Guild Wars 2

tl;dr first:
You already bought PoF, so wait for launch and have fun with it. You will encounter issues that annoy you — decide then how much you want that to bother you compared to how much you enjoy everything else.

Or even more simply: no need to borrow trouble; it will catch up to you soon enough.

Specific responses:

Will I be held back purely on the basis of not owning HoT?

No.

Archaeopteryx.7409:

Will I be able to ‘catch up’ with mastery points given I do not own (and do not want to own) HoT?

You won’t be able to progress HoT-specific masteries. You will be able to work on core masteries, e.g. autolooting and those for fractals and creating precursors for legendary weaons. (You won’t, however, have access to materials you need for the 2nd generation of weapon legendaries, just for the first.)

It’s unclear whether you’ll be able to progress in raids: some believe that since raids are tied to HoT zones, you wouldn’t be able to join. There are, however, reasons to believe that this might not be 100% true.

Archaeopteryx.7409:

Will I be outclassed by people who own specializations from both HoT and PoF? As an example, will I be fighting Reaper Necromancers who have access to Scourge abilities?

You can choose only Reaper or Scourge, not both at the same time. So as a Scourge, you’d be fighting Reapers as well as vanilla necros. It’s unclear whether that will mean HoT-only or PoF-only players might be unclassed — that’s something that won’t be known for months after the launch.

In the early days, I expect complaints about 5-9 of the new elites being too OP’d, mostly because opponents won’t know how to counter. There will be the usual complaints about condi and stealth. Things will change as people get more familiar with the new elites and the new synergies.

Archaeopteryx.7409:

Can the PoF expansion features be used in all aspects of the game, or are some features taken out in some areas? e.g. are mounts disabled in WvW?

Mostly, mounts will be generally available. There are gliding-free zones and there will also be mount-free zones. It’s unclear what the other masteries will be and so tbd whether they will be useful everywhere. Most HoT-masteries aside from gliding had limited use even within HoT zones; I expect PoF-masteries to follow a similar pattern.

Archaeopteryx.7409:

As to whether the expansion specializations put vanilla builds to shame in certain aspects, (e.g. “Reaper puts vanilla condi mancer to shame in WvW” – as an example), would I be limited for owning one expansion and not the other?

Again, it’s hard to say until a few months after launch. Even today, there are people who assume that non-HoT owners are not competitive in WvW & PvP, although I see plenty of posts by folks wreaking havoc without HoT (mostly, of course, these are really good competitors who are outplaying less-skilled opponents; it probably doesn’t matter what skills they limit themselves to).

Put more simply: that depends more on you and how well you understand the classes.

It’s working for me within the last 24 hours. Can you show an example via screenshot?

tlenex.7901:

Lauren Kamieniecki.6245:

We are currently investigating issues in this meta chain.

Thanks for the report!

@Lauren any updates on this? 2 years later and the bug still occurs

https://imgur.com/a/MHXJI

The specific issues that were identified two years ago were addressed. Ogre Wars has been mostly stable most of the time.

If it’s stalling again, the reasons might or might not be related (even if the specific symptoms are the same). Therefore, please do the following:

• Report any stall you see via the in-game /bug reporting tool. Include as many details as you have time to type.
• Start a new thread including what you’ve observed and asking for the same from others.

tl;dr current issues would be likely different from the ones referenced in this two-year old thread. Please focus on what you observe now, the better to help ANet troubleshoot.

Tekoneiric.6817:

It’s hard to tell if ANet is ignoring us or just keeping quite on features because so many people post suggestions or topics about some requested features just boil to the surface during general posts yet we hear little from ANet.

So therefore, we can’t say that ANet is ignoring us. They might just disagree about priorities, as they clearly do with build templates.

Generally speaking, ANet has made these types of comments in the last 6-12 months:

• About to release something.
• They are considering something and hope to tell us something soon.
• They are not considering it.
• And no comment at all.

So for example, they told us nothing about mounts or Elona, despite the threads that popped up every month … until they announced PoF (which, incidentally, they hadn’t mentioned either until they were ready to tease a date).

