Guild Wars 2

Wolfye.7460:

How do you think ArenaNet will combat power creep in HOT? Or do you think they will do it like WoW?

I think they will do it like GW2, which is to say I don’t expect characters to be relatively more powerful than they are today.

• We haven’t seen how stats will change.
• We have only seen a hint of how traits are changing; the numbers are meant to be placeholders, so are of no value in determining future effectiveness.
• We know that some game mechanics will also be changing.

Also keep in mind that the core specialization system releases before HoT; the expansion itself is adding elite specializations, which replace one of the trait lines. Accordingly, if the core system is balanced versus content, I doubt very much if HoT is going to make things worse.

tl;dr I don’t expect a power creep issue simply due to the new system. (Unless ANet borks things up, but that would be a problem with the execution, not with the core specialization system itself.)

Ashen.2907:

Keep in mind that access to hall of monument rewards are currently turned off in gw2 with no announced timeline for return. If those rewards are part of your reason for buying eye of the north you might want to wait until we are sure that they are coming back any time soon.

I don’t recommend waiting, if that’s the only issue.

• There are no announced dates for new content to GW2 right now.
• ANet has confirmed that they are going to bring the rewards back as soon as they can.
• It will take most people a month or more to reach HotM/30, even if that’s all they work on.

As long as the OP is ok with waiting a bit longer for the GW2 rewards from the HoM, now is a really good time to start with GW1.

On the original topic: I found it cheaper to buy a package deal for GW1 than to get EotN separately.

• First disc: Prophecies (original game) + EotN
• Second disc: Prophecies + Factions (second campaign) + Nightfall (third campaign).

I spent $30 total at the time. Later, I was able to pick up a second account with the first package for only $10.

Kichwas.7152:

I’d replace the excessive chat filter with a different system.

…where if enough people blocked your chat, you got zone muted for a while.

…where the default method of blocking someone’s chat only lasts 1 hour. A permanent block would require clicking some ‘are you sure’ box,

The idea here is to flip the system.
…make it active – it only happens if enough other people on the zone with you find you that bad…

I like this idea

Except it is going to be a lot trickier than it seems.

• If the triggers are too generous, then we’ll see more gold selling messages in a shorter period of time.
• If they are too sensitive, we’ll see small groups organize to troll individuals.

It’s still s a great concept for ANet to explore. Maybe they could combine the current passive system (automatic triggers for certain types of messaging) and an active one based on how many players block.

How often does this happen to how many people? It’s a lot of work to ‘fix’ something that doesn’t occur that often and is easily mitigated. I’m not always that careful and I’ve never accidentally blocked a friend (I have, however, accidentally friended someone I meant to block— and fixed it as soon as it happened).

Dawdler.8521:

In theory, diminishing returns can work so that if you keep killing mob after mob after mob after mob, its goes to kitten but when you revive someone in between you break the kill streak by doing something else, hence the effect of DR is reduced. Something similar may be happening simply when you change your character (I cant even begin to count the times I have played my main for a week, getting zero exotics and then start on an alt and drop an exotic in less than 5 minutes, or just getting a stream of rares. Its very noticable when doing mostly WvW).

No, DR doesn’t work like that. Once you hit it, you really have to go someplace new to get rid of it.

The thing is: unless or until the OP starts recording all drops in all situations, it’s not possible to tell if what we are seeing. Observation bias is always a problem, especially when it’s the observer’s loot. OP could be noticing better drops because they have more time to take a look, they are getting a lucky streak, or they forgot about the lucky streaks they got without rezzing.

EcoRI.9273:

Many of you guys have been saying that DPS is the only thing that matters in dungeons.

Hardly anyone is saying that.

What people have been pointing out is that high-DPS builds are the most efficient. Your example shows that there are other team combinations possible that are also fast; they just aren’t as speedy.

It’s “viable” now. If you’re asking if it’s ever going to compete with direct damage builds, the answer is: maybe. It looks like they will be changing the condi stack mechanics, changing some condi related traits and mechanics, and introducing new foe types. Whether that ultimately changes the math enough to put condi ahead of direct damage will depend on the specifics and how the community absorbs those changes.

