Guild Wars 2

Ascimator.6735:

I believe that only the following stuff will get pay-locked:
*Revenant class
*Specializations (?)
*New areas
*Masteries (from what I gained they’re only unlocked by playing the new areas anyway)

Pay-locking things like the precursors would impact the economy since not everyone would have the same access to the supply, for example.

At that point, there better be a lot of new land mass then. What are we paying for when those things I mentioned were the types of things we got for free with Feature Packs and 2 week content updates?

When Colin was talking at the amazing reveal yesterday a concern popped up for me. He was saying that the story in the new zone takes place literally minutes after the air ships got blown to smithereens in the video. That means that the next part of the story is in the expansion. Awesome(!) except for not knowing when it’s coming out.

My initial thought was if it was coming out at the end of the year that would mean they would have had time to do a whole season of the LW before that happened.

I am also concerned about precursor crafting being included in the announcement yesterday as part of the expansion. That was a feature that was being touted as coming out over a year ago. Including it in this is great as long as it’s not something that gets charged for. Telling people about it over a year ago and then putting it behind a paywall would be a shabby way to handle it in my opinion. What do you guys think?

Guild Halls also seem like something that should be a core feature of the game. It would stink if guildies couldn’t access them if they didn’t have the x-pac. I think they do get to access them, but then why advertise it a s part of the paid expansion if people don’t have to buy it to get in them?

The new PvP mode and new “Borderlands rotation map” were announced as part of the x-pac too. There is no way with how they consolidated solo queue and team queue that they will exclude people who don’t buy the x-pac from these things.

As a WvW or PvP only player, do you feel compelled to buy the x-pac? When they add this “Rotational Borderlands Map” in the game are you going to have to buy the x-pac to access it? If not, then why buy the x-pac outside of getting the new profession?

I am super excited to see how all this plays out in the weeks ahead.

Kilroy needs to be a part of the Dwarven hero summoning. I’ll get the torches and pitchforks.

DeceiverX.8361:

Masteries were stated to be means of surviving in the jungle environment and had no other context of the rest of Tyria surrounding them. Since the expansion is also not required to play in the base game, it is expected they will only be used in expansion content zones.

The mastery system is stated to include collections that lead to getting a precursor.

Edgewalker.5963:

WoodenPotatoes also seems to think there is only a single spec per professions, so assuming he knows more than mere mortals, it made me a bit sad.

HOWEVER, Colin was using words like “so, if you choose to turn your character into a druid, then…”. That would mean there is an alternative to that.

Yeah. The alternative is just keeping your Ranger. The new weapons per profession seem only to come with the Specialization. I could see more specializations in the future but I have to think there is only one per profession.

Agreed. The “District Menu” in GW1 was several orders of magnitude better than what we have in this game. Sure, it was for lobbies only, but it would be great to have.

jokke.6239:

dace.8019:

Roda.7468:

Heart of Thorns is GW universe MOBA standalone.

Too far.

DING DING DING
We have a winner.
It can’t possibly get worse than this.

Yeah it can. The only playable heroes are Jennah, Trahearne, Logan, and Faren.

GW2: HoT is the name of a new plushy of corrupted Trahearne that has a pull cord, which when pulled, says 15 different adorable Trahearne things.

They did a 3-week hype prelude to a feature pack. Most of the stuff was very cool, but very run-of-the-mill in nature. This is being announced at a convention. It’s their own fault if the hype they have tried to manufacture with this doesn’t live up to expectations.

I expect this announcement to be a full on expansion replete with the following:

• a new class
• a new race
• a wholly new weapon
• existing weapons given to classes that have never been able to use them before
• new dungeons
• new fractals
• new utility and elite skills
• new pvp modes
• additions to WvW
• new legendaries
• new features and refinements

Skill splits for different formats in GW1 were awesome. I would play my classes completely differently in PvP than in PvE in GW1 and I loved it. I really wish they would do that with GW2 and have skills do different things in PvE than they do in WvW or PvP. Characters should be a little OP in PvE. Especially since all we are doing is zerging nowadays anyways.

If HoT is indeed an expansion and one we have been waiting for for 2 and a half years then I want multiples of both. I want 2 new professions and 2 new races.