For example, they have told us they aren’t considering new races nor a revamp of LS1 (because it would use the same resources as introducing new living world stories, without offering the same entertainment value; new races would also introduce other complications).

For example, they’ve told us they are considering solutions for legendary sigil swapping and would like to see build templates; they’ve given no ETA for either.

And sure, there’s some features from the various lists above (include WP’s list) that they haven’t mentioned.

So I think we have to trust that ANet does exactly what they say they do: they read our suggestions (the cogent ones) and take it into account. At least, in the absence of actual evidence that they aren’t — they clearly have done some things different as a result of feedback, sometimes immediately and sometimes not.

So again, I can’t support that statement that “ANet has failed to deliver”. We, as individuals, might disagree with their priorities, but that’s not close to the same thing.

Start by asking ANet support. I doubt they will choose to make that happen, but if they do, it would be a lot faster than waiting for a major mechanic change.

The problem is: the reason for binding gear is to sink materials and gold from the economy. Allowing people to unbind would defeat that purpose and create an entirely new market, in which people would sell stuff that had been bound.

In other words, hard to imagine ANet would think this is good for the game.

People thought ANet ignored mounts and of course, turns out ANet’s been working on them for years, long before PoF. They just hadn’t figured out all the details and, per their practice, didn’t mention it until it was nearly ready to ship.

Accordingly, all we can say is that PoF includes a lot of features, some of which we wanted, some of which we didn’t know we wanted, and some which people will claim no one wanted. Likewise, it lacks some features that we’ve wanted for ages, including build templates — but some of those have been requested for over 5 years (since BETA testing).

Not seeing the features in PoF doesn’t mean ANet’s ignored us; it just means that they aren’t in the game today (or next month).

Makai.3429:

Yep, and those of us who don’t like or can’t do twitch play are getting pushed out of the game, just to satisfy the elitist raiders, which is really sad.

What is twitch play? I’ve certainly never kicked someone out for not having it, because I don’t know what it is (for that matter, I’ve never kicked someone out for bad performance in fractals — we generally just carry them instead).

Ojimaru.8970:

The fact of the matter is that these mechanics are still terribly flawed.

The way I phrase it is that they run counter to ANet’s cooperative philosophy about PvE. Anyone can pick up a ley organ from the relevant scavengers — that fits ANet’s themes better. But everyone competes for corpses and that works against cooperation.

So it’s not so much that it’s “flawed” as that it discourages people from teaming up, the opposite of what ANet has done with most other hearts, all nodes, event rewards, and most of the rest of PvE generally.

Taimi the child is the only one with adult dialogue? Interesting idea, but doesn’t seem to be born out by the actual dialogue.

NPCs don’t fight much during story instances by design — ANet’s decided that we should do the bulk of the fighting, that the NPCs are there for the story, not the challenge.

And finally, what exactly do you mean by story missions being build like raids? Everything we know about raid & story encounters shows very little overlap. You’ll have to be more specific about which story and which mechanics.

I certainly am not a fan of some elements of some of the stories, but I can’t see any that are similar to raids.

Regardless of the merits of any particular idea, ANet has made clear the following:

• That we already know the features of PoF; there will be no big surprises for that.
• That they are aware of (and share) our interest in build templates.
• That they do not have immediate plans for releasing any.

I don’t understand why they haven’t prioritized a solution, but I accept that they have identified the difficulty and feel that there are other things more important that can be done with the same resources. (I do wish that they’d take the time to clarify what’s so difficult about even taking a snapshot that we could use to manually keep track or any other intermediate solutions.)

tl;dr they don’t have immediate plans for build templates; seems likely that they do have long term plans.