Looks like you didn’t open the one from a previous day (it remains on the character until you open it). I’ve had one for as long as a week after.

I don’t have any problem with reusing existing weapons for the new specializations nor with the number of weapons to which each class has access. I don’t agree that there is a problem that needs a solution.

States.6387:

There needs to be something we can do with ascended rings.

“Needs” ? No I don’t think the game needs it.

But it is one of those small annoyances that seem to have no economic or gameplay rationale behind it. Even the junk that drops from grubby little packages is is worth 1s, so 4s for these seems almost insulting rather than helpful.

I’m sorry you are having trouble.

The goggles being on or off in the water don’t directly related to getting credit; I’ve seen it happen either way. (Generally, it’s a good sign if you transform out of swimming trunks, but it’s no guarantee.)

As I mentioned 10 months ago, the trigger isn’t in the water, it is just above the water. So death doesn’t affect whether you, erm, hit the right spot or not. You are more likely to go through the trigger if you land in the water, but that’s also no guarantee.

Did you use the in game /bug reporting feature when it happened? I know that can be a pain to use, especially since there is never any feedback. However, it does provide ANet with the sort of data they need to try to replicate what is happening. And it is difficult to replicate: my guild went through this one as a group and 20+ people succeeded (not on the first time, since it still can be difficult to aim), but eventually. So it usually works properly.

I know none of this mitigates your frustration. After all, you wouldn’t be posting if the darn thing worked smoothly in the first place.

I hope you give it another shot and that it goes well.

Garth Thurgen.1380:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

• Gold Find appears to be too little to matter

The problem with Gold Find isn’t so much that it’s too small, but that the amount of gold that it increases is absolutely pathetic.

What I meant was: the percentage is small, the base amounts are small, so the net effect is too little to matter. I thought writing “too little to matter” would be sufficient to get the point across — my apologies for any confusion that might have caused.

….

Basically, inflation has rendered Gold Find into being utterly worthless

Eh, no, not in my opinion. Gold Find (in the form of food & guild boosts) has always existed and it’s always been too little to matter. The only time it was worth using was when it applied to all gold earned, including dungeon bonuses.

In order for Gold Find to matter today, when it only counts for foe-loot, would be to increase the base amounts by leaps and bounds. If they did that, they’d would then need to reduce the amount and variety of other loot that foes drop.

I’m sure some people would prefer to see more coin and less stuff, but my impression is ANet prefers a greater variety of loot, which is more fun for more people.

In any case, the original post was about which utility infusions were the most worthwhile and I think we both agree that Gold Find barely belongs on that list, even at the bottom.

tigirius.9014:

lordkrall.7241:

It is simply supply and demand. There are simply not enough people that trade gems for gold in order to keep the price down.

ArenaNet shouldn’t artificially (directly) change that ratio.

See this is the problem I have with that. You see, they directly changed the ratio of people receiving items in game to affect the gold rate, what’s wrong with them limiting or putting a cap on what you can charge for the ratio? Why is one not an issue in these forums but the other is? smh

It’s not simply supply and demand when you have such a heavily influenced (aka regulated) gold system in the game. If it were at all a free market so to speak then there would be exactly 0 restrictions on loot but that’s not the case.

OP this is exactly what happens when you lose too many players, when one system is regulated but not the other, and when you have a system that gives such a huge advantage to whales rather than those who’ve actually spent the time earning their keep.

It becomes a huge imbalanced mess.

What do you mean by “whales” vs “those who…spent …time earning their keep?” What do you mean by “they directly changed the ratio of people receiving items in game to affect the gold rate”? What do you mean that “one system is regulating but not the other?” What do you mean by “this is what happens when you lose too many players?”

Everything you do in this game, aside from chatting, adds to your wealth. There are very, very few limits on earning gold. John Smith has stated time and again that the 1%ers (those with the most wealth) don’t have much influence on prices and what influence the have is transient and applies almost only to high-priced luxuries.

If the economy were as big a mess as you say, then there would be very little variation in prices. Instead, the value of T6 mats has been dropping (or at worst holding steady) for months; ecto prices are down; gem conversion rates dropped as low as 13g/100 gems or less; and the rate today isn’t any different from its peak in November of last year.