Oh, and an Oompa Loompa.

For as long as many of us from GW1 have waited for an expansion pack for GW2 I can say I will honestly be disappointed if it isn’t at least of the same size and scope as ‘Eye of the North’ was for GW1. It also needs to include a new profession and a new race and we need those new weapons they were talking about and I want new utilities and new Elite skills. Cooking and Jewelry need to go to 500 as well.

There are many systems in game that should be utilized more.

1.) Collections. I know there is a way to use this system to circumvent RNG.

2.) Bind to Account boxes of various items that contain versions of Bound items so that it wouldn’t offset the economy. You pick the item you want. It’s bound. Everyone is happy. People that get that amazingly rare drop aren’t ticked because the item they got is still valuable and the people that are truly after a super rare item are happy because they got to pick what they wanted.

3.) Repurposed tokens with caps.

4.) Dungeon/Fractal Paths with specific rewards tied to them. RNG remains, but people have a sure way with increased RNG odds to get what they are after. This serves multiple uses: a.) it creates replayability and purpose b.) it brings people back to content they may have abandoned.

It seems to me that you guys nerf places that have really great drop rates that adversely affect the economy. It’s done even when it’s being played as intended. It’s all to protect the economy. I get that. Not giving players the ability to play certain content in order to get what they want though goes against the spirit of what an RPG is though. I think a lot of the feeling of underwhelming rewards comes from this.

TL;DR The system you are using to make your company money is also the thing that is hindering the rewarding feeling players are looking for in an RPG and it’s a double-edged sword.

Zaxares.5419:

I would like to see the following new ways for acquiring Fractal Weapons:

1. You get a Fractal Weapon Box for completing Fractal Frequenter (500 Fractals completed). This is a one-time bonus and is retroactive.

2. You can trade 100/250/500(? Open to negotiation) Pristine Fractal Relics for a Fractal Weapon Box. As part of this change, you can trade back any existing Fractal Weapon skin you don’t want for 100 Pristine Fractal Relics.

3. Fractal Weapon Boxes are now a very rare drop from completing Fractal Level 40 – 50.

4. A new Fractals meta-achievement is added where you get a Fractal Weapon Box for completing every single Fractals achievement (except Fractal Frequenter). (This may be a problem if ANet decides to add more Fractals in the future, however.)

Such a great idea. They should add a collection too where when you get all the achievements in the fractals done you get to pick one of the skins.

A person can offer effusive praise about the things they like and criticism at the things they don’t. That’s how opinions work.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey all,

We just merged several threads into this big one, as that keeps the conversation flowing and prevents redundancy.

Thanks for understanding and keep your comments coming!

My thread was very specifically on a part of the story I wanted to point out. I am tired of thread merges and specific points being lost in a thread that has nothing to do specifically with what I was talking about.

I am tired of taking a good chunk of my time out of my day to offer constructive criticism and praise only to have it merged into something that has nothing to do with what I was speaking on.

IIvIIozzie.9250:

Caithe’s actions are a pretty absurd thing to defend. She makes no real attempt to save the life of an innocent from this psychopath, and instead decides to murder with the approval of the murdered. Does the fact that Wynne tell’s her to do it make the act acceptable? That Wynne decides on the spot that this is the best option instead of the two of them defending themselves from the incoming attack is flat out bizarre.

Those that are defending Caithe’s decision let me ask, would you do the same? Would you really choose to kill your friend/relative instead of defending them? Is that what you think love is?

I agree. It was really poorly written especially after an episode where Caithe rescued Sylvari from being tortured. She has stealth. She could have defended Wynne. She could have knocked Faolain out. There were quite a few different ways she could have fixed the issue without murder being the answer. It felt lazy.

I also feel like this revelation that the Sylvari were supposed to be dragon minions should have been held on to right up to the point where other races would look down on them. That way, immediately following the episode there would be racism and hate. I went back to Rata Sum on my SYlvari totally unmolested in any way besides taht one dude pouring ranch dressing on my head. Which was weird.

Bludsabre.3827:

Caithe killed Wynne to keep the sylvari’s secret from Caithe’s lover and the world; not to keep her from being tortured. Wynne asked Caithe to kill her because she knew she could not resist the torture.