Lydia Solace.1348:

I am honestly hoping for an alternate method of getting a chak egg sac. If the item can only be obtained out of the in game trading post with grey market forums you know the items drop rate is not working as intended. Most of us would like to obtain a egg sac with out having to buy one off someone using middlemen. I have been farming the meta since release. my friend and I have completed the meta nearly 500 times and only my friend received a tonic drop. Also I have never seen a real ping in my guild for the item or in map chat during this time. The fact the item has to compete with 3 tonics on the roll table makes getting this item unreasonable. I would like to see a mass gold sink along with a ton of chak eggs (these really need more uses and from a lore perspective it makes sense) in the future in order to receive one. As for the whole lotto argument I see going around this item is more of a myth over a lotto and there are plenty of lotto items in gw2 that can net you thousands/hundreds of gold which for vets or new players can make them them very wealthy thus we don’t need an imaginary 10,000 gold drop, at this point the item is just a busted outlier and its depressing for people who just want to earn one already. Bottom line this isn’t a pvp/wvw or raid champion item its an rng item that has a flawed drop rate in desperate need of a rework of some kind.

Finally as for the meta event its is still failing nearly 2 years later at peak hours Nuch can be challenge for people and that’s fine however its pretty sad that when its the only map up in lfg with no mirrors and they are still failing this can be discouraging especially when you need to have 4 commander tags up for your head count/mechanic explanations and unlike other meta where a mistake is made you can adjust, in TD you just fail so that’s also a devastating factor in the problem with why there are too few chak egg sacs to date. As for the map cap and popularity of TD it must be under 100 people it’s no wonder that a map can be full and still fail due to players on the map not participating in the meta.

Your evidence for a failed drop rate isn’t compelling. The demand is high and there’s a limit to the price that can be paid on the TP. Accordingly savvy owners are willing to wait or go outside the game to sell; impatient owners will take the 8500 gold for insta-selling.

Your evidence for a problem with the meta is equally unconvincing. It’s not a very interesting game when something can’t fail, especially if it takes 5-10min of prep + 15 minutes of effort — then it’s just annoying that one has to spend that long on a reward that is automatic. Some people still don’t know the mechanics and not all commanders take the time to explain, including reminding people of optimum skills.

I’m sorry that you are discouraged. I really am. I just can’t agree that the drop rate should change — it’s good, in my opinion, to have a tiny fraction of cosmetics be so rare that most of us will never have them.

• We will be adding a new currency that is similar to Proof of Heroics that will allow you to buy new sigils, runes, recipes, and hero points from PoF.
• There will be a new skirmish chest with the new currency in them.
• You will still be able to purchase everything you can now with Proof of Heroics.
• All skirmish chests earned before PoF launch will contain Proof of Heroics. All skirmish chests earned after will have the new currency.

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Will-vendors-be-updated-for-PoF/6743184
• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Will-vendors-be-updated-for-PoF/6743282
• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Will-vendors-be-updated-for-PoF/6743398
• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Will-vendors-be-updated-for-PoF/6743429

hugo.4705:

Yep comparing characters height and mount seat and chairs are almost the same. Don’t see why they can’t apply this new mechanics of mount to chairs… Maybe too difficult or simply not their priority?

Let’s presume you’re right, that solving mount seating is so close to solving chair seating that they are really close to having a way to enable sitting generally. Then, in no particular order:

• The quote is from a while ago, before mounts were scheduled for the game. (And btw, we heard nothing about mounts, even though they’ve been working on them for years).
• There are a limited number of mounts scheduled and a larger number of chairs of various shapes & sizes.
• There might be other aspects of seating in chairs that are different from mount seating (or not — we just don’t know).
• Whatever amount of work required, there are still lots of other projects using the same resources. How sure are we that sitting takes priority?

In short, they might be close or they might not be; they aren’t going to tell us until they are ready to ship this.

(And by the way, this is just one issue mentioned by the OP. I doubt very much if it’s sufficient to satisfy RPers if it’s the only thing ANet does.)

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You realize that not everyone understands what you mean by “DLC” or “Expansion” — I certainly don’t. The entire game is downloadable and full of content, so why isn’t that all “downloadable content” aka DLC? And what is an expansion other than a bunch of DLCs bundled into a package for easier marketing?

If you play any game that has expansions or DLCs, you know the difference.

