait system because I never found it interesting. I don’t pay attention to “meta builds” (either in GW1 or in GW2) because I prefer to try things out myself. This update sounds fantastic.

I love when things change a lot. I know people dislike the fact that so much will change but I thoroughly enjoy it when stuff is completely changed up like this.

The only characters who have ever shown the ability to change their primary profession in GW1 and GW2 have been Rytlock, Keiran, and Razah.
Rytlock jumped into the Mists and it can be presumed went on some kind of grand adventure in the Mists to get his sword back. While he was there, he gained the ability to channel the Mists and once he returned to Tyria he has been using this ability.
Keiran started out as a Ranger and through his journey back to the Eye of the North interacted with other characters and gradually changed his primary profession over time and eventually became a Paragon.
Razah is a Mists entity and can change its profession at will.

For a player to change profession, they’d have to do a very personal adventure alone. Or be a Mists entity. And since the focus of Guild Wars 2 storytelling seems to not be upon personal exploration for the player character, this will not happen. The closest thing that players will get are specializations, which are essentially evolutions of their original profession but separate.

Along with the fact that changing primary profession completely just wouldn’t work with the game structure and introduces a number of problems technically.

I seriously doubt Anet would lose any revenue from their daily gem sales (with real money). Why? Because I believe people are severely overestimating the number of people not logging in today because of this silly april fool’s joke.