Further, people who spend RL cash on gems, intending to buy gold almost always think they are getting too little value for their dollars or euros, while those trying to get gem shop items without spending cash think the prices have been too high.

I don’t see any evidence that there is a problem with current rates, other than one of perspective: people remember how cheap it used to be, without remembering that it was more difficult to earn gold.

There’s a balance between playability, profession balance, and ‘realism’ (or what passes for such in RPGs). If the game were truly “realistic,” characters would have to spend some time sleeping, eating, or using the restroom (or latrine, or outhouse, or sewer). Some characters would be strong than others, some more nimble, and so forth.

ANet’s design for the game includes some elements that add local color (destroyers don’t burn, large foes can’t be knocked back, charr take orders from mice and talking cabbages). And it does not include other elements that would also be ‘fun’ from a lore point of view: ghosts immune to physical conditions (poisons etc).

Further, changing the game to include more immunities makes balancing everything else much, much more difficult.

It’s unrealistic to expect that a game can — or even should — include all such elements. Sometimes, the ‘fun’ in playability has to trump the ‘fun’ from lore.

I’m not opposed to adding things like this into the game, but I’d far prefer to see other changes first. If we do see such immunities, then I’d like to see a lot of foes become immune to physical damage, so that condition builds sometimes have a strong advantage over direct damage ones.

tl;dr condition immunities are an enjoyable aspect of some RPGs; that doesn’t mean that ANet needs to add them into GW2

From the only update I could find that affected sigil of air:

Sigil of Air: This sigil now has a 50% activation chance on critical hit. Rescaled the cooldown from 5, 5, and 5 seconds to 5, 4, and 3 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. This sigil remains unable to critically hit.

Unless something else has changed since, the OP is correct that it the superior version should be on a 3s cooldown.

@OP: if you have time, it would probably help to use the in-game /bug reporting tool right after you do some testing (so it’s easy for QA to replicate your results). A support ticket might also be useful to them.

Mobility problems are in the eye of the beholder. I started off on mesmer and even as slow as they are (especially in Orr we had at launch), I could get around fast enough.

Sounds to me that you have some mixed feelings about your experience. It was really nice of you to help someone by donating that much gold. Personally, I’d be frustrated too, in your shoes.

Still, if you’re earning 22g/day while having fun, then you won’t have too much trouble earning enough to buy the pre you want. I’d recommend taking half of your earnings each week and putting it down on the item and then adding to that each week. You won’t get the precursor at 50g, but before long your offer will be high enough that you might get lucky with a sudden ‘glut’.

• Around Halloween last year, the rate was as high as 20g/100 gems.
• The price dropped around Wintersday (people getting gem cards as gifts, probably). I advised people to buy at 15g/100.
• As late as February this year, I recommended 14g/100 and was able to pick up some for as low as < 13g/100.
• In March, prices spiked and then dropped.
• Since then, the rate has been unsteadily increasing. During that time, a lot of new items have been available in the gem shop. Also: popular returning items. Also: improved BL chest drops (always a popular item; changes to it always affect the gem rate).

tl;dr the only surprising thing IMO is that the rate was so low for so long. Plus, the higher the rate, the better it is for people who buy gems with cash, wanting to convert to gold and the harder it is for gold farmers to profit.

see also: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Got-kicked-from-Fratals (same poster)

Alurazle.5430:

Anyone know if we will keep the traits that we spent copper/silver/gold to unlock or earned? I mean the update said that they are changing the way we unlock traits so does that mean when the update comes we have to earn everything over? -.-

They haven’t said.

Updates in the past have sometimes resulted in mitigation, sometimes not. For example,

• When the wardrobe update arrived: people who spent gems on town clothes (and got tonics) were able to get a refund; everyone with duplicate dyes got refunds and those with limited-edition dyes got vials of those expensive colors; people who had found skins, but no longer had any characters using them did not get replacement skins.
• When the current trait system went live, every character that existed was grandfathered in to the old system, no matter the level. (e.g. I have a character that was L20 at the time; when reaching L50 recently, all relevant traits were available without spending coin/SP or doing unlock activities)

tl;dr anything is possible.

I speculate that they will make it easy-ish for veterans to unlock specializations more quickly. (I can think of a dozen ways they could do that.)