Expansions are basically half-games, while DLCs are even smaller. It’s like comparing flash fiction to short stories to novels (DLC to expansion to stand alone game respectively).

And there is no one who is not aware of this if they spend 10 minutes to look at it.

And of course, this is ignoring the fact that ArenaNet explicitly states that they’re selling Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, not Season 2, Heart of Thorns, Season 3, and Path of Fire. And no “not knowing terminology” is going to make that confusing.

Sorry, no. I see people referring to HoT as “DLC” — the terms aren’t used with a universal definition. I certainly had no idea what “Dragon’s Age: Origins” meant by DLC, since that was the first time I had seen the term. And I still feel the distinction is entirely arbitrary on the part of publisher — all content is downloadable to me, some of it is bundled and some of it isn’t, including stuff that can be labeled “DLC”.

While it’s true that a little bit of research will uncover what ANet offers for free, what if includes in the the price of each expac, etc, I’m sure you’re aware that not everyone follows the fine print.

So my point remains: it’s not obvious to everyone.

I don’t agree with critics who say that ANet misled them deliberately or that it’s unfair. I’m just saying it’s understandable that some people are confused the first time they run into this, potentially for each game.

I’m glad it’s easy for you and some other posters to understand without effort what is and isn’t included. I just ask that you consider that not everyone has the same innate understanding of game industry jargon.

Stalkingwolf.6035:

not really. i killed him several times and the commander always explains when to CC him. Nobody understands or takes care to do it.
But thats not only a problem with Vinetooth. Thats a problem with most of the open world champions. And you can survive the jump if you know your class abilities.
On the other hand if you don’t stun him, you need a lot of dps. Next open world problem ;-)

Yes, really. I’ve been at or observed about 2 dozen such successes. It depends on how it’s explained — the squad doesn’t need everyone to do it, just enough people.

I’ve seen other failed attempts that include explanations. The commander sticks to “bring CC” and “CC now”, which isn’t sufficient — the commander cannot assume that anyone knows what that means or more importantly that people have actually swapped skills before the fight. One of the commanders specifically set aside a subsquad of CC and checked with the group ahead of time about skills.

Aomine.5012:

Meaning PoF has no new legendary whatsoever?

They have said that they are going to finish the HoT legendaries first, releasing concurrently with LS4 episodes (perhaps one on PoF launch day? Mike O’Brien’s remarks suggest probably not, but they are sufficiently ambiguous to allow the possibility).

They haven’t explicitly said whether there will be a third generation of legendary weapons afterward or when it might launch. Assuming 8ish episodes of LS4, it wouldn’t happen until the 3rd expac… in other words, no legendary would be tied to the initial Elona maps.

On the other hand, O’Brien (and ANet generally) doesn’t release any details about content until it’s near-ready to be shipped. So they could be working on Gen3 legendaries and we’ll never know.

tl;dr we’re still getting half-a-dozen or so Gen2 legendaries tied to HoT maps; no word on whether there will (or won’t be) Gen3 weapons and if so, what they would require to complete.

jokke.6239:

Can’t see it in shop. Want to buy the seasons for my brother who just finished HoT.

You’ll have to send them gold, which they convert to gems. (Or buy them a gem card.)

The reason is that there’s no mechanic in the game that allows your account to see what your brother’s account has unlocked. (Perhaps there should be, but it’s easier said than done.)

I’m sympathetic: no one likes being screamed at or be expected to know things one couldn’t have possibly learned. And there are some really cranky veterans who are too quick to blame others.

All the same: don’t fall into the same trap about making assumptions of others groups based on a few bad experiences or drop all your patience on the bad apples — that’s precisely what’s annoying about veterans who are too impatient with new players.

Instead, use the /block feature to hide the chat of folks who have nothing to offer except tie up /map or /say with useless whinging.

In other words… This game has a lot of players. Some of them are kind, some of them are jerks. It’s not hard to ignore the nattering nabobs of negativity and focus on the first group.