And at that point, Caithe being “good” like the NPCs told us she was right before we went into that set piece, would have been like, “Kill you?! I’ll just stealth you out of here like I stealthed my girlfriend around the Asura that were doing experiments on other Sylvari. You know, the ones being tortured that I rescued?”

So you are saying she would kill Wynne instead of rescuing her from being tortured in front of her by her own lover, but the others she would save? That logic isn’t all that sound at all.

So many things to say. First off: That ending. Dang. That was one gorgeous piece of amazing art. My jaw was open the whole time. Goose bumps, the whole nine yards.

The boss fight was fresh. It was really inventive. I like how you all are doing boss fights in these set pieces. They all keep the same kinda theme with little twists. It’s good stuff.

I haven’t gotten the chest piece yet(only getting the light set) but the light head piece felt a little lackluster. The rest of the set is awesome though. Big ups on creating 2 sets that people can play to get. It’d be easy to forget people want to play for things too and just throw it on the store.

If(big if since I haven’t tried getting it yet) the chest piece is RNG only off that new boss, that’s a shame. We’ve been waiting to complete these sets for a long time now. If it’s where you can build it or RNG it off the new boss then no harm no foul.

I wanted to save my gripe for last because you guys deserve high praise for all the hard work, but I do have some constructive criticism. I waited a few hours to post this because I was pretty ticked when I first saw it. The Caithe scene with Wynne was handled poorly in my opinion. If a loved one is going to torture someone in front of you and you very obviously disagree with the torture, you don’t murder the person to spare them the torture. You defend them. Caithe is a Thief and had fantastic stealth skills in the episode we got to play her in. Why didn’t she just stealth her out of there? If that wasn’t viable, why didn’t she just knock her girlfriend out? If that wasn’t an option, why didn’t she just defend Wynne? There is no logic or even passionate reason for murdering someone who you are trying to protect from torture when you are perfectly capable of defending the person you murdering. It also cheapened the waiting to find out what that secret was for a year or however long it’s been.

As over the top awesome as I thought the end cinematic was, I had reaction that was exactly opposite to the Caithe/Wynne murder scene.

Thanks for a cool episode.

Ranger and Elementalist are my favorites. Thief is my least played class. I wouldn’t say I don’t like it, I would just say it’s my least favorite. That’s one thing they did really well that they don’t get enough credit for. They designed a game in which the classes are varied and have their own flavor. Most games I only like a class or two. This game, I like em all.

April 28th release date. I’m calling it on the 10th Anniversary of Prophecies.

Just a heads up to the people not taking laurels. Get the laurels. Trade em in for T6 mats. Sell the T6 mats and buy the stuff you need for the ascended mats. It’s not even a contest on the value atm.

I throw all of my excess away because the alternatives are gold sinks in and of themselves. Recouping the gold spent crafting Mawdrey is laughable. I have mats I can’t sell to the merchant or trade with other players and they are materials I have zero use for? Cool! I throw them away. That in and of itself is poor design.

I agree with an above poster that there should be Mystic Forge recipes for things that are in abundance. A lot of the reason we get so much junk that is highly useful for a time is so they can sell us more bank and bag space. You hoard these items because you have to grind them and then when you no longer have a use for them you still see the items as necessary. They aren’t. Throw the stuff out when you don’t have a use for it anymore. I am not going to reward lazy design and buy more storage space when the items I am trying to store have no use to me. That’s ludicrous. If you want me to buy more storage space, make it worth my while.

KyreneZA.8617:

• Bugs
• Bug fixes
• Broken things
• Tears
• Things we didn’t ask for
• Things we asked for but not how we wanted them
• More shinies to collect
• Less play as you want and more play as “everyone” wants
• No new classes or races
• The les-conics, and Rox and Braham
• Lots of “Boss”

This makes a lot of sense. History repeating itself and all that.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Quality > quantity.

I’d rather have one rare and useful item every once and then, say, 2-3 per day or week, and feel extremely satisfied with it, than getting spammed with clickable junk that spams more clickable junk that overloads my intentory with valueless runes, valueless skins and valueless materials. You can’t even sell them when they are sellable, because of how common they are.