Bloodlust.3672:

GW2 needs a new graphics engine, as the current one is looking very old and dated. I really want to see cleaner sharper lighting and the addition of ambient occlusion shadows. Overall, I want it to look more like an Unreal Engine 4 game—something next gen looking .

Also, on a related note, I want to see the current messy UI graphics get overhauled and be replaced with a cleaner sharper one. I know it was orginally trying to go for a unique style, but in reality it just looks lazy and low budget. Even GW1 did the UI graphics better.

I hope we can see such an update after the GW2 Heart of Thorns expansion.

NOTE: I already run GW2 on max graphics at 1920×1200 on a pro IPS monitor.

Updating the graphics engine is usually so costly in terms of resources it usually only happens when there’s a new game (and even then, some sequels reuse the previous engine). The game is 3-years old; I expect it to have 2012 graphics, not 2015.

Sister Xing.9072:

Figured I’d pester those on the forums about it first and see if there was a common or easy fix. Quite a few people I talk to also have this issue and some avoid the two maps entirely. I’ll send in a ticket now though, if no one here has an answer

Latency issues do not usually involve an easy fix, especially if it’s just one site or game that is affected. Even if it’s one zone or two in this game, it’s not always a game issue. (Imagine your connection is on the verge of getting borked, then you won’t notice in most zones, but you will in instances that have a lot of players and effects.)

Every so often, it turns out there’s an issue with some ANet hardware or virtualware, but ANet can’t usually tell until they get specific reports. That’s why sending in a ticket is important and why it helps to also use the in-game bug reporting tool (/bug) — that helps ANet collect the specific data they need to troubleshoot.

Similarly, if there’s an issue with one or more ISPs between your computer and their servers, the specifics help ANet “negotiate” with the providers.

I’m glad you started a ticket and hope you get some advice to help reduce your latency soon. Good luck (and thanks for keeping us posted).

If you log the character out and come back, you can see the toon again. (Still annoying though.)

Glad it worked!

They could call it George and people would still object to the 5% fee. I think people just need to get used to how the TP works in this game, since it’s different from other games.

I’m sorry you have had a lot of negative experiences. I disagree, however, with your suggestion.

• Most whispers for most people are positive.
• If only friends can whisper, then it becomes hard to meet people.
• It also becomes difficult for people to share ideas privately. I regularly whisper new or returning players, when they start asking more esoteric or sometimes controversial questions, so that we don’t bore anyone.

I do agree that one shouldn’t be able to whisper or mail someone that you have blocked. But I don’t consider that to be a priority, since after the first negative whisper, I can block them just fine.

Toxicity.5392:

It should be a priority because of the way the lfg system works. If you have to relist your party serveral times you need to find a friend to create the LFG for you because it will supress your message and list the group as blank. This is exactly what such a troll wants.

Document what’s going on & report the troll via a support ticket.

I agree it’s a problem, but it’s limited in scope to a few trolls. I’d much rather see ANet take action against them than try to build a technical solution, which is likely to have unintended consequences, will need tweaking, and won’t necessarily prevent trolling (just reduce one form of it at best).

Anyhow, either way, for better or worse, the system wasn’t designed to do this — I recommend creating a new thread to make the suggestion, in the general discussion forum.

FYI Instructions for clearing the cache are in the Account/Tech issue forum.

Unlike most other games, GW2’s economy is super efficient. So it’s almost always a better use of your time to do something you like or to farm gold and then buy what you need. The model used in other MMOs usually means being forced to farm for each specific item, with few alternatives.

Unlike in other games, crafting isn’t an easy money maker, because everyone shares the same supply (and demand). This keeps prices low enough that often, you don’t need to farm materials directly. Often, it’s cheaper to buy finished goods or even intermediate pieces, e.g. boot soles and linings, instead of boots.

tl;dr it’s up to you. If you want to gather everything else, it is possible. For the rest of us, there’s the trading post.

Behellagh.1468:

Yep and everyone sees them. And if you think pigeons out of the corner of your eye are distracting, watch out for quaggans on balloons.

Distracting? They beautify the environment. They make people smile, they make people laugh.