I was feeling the same way, until someone showed me that I didn’t have to reclaim. Instead use the ley line organ #4 skill from a “safe spot” and let it complete its channeling. If you stand in the right spots, you can finish each heart with as few as two organs, regardless of what anyone else is going.

tl;dr I agree with the OP that the mechanic for reclaiming undermines ANet’s goal of cooperative PvE & I would like to see it changed. In the meantime, I use Transfer Magic.

Or that you didn’t accidentally change which chat tab you are using.

Vayne.8563:

I bought Star War 2 and I was really angry that I had to buy Star Wars also to see that content Why are games different from anything else?

Because this is more like paying for Doctor Who Season xyz and having to pay again for the Christmas Special of the same year. That would be one of many possible (and fair) ways to price the content, it just surprises some people that LS isn’t consider part of the main game/expansion.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

^ Let’s get Lindsay on it. She’ll make it happen.

Alas, she’s also the one who told us it wouldn’t be soon

See also:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Keys-as-Currency-Again/6739867

See also:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/QoL-Add-Keys-to-Material-Storage/6741908

onevstheworld.2419:

They didn’t rule out a different keychain though.

That’s my memory of what they said, too. However, they did rule out any solution in the near future. (As mentioned above, it turns out to be more complicated than we think it is, so they are discussing ideas, e.g. keychains, but not actively pursuing them …yet.)

In PvP, we don’t need any unlocks. Players have access to all L80 skills/traits and the elite line from any of the expansions they own.

In WvW and PvE, we do need unlocks, because we level up “manually”. Since there are a tiny number of hero challenges available directly via WvW, ANet added proofs of heroics, allowing us to earn the post-80 trait unlocks without leaving our preferred game mode.

tl;dr WvW needs a hero-challenge alternative; PvP never did and probably never will.

You think that either of those have a worse drop rate than bloodstone ruby?

On the face of it, I’m inclined to believe this is more of a perception issue rather than of differing drops rates. I’d like to see some decent data from more than a few people with results from at least 20-40 nodes.

Winterberries drop faster but you need twice as many as anything else. Another thing influencing perception of drop rate is that it’s harder to find a good farm for orchids and shards — shards appear in clusters of 2-3 far apart from each other (sometimes very far); orchid “trees” are plentiful, but aren’t clustered either. Pearls drop from oysters more easily, but that’s because we only get one whack per node.

tl;dr maybe you’re right, Swagger, but without data, I’m not convinced. (And since ANet has actual data at their finger tips, I think it would take more than just the assertion of a few people to get them to revisit this.)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’ve seen this a couple of times, and I’m wondering… What Mastery does Draconis Mons need/use to open chests?

Oops, my mistake. It’s a permanent unlock from a vendor.

Allows collection and use of ancient asuran power sources to reveal Zinn’s stashes. The Technomagical Detector can be used to overload the locking mechanisms on the stash with 25 Unbound Magic.

It uses the special action key, so I wrongly remembered it as a mastery unlock. I’ll fix the post above (and I think I used that comparison in another recent post; I’ll try to find/fix that, too).

So it’s more correct to say that you need to purchase one unlock (1000 unbound & 1 gold) and someone has to unhide the chest (which does require a “key” to power up the skill), but anyone with the unlock can open it.

The tl;dr remains true: ANet doesn’t have a solution for existing keys; they’ve been experimenting with “keys” that use different mechanics to unlock and don’t necessarily require you to carry a set of keys.

How often are you in a situation in which you die 8 times in a row without access to a repair anvil?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

“I bought two expansions expecting to be getting two expansions and 14 DLCs. WTF I hate you!”

That is literally the OP.

The Living World is DLC that is temporarily free for those playing the game. Nowhere ever does Anet ever proclaim that the Living World Seasons are packaged with the expansions.

Now, while I can find arguments for why they should be packaged with the expansions, they aren’t nor ever said to be. When you buy the expansions, you’re buying just the expansions, as is said. The LW are DLCs that are separate from the expansions (but in S3’s case, require owning HoT too).