When you have items like Mawdrey II, that consume massive amounts of “precious” materials for even more junk, and players are satisfied to transform overly common non-tradeable junk for tradeable junk, then you know the reward system in this game is not doing something right.

Spot on.

Micah.8423:

Yeah, I’m hoping for the spears on land thing. But this was really funny stuff.

I’m new so don’t hate, but how would you learn to use a water weapon on land? You’d have to do a tutorial on that first so players like me don’t find it too complicated.

I’d pay 200 gems to watch Scarletmoth fight the Marionette.

After the Guild Raid CDI, IDK that Chris was amped up to start a GvG one. That thread got pretty salty for no reason at all. When it comes to raiding and GvG, players can’t help themselves in getting so worked up about it that they feel like they need to hurl personal insults at each other over personal opinions. It’s all really sad.

CMM.6712:

Oldirtbeard.9834:

Well my go to races are usually Norn, Charr, followed by Human.

If we get some Shadow Knight Class as the Rytlock spoiler photos indicate then it might be a Charr then since I imagine Rytlocks Shadow Knight armor wouldn’t clip.

??? as the Rytlock spoilers indicate? Looks like a Ritualist blindfold to me… the shadow knight thing is so cliche and played out I highly doubt this is the case.

I would say it’s more a blindfold like the one Kormir was wearing in Nightfall and she was a Paragon. Also, I don’t think a blindfold heralds a signal of a new class at all. It just let’s the players know that Rytlock is blind.

He had to go to The Mists because ArenaNet needed an envoy to request Heroes Ascent be added to the esports rotation.

http://orayn.minus.com/lra4wS5sz3x7q

Rodgort’s footfalls disappear much quicker than the other Legendary footfalls. It would be nice to see them fixed.

Or put in a way for people to acquire account bound precursors so that they can make an account bound legendary.

The more I think about it the more I think a solution is untenable. ArenaNet’s real life economy is tied intrinsically to the game economy. If it doesn’t have to cross the player’s mind to hit the, “GET MORE GOLD” button at the top left of the BLTC page then how much real life money does ArenaNet stand to lose?

I think the number 1 RNG-based concern of the community is precursors. People that actually want a Legendary weapon have a valid gripe with the current implementation of acquisition. That’s why the only real solution for both sides is to give players that actually want a specific Legendary weapon a way to acquire an account bound version of a precursor so they can make an account bound version of the Legendary. That still keeps the BUY MORE GOLD button viable and it also gives the players a meaningful way to play the game and get a precursor.

With this specific concern of the economy in regards to RNG and game content, a solution is so long overdue. Zero action has been taken on this front in years and it’s a huge frustration that they haven’t taken any action to get something like this in the game. They may well have discussed hundreds of different solutions to do this, but nothing has made it in the game and I think that is because they are making so much money off of players that see it as easier and less a headache to just buy gold with real money and then make the Legendary. ArenaNet makes a tidy sum and the player has their shiny object.

Every time I have this thought, I realize that my Fractal weapons mean more to me in game than my Rodgort does even though I spent more time on my Rodgort. Why do I feel that way? Because any player can just buy Rodgort with real life money. The same can’t be said for Fractal Weapons. You have to play Fractals to get them and RNG is required. Frankly, it sucks but that is the only weapon set I can think of in game where someone sees it and knows exactly what had to take place and there is a certain prestige to the weapons for me personally with Fractal Weapons that doesn’t exist with Legendaries.

Aidan Savage.2078:

While I dont want to start the rumor mill going, perhaps instead of a break, we’ll have a few weeks of attention for LA? Sorta like a reverse “attack on LA” episode.

Months ago, Evon Gnashblade collected quite a bit of money from us to help rebuild LA when we did Pavilion 2.0. I am sure the interest alone has made him even more wealthy than he already is.

Cliffhangers are fine if loose ends get tied up. If not, and they just throw more cliffhangers on the pile, then color me unimpressed.

I really want to be excited, but I jumped off the hype train. I hope they make me want to jump back on with this season finale.

