Guild Wars 2

Ashantara.8731:

This is a huge loss for me and everyone else in my position.

A loss? Sure. A huge loss? It’s big enough to complain about, but not enough for ANet to change the code to prevent it from dropping.

Sure, it would be nice if contract owners could trade in unused express versions with something else. I just can’t agree it’s that important, let alone a priority.

vove.2768:

If there is any reason needed to be given here you are: it’s kittening kittened I have to look for a party to get new skill for my character.

Read: I am not only forced to do meaningless side missions HP are, but I am forced to do them in a team. It might be fun on first 2 characters, but after that it is simply annoying as hell. Especially when HP missions are boring af.

Resuming: HPs are really stupid mechanic. There are a lot of stupid mechanics in this game, but HP beats most of them. Please consider making them less of a pain or at least add some rewards for doing them.

There are a variety of ways to earn her points without soloing champions. And the HoT hero challenges with champions do offer a reward, which is partly why I do a few each week. Plus, you only need to complete 25 challenges to max your post-L80 specialization.

The numbers:

• It takes 398 points to unlock core specializations and skills: 300 for specs, 98 for skills.
• Leveling to 80 yields 398 points, exactly enough to unlock core.
• It takes 250 points to unlock the single elite spec in the game.
• There are 400 points available in HoT (40 ten-point challenges), 200 in core Tyria (one point challenges), and an additional 13 in WvW.

Some options:

• WvW: 10 proofs of heroics can be spent to gain a random HoT hero challenge.
• Core Tyria: you can get 200 of the 250 points needed from completing challenges in the original maps.
• Communing challenges: these require no fighting (or just clearing out a few vets before attempting): 22 = 7 in VB + 3 AB + Toxin (in AB) + 5 (TD) + 7 (DS)

So for example, you could do the 15 easiest-to-reach HoT commune challenges and then half the ones in core Tyria. No champions need be fought.

Of course, I’ve made it sound trivial to do this. I have dyslexia and a poor sense of spatial relationships, so finding my way around HoT is something of a nightmare. Fortunately, there are hero trains and guides, so while it might not be easy for you or I, it’s definitely possible.

Healix.5819:

Boogiepop Void.6473:

This doesn’t really answer the question.

In the first post, she says doing the work is the easy part. If that’s true, it’s not programmatically hard, the problem is in being allowed to do it.

That’s not what she’s saying.

Generally, writing code to execute a plan isn’t as hard as coming up with the plan and testing it to make sure it only does what you expect (not a bunch of things you don’t expect). Managing data comes with its own headaches as well. Worse, configuring the UI isn’t trivial — it needs to (a) look decent (if not good) and (b) be functional.

Those of us who have trained to run marathons or ride centuries can tell you that the training is what separates out the try-hards — the actual ‘race’ does turn out to be the easy part.

I haven’t taken a stab at answering the OP’s question because it’s tricky to explain to someone unfamiliar with managing data. Here’s a horrid analogy:

You’re lucky enough to inherit land so you could build your own place for you & your spouse. You expect to have two kids and, because you’re close to public transit, you only need room for one car. So to save your money for holidays, for retirement & the kids’ college fun, not to mention rainy day, you build a 3 bedroom with a one-car garage.

Well then your 16-year old knocks up his girlfriend and her parents kick her out, so they come to live with you. Meantime, your spouse’s mom has Alzheimer’s and pop-in-law is getting knee surgery, so they both also come live with you. Your spouse’s job is now on the wrong side of town from the train, so you get a second car (to match your third mortgage to pay for this all).

So sure, you’d love to expand your house to make room for all that life has brought you. But first, you need a plan for where to put the new additions (second story? basement? add rooms? or expand the old ones? start from scratch?). And you need to find a way to play for this all and afford the increased taxes and maintenance costs.

It’s definitely doable; it’s just not as easy as “just make your house bigger” makes it sound.

(Programmers and database managers will be quick to point out the 137 flaws in the above analogy — that’s fine. I’m not trying for a good match, just to point out that “that sounds easy” is only easy to type, not to actually manage.)

It turns out we tend to overproduce a lot of the items on Murdock’s list, so allowing them to be stored will make many of us feel less wasteful (and save us some time). So while patches & dowels aren’t strictly “materials”, they are commonly produced refinements that take up room. It will help a lot of people if they are stored.

To measure our current level of waste, I compared the TP values of the tradeable items on LM’s list with the TP value of the components. Generally speaking, the numbers should be ‘close’, since there’s no compelling economic reason to differ (no time gates, no barriers to learn crafting or recipes, etc.) For example, a dowel shouldn’t be drastically more expensive — or cheaper — than the mats used to make it.