You realize that not everyone understands what you mean by “DLC” or “Expansion” — I certainly don’t. The entire game is downloadable and full of content, so why isn’t that all “downloadable content” aka DLC? And what is an expansion other than a bunch of DLCs bundled into a package for easier marketing?

Of course it’s up to ANet how to price, how to advertise, how to offer elements of the game. It’s also up to every other game company to do it their own way, and they do.

So it’s simply not obvious to everyone where the line between “expansion” and “DLC” is drawn. Confusion is inevitable, no matter how many threads about this we see, no matter how much ANet includes an explanation as part of their purchase website (which, by the way, isn’t the only source of the game).

tl;dr not everyone is familiar with the definitions and not everyone who is has the same understanding. People are going to misunderstand — it takes only an extra minute to explain politely than it does to dismiss the concerns as “entitled” or “unreasonable”.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

He’s only been there a few days. Time doesn’t fly in Tyria at the same rate is does for us in RL.

^ That’s true. And in terms of physics, the closer you are to the centre of gravity the slower time flows. We don’t know how deep that well is. And how gravity works in Tyria may be different – not to mention the magical ramifications. For all we know, Blaine could be in a bubble of slow-time in a magical well and might just outlive us all.

I’m more curious about how he has access to all that stationery, to send so much mail.

And, if you’re right, Zoltar, how is he managing to store enough energy to allow matter to escape his gravity well/time bubble? Tyrian Physics is more mysterious than we thought I suppose.

Cyninja.2954:

Either gather some friends and do the event as a small group or join a group when they do it and hope the amount of competent people outnumbers the “afk 1” spammers.

Or just take a minute to explain what people need to do. It really works often, especially since many folks who join are motivated to get it done.

BL chests contain junk — they are white elephants, bags of garbage, not intended to offer anything good.

ANet is selling you a lotto ticket, where the entertainment value is entirely in that moment right before you open, when you savor with anticipation the possibility that you’ll get lucky. (Hint: you won’t.)

If you don’t enjoy that moment, don’t invest time or especially not RL money in the chests.

Keys aren’t materials and the allocated spots are limited; the devs aren’t going to use them up for keys.

I’m sure we’d all (including ANet devs) would like to see something better than needing to keep track of a dozen high-use keys. And ANet has said they are considering some options. Unfortunately (they have also said) the problem is trickier than it seems to us. What seems like an easy or obvious solution might not be, given the way that keys work and stack.

In the meantime, ANet has clearly been experimenting with alternatives. Bitterfrost “keys” are torches that you can get for free and that melt the locks on the chests, freeing them up for everyone. Draconis doesn’t require keys per se, only a mastery an account-wide unlock (plus a key-like thing) to unhide the chests; opening can be done by anyone (with the mastery). Siren’s doesn’t require keys at all.

I expect to see more alternatives going forward and eventually, ANet will come up with a different way to handle chests and locks that they’ll rollout, hopefully retroactive to the existing chests/keys.

tl;dr patience, my friend; good things come to those who wait (admittedly, a very long time in this case)

edit: thanks to _Inculpatus cedo, I’ve fixed my reference to a mastery above; it’s a one-time vendor unlock (similar, but not a mastery)_

Amaimon.7823:

Did i miss something?

Not if you aren’t a fan of the band mentioned above. (Yes, if you are.)

zoomborg.9462:

Living World seasons were never part of the expansions, i dont know what u are angry about.

I don’t understand why it’s hard to understand that people see “expansion” and they think it includes all the previous & future updates. It’s only with some research that some folks realize that doesn’t apply to access to the Living World seasons including LS3 maps. It’s probably more difficult for an outsider/new player to see the difference when the LS2 maps (Dry Top & Silverwastes) are included in the core game, even though the LS2 stories aren’t.

I don’t have a problem with ANet’s pricing model, which includes offering LS2 and beyond to anyone logging on during the relevant 3-4 month period. All the same, I can see why some people might not be happy and some will be surprised to find out there’s a cost.