I have the 2014 and love it. I have always liked the larger Razer mice. The Deathadder seemed a little larger to me, but the 1-12 buttons on the Naga are great. IDK about the size of the g600 as I have never owned one, but I think the feel of the mice and the size would be a huge determining factor. I would almost say go down to a store that carries them and get a feel for both and then order the one you like online or if it’s cheap enough buy it at the store you go to. Feel is really important to me for a mouse and opinions vary too much.

I feel bad for the people that like to roll alts. I am saving up all my leveling tomes and skill point scrolls for new races/classes if they ever come out and don’t change the NPE. I don’t want to have to be stuck leveling under this current system.

There have been a few times I have wanted to re-roll classes to different races and I have stopped myself from doing so because it’s more trouble than it’s worth to me. That shouldn’t be the case. Heck, if anything they would sell more character slots if they reverted the changes. Why would I buy a new character slot when the process to make a new character is so off putting to people like me?

nexxe.7081:

The Living World was just the beginning.

…interesting.

More like, the Living World was a fantastic idea that couldn’t be executed properly. Now they are spinning it into something that will do a better job hopefully. The LW stuff is cool in parts, but is sorely lacking in replayability and meager when compared to an expansion in terms of content delivery method.

At first I was really skeptical of the new daily system. I really like it now. I used to have to do my dailies to get anything. Now I can just login, get the reward for the day and log out. I didn’t like the exotic reward at all. All my characters are level 80 and the character I opened it on got a level 78 exotic. Yuck. Marvel Heroes has boxes you get like the exotic boxes in GW2 with the exception that the items in them are always of equal level to the character opening the box. That should be a no brainer. Period.

I love this game. I really do, but I am bored to tears. This new login reward system is great. I can log in every day, ArenaNet gets their log in metric from me daily and then I can go play things that interest me at the moment.

I can not wait until there is a lot of content to play again. Until then, it’ll be daily logins, weekly guild missions, and a fractal or so a week.

Just got my daily login reward for the day. It was the exotic gear reward. I love that you can choose a class for it. That could have been RNG’ed and it wasn’t and I appreciate that.

The thing that is un-rewarding for a reward is that it was level 78. All my characters are level 80. Could it at least correspond with the level of the character that opens the box so it’s usable? I think that would be a step in the right direction.

Sure, I could salvage it and make money off of it, but at that point, why not just give out a flat amount of gold? I don’t want to come off as being ungrateful, because I really do appreciate the way this new system works. But, as designers, I know you are all striving to make the rewards feel rewarding and also to be rewarding. I think the reward should be the level of the character opening the box. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I don’t want a 3rd season if there are as many breaks as there were with season 2. The thing about expansions is you play them at your pace. I played the whole first half of season 2 in a sitting and it was way more enjoyable that way. I just don’t think the teams are capable of putting out the amount of content an MMO should have as it pertains to story though. I think the seasons were a nice experiment, but ultimately it’s not the type of delivery method for content that I am interested in.

Vayne.8563:

khani.4786:

Vayne.8563:

khani.4786:

Vayne.8563:

I got them in WvW, and later did the Fractal ones as well, but I agree. I don’t think there should be two dailies that require people to group. Not everyone will do group content, and some of those people will feel disenfranchised.

Actually today I got every daily except the event one.

You don’t need to group to do the “Daily Fractal” (the full set one “Daily 1-10”, sure yeah a group would be best).

Roll underwater. Kill a few krait. Swim thru a tunnel. Kite a Jellyfish into some electricity while shooting it. That one is easy solo.

It’s not easy to solo for many people, if not most people. Having soloed it myself, I know it can be done, but such a huge percentage of the playerbase has no clue how to do stuff like that, have never done a fractal before, and probably couldn’t solo it without a whole lot more practice than they’d probably have playing time.

That’s true. I guess I’ve just been playing so long that for me, it just feel silly easy to do lots of things. I can’t solo dungeons, but I can solo a few of the fractals. Just seems like a lot of complaining and not a lot of willingness to at least try here.

It has to do with comfort zone and enjoyment. Different people enjoy different things. I don’t really enjoy running dungeons. I can run them. I’ve run every dungeon in this game multiple times. I have no problem running any dungeon, including Arah path 4.

But when I get a dungeon daily, in the old system, I never had to do it and often didn’t. Because this is a game and I want to play what I enjoy.