And yet, many of these items are much, much cheaper on the TP than their components. The most notable examples are patches, which use up precious leather (and we all know how much of the community views its value). For example, Linen Patches run from 27-33 silver on the TP, but the value of the linen + rugged sections used to craft totals about 1.6 gold, roughly five times as much.

The only reason that happens is that people are constantly making more than they need by mistake & dumping it on the TP (thinking they’d rather get 20 copper on the silver, rather than nothing plus losing an inventory slot).

There’s definitely an economic downside for someone like myself who price shops before crafting, but as we’ve seen, lots of players don’t. That means adding patches to the material storage is going to be a huge QoL for a big subset of players (perhaps even a majority).

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Excellent Name.9574:

However, personal likes and dislikes aside, what is not up to debate is how devastating HoT has been to player base in all three aspects of the game: PvE, PvP and WvW.

On the contrary, people are debating that very point.

this is very true but yet their are some setting back and just watching it all and waiting to see how it all rolls out this time around . before making any jumpy moves at all . compared to last time around.

the very fact of all that fake hype and hot itself put together. well seeing some trying to become hype trains right now sure is not a good kitten idea at all to have happen .giving how hot came down and all that giving the facts there is no details as of yet from the company at all . i think it can be well said a lot of us this time are taking the next pack a whole lot more differently .than the first time around . hype=death

I’m confused, what does hype or sitting back have to do with the OP’s contention “[it] is not up to debate …how devastating HoT has been to player base”?

Were some people disappointed by HoT? Of course. Did some people leave the game because HoT wasn’t to their liking? Sure. Did some people decide that they wouldn’t pre-order from ANet again? Definitely.

And, it’s also true that some were pleasantly surprised, that HoT attracted some new people and some people are more likely to pre-order from ANet this time, than they were last time.

I have no problem with the OP stating that HoT wasn’t their cup of tea nor with telling ANet they won’t preorder Expac #2. I do have a problem with the OP making it seem like that’s a universally held opinion (or worse, pretending it’s a “fact”).

Excellent Name.9574:

However, personal likes and dislikes aside, what is not up to debate is how devastating HoT has been to player base in all three aspects of the game: PvE, PvP and WvW.

On the contrary, people are debating that very point.

Imagine that you have no friends and no gear and yet you’ve managed to max out all your characters to L80 and deleted all your gear and yet have no karma or any other currencies — how could you play the game?

ANet Support would be sad that you didn’t try to contact them for help and you’d be sad that you didn’t have any friends to loan you a sword that you could swing.

editor’s note: the author of this response borrowed heavily from the Philosopher Siri’s koan on dividing zero by zero: “see? it doesn’t make any sense”

If it happens again, please also use the in-game /bug reporting tool — that provides ANet with additional information such as where/when that makes it easier for them to attempt to reproduce your issue.

Astralporing.1957:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I’m on NA. I can confirm that the achievement isn’t broken — it just takes coordination, which is often most easily done with a sponsoring guild.

It’s actually even more stringent than that. The cc window is very short, and the bar way too big. This means that the only reasonable method of breaking it requires using bombs from a large number of flyers – which requires all that flyers to be up and ready to throw at the same precise moment.

That’s not what you can expect from a normal non-guild organized instance.

The cc window really should be made longer, and the bar balanced around profession skills, not the flyers.

I can’t agree. It would, of course, be much easier, if the CC window was longer and easier still if characters could break it. But all the same, it can be done by fliers. Again, it requires coordination ahead of time. There has to be a group who are willing to wait at the jump pads for that moment (and ideally, another one to focus on breaking crystals). It does get done by PUGs.

People used to do Tequatl daily, even when it was about the same level of difficulty. I think the main difference is that the rewards for Shattererererererer aren’t commensurate with the challenge. Offer a chance for a set of unique skins (such as the Sunless set), with Ascended rarity, and I’m sure it would get PUGged in multiple instances.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

The design itself is not inherently flawed, but the dialogue and in-game text needs to be reworked so that the player doesn’t need a guide to know how to play the dungeon.

Games, including this one, have always been set up so that some things are explained in detail… and some are left for us to discover on our own. That was the case with dungeons originally, in that the overall goal is explained, but it was never meant to be explicit.

So we’ve always had the choice: figure it out on our own (as me and some of my friends prefer to do) or look it up in a guide (as others prefer).

So unless you can offer specific examples of the in-game text being wrong relative to the mechanics, I don’t agree that they need a rework.

You should absolutely report harassment to Support:
https://help.guildwars2.com/anonymous_requests/new

Give them times, screenshots, and quotes (or other examples). They will investigate & take appropriate action, although they might not able to tell you anything more than the investigation was completed.

I’m sorry that you’re going through this.

You have unlocked invocation?

" This device can be obtained again after being destroyed, starting by obtaining the Mysterious Device again."