The list of available skins changes every time there’s an update to the BL chest and/or a new BL weapon skin. Every single time. This has been true since the game launched.

The list of skins available from double clicking a scrap or ticket is nearly always smaller than what’s available inside the vault; that’s been true since the inclusion of the vault.

Finally, it has always been the case and will continue to be true that the most cost effective way to get a skin is to put in a buy offer on the TP at the price you are willing to spend. The cost of acquiring x tickets|10x scraps via purchase of BL keys is always higher, regardless of what X is, unless you are very, very lucky.

tl;dr put in a custom buy offer for the skin(s) you want at the price you are willing to pay; only invest in BL keys if you like the excitement that happens just before you open.

Town Clothes

Of the original clothing:

• All of the headgear was converted to light|medium|heavy skins.
• All of the outfits have been converted to Outfits except for the “Air Rider Package”

What hasn’t been converted:

• About a dozen torso skins
• The original starter clothing.

While I’d certainly enjoy having these turned into Outfits, they would likely take as much work to convert as creating any new outfit. Since I don’t think the designs are all that great, I’m okay with these being so low on the priority list that we might never see them.

It does feel bad to still these as tonics. I just don’t think that’s sufficient reason to convert them.

PS it would be entirely unfair to turn the existing tonics into currency — so, so many of them have been traded on the TP and stockpiled by speculators.

tl;dr we’re mostly talking about silk shirts and hoodies and I don’t love any of them so much I’d want them high on the priority list, above other already-planned outfits.

Nightshade.4563:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elonian_Leather_Square

• Huntsman
• Armorsmith
• Leatherwork
• Tailor

i.e. all three armor-producing disciplines and the one that produces bows (which use leather for the strings)

artificer doesn’t refine T7 leather.

….

RIGHT. Thank you. I definitely never would have noticed that. Seems weird that under artificer I can craft/refine all the items to make the squares, use the squares to make something else, but not actually make the squares themselves. eyeroll

At least I’m already working on leveling tailor.

I’ve always hated crafting.

It’s a little weird, but it’s based on the need for artificer to refine various leather bits for Fractal- and PvP-related crafting. Originally, you’d need to go back & forth between different disciplines to make the components for Grandmaster [discipline] Marks. Per popular demand, ANet added the refinement for just those bits. Marks use Blended Leather rather than Elonian, so Artificers don’t actually need it (Elonian) for anything.

Or in brief, Artificers don’t refine items for which they have no direct use, including Elonian Leather.

He’s only been there a few days. Time doesn’t fly in Tyria at the same rate is does for us in RL.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

You can’t expect 20 players to coordinate what five can, that’s not how bigger groups operate in large events. It also prohibits wanting more player coop which in HoT is usually a death sentence for events.

That’s simply not true. It’s easier to get five people to act in concert, since you already know what 20% of them will do; it’s just harder with 20.

I’ve seen VP succeed multiple times with large groups and in nearly all the cases, there was one person who took just a few minutes to explain what was needed. They popped a tag, asked folks to wait to trigger the event, and explained the primary mechanics (including the breakbar) and offered skill suggestions.

The only thing we “cannot” do is to assume that everyone knows the same things that we do. That’s fine in most events; it doesn’t fly for VP nor for the Wyverns in Draconis, or a variety of other events.

Resurrecting 10 times was boring back when it was a daily, refining is different but as trivial as vista dailies, healing sounds like rezzing only cheezier, and finishing events in three regions sounds like the 4-event|one-zone daily only worse.

I support the attempt to mix things up a bit, but I fear that one of the reasons that dailies aren’t more varied is that it’s not as easy as it sounds to find a balance between “too easy” and “too tedious”.

PS WvW and PvP dailies are even less varied because it’s even harder to find alternatives in those game modes.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elonian_Leather_Square

• Huntsman
• Armorsmith
• Leatherwork
• Tailor

i.e. all three armor-producing disciplines and the one that produces bows (which use leather for the strings)

artificer doesn’t refine T7 leather.