Now a person who doesn’t enjoy instanced content, and doesn’t enjoy PvP is being forced to do stuff they don’t want to do if they want that daily. That’s the complaint here.

Yes, you should have to do something to get a daily. But you shouldn’t have to do something you really don’t enjoy doing. Otherwise, why play?

Agreed. The people that say, “Hey! You only have to do any 3. It’s easy” are correct to a certain extent. The changes to me would be better if the choices were what we used to have. I used to be able to get my entire daily done by doing fractals. Having a daily be a certain fractal level though when the choices are so limited now? That’s bad design.

I love PvP as well, but making us play certain professions is awful.

The dailies are quicker and more rewarding now, but for me that isn’t the point. They aren’t as enjoyable because a lot of the time I have to do things I don’t want to do.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Iason Evan.3806:

I am a fan of the new UI. I am a fan of the new “any 3” setup. I am a fan of the reward structure.

I am not a fan of the choices of dailies and how limited they feel. Bring back the old choices for dailies, keep the new UI, “any 3”, and the reward structure.

I could live with that.

I should also mention that I like the login reward. I always did my dailies solely for the laurel. They could keep the login structure as well. The only thing I think they took 2 steps back on was making the dailies so specific. It gives more freedom in that we have to do less to achieve the daily. It’s so limiting in what there actually is to choose from that negates the freedom of having to do less. Why put in a drawback to what is otherwise a cool system?

1 step forward, 2 steps back.

I started off with 1 of each race. When I wanted 1 of each class though, I ended up with 3 Asura and 2 Norn.

The only character I won’t make is a human female. They are creepy. The age options are 15-21 and the crafting for their armor is dishonest. If it was honest, it would only cost 2 bolts, ingots, or squares of material to make any set of armor for them.

I am a fan of the new UI. I am a fan of the new “any 3” setup. I am a fan of the reward structure.

I am not a fan of the choices of dailies and how limited they feel. Bring back the old choices for dailies, keep the new UI, “any 3”, and the reward structure.

Merry Christmas all! I hope your day is rad!

Great tone in your OP Guhracie.

I have always said a lot of the patches this year are, “One step forward, two steps back.” I really like that I can get laurels now for just logging in. I like that I can do 3 things and get 10 achievement points. I don’t like that they didn’t just keep the dailies as they were and incorporate them into this new system. Why does gatherer need to be region specific? Salvager was great for PvP etc. My friend quipped the other night while in a Fractal that he didn’t get any part of his daily done and we used to be able to complete dailies just doing a Fractal without thinking about it. It’s a great point.

Dailies for the most part used to come naturally. Sure, sometimes you would have to go out of your way to do one or two things, but most of the time they could be completed by just playing the game. That was refreshing. Most games that I have played that have dailies made you do specific things and that is why GW2’s system was so refreshing. Now they just have a daily system like every other game. While that’s not a bad thing, it certainly isn’t great and it’s part of a larger issue not found only in the daily system, but in every system that was introduced this year.

I find it odd that they call the LW content “their focus” but the teams on it are so small. If it was really their focus then they would have larger teams making each update and we would get them every two weeks. I would’ve found it easier to stomach not getting them every two weeks if we were given some clarification of what is coming that is really the focus. The lack of communication has just led me to play less because why would I invest the bulk of my gaming time in a game whose direction is murky at best. Couple that with the changes they keep adding that are partly what people asked for and then partly nothing remotely resembling anything a portion of the playerbase wants and it doesn’t have me very excited or optimistic about the future.

i’ve always contested that one of the awesome things about this game is if I get bored with it i can give it a break and it’s not like it has a sub so it’s cool. this is the first time since it came out that i have played way less than i used to. i used to do my dailies for the laurels. i would be online doing a daily and someone would rope me into a fractal or something. now, i just login, get my login in reward and i am done. i play a pvp match here and there, but for all intents and purposes, i have done everything there is to do. I did so because gw2 is an amazing game but when you’re bored, why play as much?

Bell-e-sports. 50 grand to the winner. We need Wintersday Bell-e-sports ladderboards!

If they ever are you should start saving up for them now by purchasing stacks of snowflakes. Both are super cheap at the moment and both can be used in cooking and jewelcrafting.