The Aviator Quaggan Mail Carrier is life; the Aviator Quaggan Mail Carrier is love.

The game might be MMO, but dungeons aren’t anything close to massive or multiplayer; they only hold five people max. Only a few dungeons have mechanics making it difficult for two people to complete them (and most can be easily duo’d), so what’s the philosophical difference in changing the mechanics so that they can be solo’d?

While I support the idea, this would be a costly change; it takes a lot of dev resources to change mechanics, especially to make them conditional on one or more factors. Even when the coding is straightforward, the QA can be a nightmare.

Further, ANet has shown some reluctance (some would say “no interest”) in making substantive changes to dungeons. Without checking the wiki, I can’t remember the last time they added something new. If they are going to take time to work on dungeons, there are lots of other changes that I’d like to see first.

tl;dr Regardless of the philosophy, this is a significant change that caters to a small subset of players. I’d far prefer ANet make other changes to dungeons first.

Regardless of what’s going on, I strongly recommend you create a support ticket so Customer Service can work with you directly. If it’s something on your end or related to your account, ANet can help you troubleshoot. If it’s on ANet’s end, that will make it easier for them to collect the data they need to track down the issue. And if it’s something going on with one of their service providers, they need all the evidence they can get to convince the 3rd party that the problem is on their (the 3rd party’s) end.

Good luck and please let us know what you find out.

Malediktus.9250:

The CS has no tools to remove something to your wardrobe, so it will most likely not be replaced or you are getting an unfair advantage. Everyone would do mistakes and add their stuff to wardrobe to sell the item later or use it for crafting.

It really depends. They sometimes are able to make accommodations while keeping things fair, sometimes not. It can’t hurt for the OP to ask.

Mea.5491:

According to the description, these effects appear when I send or get mail ingame. Does this include selling stuff on the trading post?

Yes, when you send stuff to the trading post, it sends it off using your chosen default carrier. My favorite is the quaggan, because it is the slowest, giving you (and you recipients) time to notice and enjoy the animation.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide_to_earning_Hall_of_Monuments_rewards

That’s the best guide I’ve seen. It’s geared towards helping people get HoM/30, but it applies to your situations because it starts with the easiest points to obtain and distinguishes between those who own all campaigns and those who don’t.

A lot of points can be bought: minis, destroyer|oppressor weapons, consumable titles (drunk, sweet, party) and so on and there are suggestions for how to go about that. It then moves on to titles that are easily ‘earned’.

Good luck.

Or send your findings to exploits@arena.net. You aren’t likely to get a specific developer confirmation: if it’s an exploit, they won’t want to advertise that. If it’s not, they might not take the time to reply (and instead, reply to a more urgent or critical concern).

I don’t think that this game needs competition in PvE. One of the great things is how supportive the community is and I believe that is due in large part to not having to compete for nodes or loot. When the game gets toxic is when people feel they are being asked to compete: the queensdale champ train sometimes pitted vets vs newbies, there have been several fail-vs-succeed-at-event conflagrations, and let us not forget that pre-megaserver Tyria produced a lot of hostility of “native” vs “foreigners” competing for spots in instances for boss events.

tl;dr I would like to see more challenging content; I don’t think adding any sort of competition will have the desired effect.

This is a social and education issue, not a technical one. Unfortunately, there’s no amount of changes to mechanics that will prevent this; people have to learn not to respond to phishing

ANet can keep adding hoops for us to jump through in detecting their emails vs those that aren’t, but most of us get a lot more mail from friends than from scammers. That means, we’ll grow complacent and start to ignore the warnings, which tends to make things worse. Plus, it’s inconvenient.

I know people who have read the warnings from ANet, from guildies, and still pavlov when they get the email; they still read “your account might be shut down” and panic, and then rush to load the website, painstakingly typing out the crazy URL it has. (Those folks were lucky, because it wasn’t until then that they even considered that something might be wrong — they were too worried to notice the bad grammar or other inconsistencies.)

tl;dr it’s a nice idea to try to protect everyone; it just won’t work until everyone learns not to be more cautious.

Ox See Sox.3687:

If i buy Eternity directly from TP and use it, do i unlock twilight/dusk/sunrise/dawn at same time?

Yes.