The theory is that the living story costs ANet to make, so they require us to pay extra. They they offer it to us for free as a loyalty reward, for those of us who are online when it’s released (whether or not we own the relevant parts of the game).

So one way or another, some group of players is going to be fine with the system and another group unhappy with it.

I’m sorry that you’re in the latter group.

I’m sorry to hear of your loss.

I do like the idea of being able to have more options for setting up memorials — more than just the basic statue, grave marker, and signpost.

Some guilds (including one of mine) has gotten extremely elaborate with a section (not just a few decorations) devoted to memorializing one of our fallen comrades. Perhaps you can do something like that, for now.

Game of Bones.8975:

What about a compromise? Account Bound with a level requirement.

Year 1 Booster req. lvl 60
Year 2 Booster req. lvl 50
Year 3 Booster req. lvl 40
Year 4 Booster req. lvl 30
Year 5 Booster req. lvl 20
Year 6 Booster req. lvl 10

This would give the benefit to those long standing characters as well as put a limit on which characters may use the booster.

If ANet has made them account bound to prevent veterans from having an unfair advantage over newer players, this would make matters worse — the more veteran players would enjoy the most powerful bonus and new players would need 7 years to fully catch up.

If there isn’t any particular reason that these are soulbound, then this just makes things more complicated for everyone, including ANet.

I’m not against the idea that dodging could be intertwined with stats or that passive defense could be buffed up. I’m just against doing more than tweaking unless there’s a really, really powerful reason… and the OP hasn’t provided that — they have just asserted that it’s better.

Based on other statements, I doubt I’d agree with the OP’s idea of what would be more fun. Notably:

• “There’s a problem with offensive vs. defensive stats, …is that…the best defense is a strong offense.” — this is, in my opinion, an amazing feature of GW2 combat.
• “This is not just a product of dodge existing, it’s a product of how dodging is designed – specifically that it is both limited and unaffected by any defensive attribute.” — which is the bad part? that it’s limited? (in which case, why is it such a problem?) or that it can’t be increased by stats? (which is just a different sort of limit)
• Further, there’s also an implicit assumption that dodging is the only form of active defense — it’s not.

Basically, the OP seems to disagree with ANet’s design of the combat system. While I agree that it’s got a lot of room for improvement, I do think it’s an amazingly enjoyable and durable and adaptable system. I disagree that it’s fundamentally flawed as suggested by the OP.

Ashantara.8731:

brutalness.5418:

what dps meater is safe to use

Sorry, but that really cracked me up. Meater <> meter.

I think they are probably the same if you play a charr.

They have remarked about the situation with keys a couple of times. Roughly, they’ve said:

• Yes, they would also like to see a better solution for keys.
• They have ideas but not “current plans” to address it, because it turns out to be much more complicated than it seems to us.

What they have done recently is offer chests that don’t require keys in the traditional sense. In Bitterfrost, you use a torch to melt ice leaving a chest that anyone can open for a minute or so. In Siren’s, you don’t need any keys. In Draconis, you need a mastery one-time vendor unlock to open; the “key equivalent” is only needed to un-hide the locations.

My guess is that we’ll see a solution, but not for at least a year or more.

edit: thanks to Inculpatus Cedo, who pointed out (in another thread) we don’t need a mastery to open Zinn’s Stashes

Feanor.2358:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Currently, only one popular DPS meter is considered to be “safe”:

• ArcDPS by DeltaConnected

There are other meters out there, some less popular, some almost certainly violating one or more aspects of the ToS (Terms of Service).

PS there’s no guarantee that Arc will remain compliant. Clearly, its developer intends to stay on the “acceptable” side of the line, but they might not always be around or ANet might change requirements or… who knows. As with any 3rd party tool: use it with caution.

I would expect if ANet decide to change their rules, they’ll give a fair warning and enough time for the authors to change their code.

That’s more likely than not, but misses the point: the same DPS meter that is “acceptable” today might not be tomorrow. It’s up to us as players to keep track, not up to ANet or the 3rd party dev to keep us posted.