(Those who crafted it will also have unlocked those skins, which is why Eternity is relatively cheap compared to the cost of buying both.)

Why not allow asura to have charr haircuts?

For better or worse, the game is designed to offer different looks for each gender of each race, different armor skins for each race, and different armor skins for each weight of armor.

It’s fine to want a truly neutral aesthetic for gender, race, or class. I can’t imagine, however, that it’s worth ANet’s time to invest in this. You are probably more likely to get results by requesting this sort of thing from publishers of games not yet released.

khani.4786:

I swam down from the opposite side and swam back thru the puzzle that way.

“Opposite side” in the mortar room? Or someplace else? If there’s a third work-around, I’d like to add it to my list of suggestions going forward. Thanks.

If I understand the OP correctly, the tl;dr is:

Ascended gear is costly and time-consuming and tedious to produce. Can’t we give it some additional non-stat bonuses to give it more oomph?

I’d like to see that.

The OP suggested things like:

• Cheaper transmutation (maybe free)
• One or more Enchanted Reward Boosts (magic find, gold find, etc).
• Reduced waypoint fees.

If you move your cursor to the edge of the mini map, you can click and hold to stretch it. I usually try to maximize its width (although not always its height, since there’s a lot of text on the right side of the screen these days).

@Sister Xing: what did Customer Service say in response to your support ticket? They are often good about helping people troubleshoot, depending on the root cause.

It is, as you suspect, borked at the moment. However, there are two reliable work-arounds:

• Walk in front of the mortar, atop the ‘floor’ over the water. Logout the character and log back in; you’ll be under the water and can proceed as normal. OR
• Get one of the frequent ports to rhendak’s tomb and work your way backwards. Each of the ‘gates’ can be unlocked from the ‘wrong’ side.

Good luck.

I don’t think increasing siege damage would have the effect you are hoping for.

If siege damage is too high, then no one would ever storm a defended keep. (If it’s too low, you get some interesting fights anyhow.)

It’s a design choice to restrict any skins to certain races. It’s an extreme design choice to restrict all skins relating to Race A to be used by just Race A.

The current situation is a good compromise among different considerations:

• Player interest.
• Lore
• Developer resources (takes more time to make ‘charr armor’ work on humans)

I’m good with the status quo. I can see why some people might want things to change, but I’d rather ANet deliver new skins rather than retrofit existing cultural armor to fit someone’s high-concept of consistency.

I have a friend that runs a ‘healineer’ build and the difference between running it with healing power gear vs not is … similar to the efficiency of running a power build with or without zerker gear. In full healing gear, people stay at 90%+ health even if they can’t dodge or lack agony resistance (unless my friend borks the rotation).

I can’t say if that means it’s “well balanced”, but it definitely matters in PvE.

Assigning colors to a specific hue can be arbitrary; there’s as much ‘art’ and ‘eye of the beholder’ to it as there is science. On other hand, the choice of purple seems strange.

https://www.colorcodehex.com/005562/

• RGB shows no red, ~33% green & ~38% blue
• CMYK shows 100% cyan, ~13% magenta, 0% yellow, ~61% black

That suggests that blue (or even green) would be more accurate, given the limited choices available.

Players already work together in this game, arguably more so than in games with a traditional trinity. It just works so seamlessly that most of us don’t realize.

• People have to be careful not to ‘waste’ fire fields when stacking might.
• It’s critical to position correctly and dodge on time, in concert.
• You have to coordinate fields and finishers, otherwise you can’t stack might/vulnerability, generate emergency heals, etc.
• You have to coordinate use of control skills, so that you can move/interrupt bosses when it counts, instead of on cool-down.

It happens that a lot of veterans can now do this in their sleep (just about) throughout most instanced content. But that’s got nothing to do with the presence/absence of the traditional trinity. The zerker meta isn’t the cause of this either; it’s a result of people figuring out how to minimize the effort/time to finish the content.

Every game has a meta, since players learn to adapt to the game’s mechanics a lot faster than developers (and NPCs) can evolve to keep a step ahead. When the game launched, recommended tactics involved a lot more passive defense, more defensive stats, and so on. It’s been a long time since the last major overhaul to instanced content, and we’ve figured it all out.