Before you do that, use GW2 Efficiency to search for “Class II”, just in case it’s not where you expect.

TexZero.7910:

Having done fractals at both those times on NA i can tell you the OCE slot is a bad time to PUG by comparison. Might be because of players from OCE/SEA and latency but it’s pretty much a night and day situation.

Of course it’s night & day — people are having lunch in Sydney while I’m still having last night’s dinner in NA

Killdozer.5731:

It’s hammer time!

I can’t touch that

The way it could work is:

• Click on WvW map
• Game reports: the map is full and offers option: would you like to queue this character for this map?
• You are given three choices:
  1. Yes, queue me on this character for this map.
  2. Sort of — queue me for the map using whatever character happens to be logged on.
  3. No, no queuing for me; not now, not ever.

To add to that: #1 & #11 aren’t that far apart: 1869 vs 1691. Given how Glicko is scored, with a calculated deviation of 100-200 typically, that’s a statistical tie.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

Many guilds are struggling for donations of gold. I think even 1% of the money spent with Guild Merchants would help. Same with Wp’s. Yes it’s a small amount, but that is exactly my point. If it’s so small, then letting some of the revenue go to the GH seems doable.. If you like, make a special account for it that only allows it to be spent on upgrades, and not taken out my leaders/officers.

No thanks. If a guilds members aren’t donating, maybe it should reconsider its organizing strategies.

LinseyMurdock.4165:

…
Spiritwood Dowel
…

Deldrimor Steel Plated Dowel

What’s the difference between these?

LinseyMurdock.4165:

Cooking Staples (new)
…
Loaf of Bread

Could this be changed to unbound|sellable while we’re at it? It seems strange that it’s account bound.

All skills, including utilities.

Ashantara.8731:

draxynnic.3719:

If it is still being tracked and there are in-game effects, even minor ones… then they really should show where the character stands, so you know where your character stands.

+1

It’s tracked behind the scenes only because it was the more sensible business decision to leave that code in. However, it should not be displayed in game because:

• Some options were removed, so whatever balance was available in the past no longer exists.
• New options have been added (notably: speaking to Phlunt during the first instance of LS3.5). If those choices affect ‘Personality’, the numbers are even more meaningless.
• The term ‘Ferocity’ has been repurposed as a stat, so they’d have to figure out a new word, translate, and adapt the UI accordingly.
• Keeping it out of the game means fewer things that have to be tested, reducing QA time somewhat.

tl;dr although it would be nice for some players to show ‘personality’ scores in game, it would be a distraction of dev resources to make it happen.

AllNightPlayer.1286:

LinseyMurdock.4165:

If anything, I am looking for cuts to this list, not adds.

Why should we suggest cuts??

She’s asking for feedback. She’s already collected a ton of preferences from us, so she’s confident that there’s nothing missing from the list. Now, she wants to know if there is anything on it that we think is better off not being moved to material storage.

You like the current list? Great, +1 the OP. You want something adding? Suggest it (but don’t expect it to make the list).

And more importantly, if you think something on the list doesn’t belong, let Linsey know.

tl;dr you need not suggest anything.

Khisanth.2948:

The collections for the precursors are often more costly than just straight up buying. Then on top of that you often have to do other stuff too like Dry Top for the geodes or various fractals or wait around for events.

What the collections offer is smoke and mirrors to hide the total cost.

As for grind … well that is all on you. If you want to rush it then yeah that is going to require some grind.

The OP is saying they like the smoke, they like the mirrors. What they don’t like is just coming up with mats for no reason.

I agree: it would be a lot more fun to have this as an option for the final step (not just the precursors), plus more fun if the current collections were updated for step II to be less about farming and more about collecting.

However, it doesn’t seem practical, at least not any time soon. There are just too many moving parts, which is why the remaining HoT precursors have identical requirements (which require a lot of grinding of one sort or another).

TexZero.7910:

Also, to state that it was created to be exclusionary by default is pretty off base. It was designed so that 10 people who wanted to learn the mechanics, knew their class, and were willing to adapt could clear it. That’s not creating exclusionary content, that’s fostering teamwork and community building. The only thing that’s creating exclusion are the people on both sides who either want to be carried or don’t want to deal with carrying.

Eh, that’s a tricky one. It was created as “challenging group content,” which is both “exclusionary” and “open” in the same way that a chess club would be if it required that people learn chess before joining.

• Both are open to anyone willing to learn (easier for some than others).
• It excludes those who aren’t.

Like a lot of threads, there’s two sorts of elitism sometimes expressed:

• Those who want to exclude the sort of person who doesn’t want to run a meta build
• Those who want to exclude the sort of people who only want to run a meta build.

The first group justifies their choice by pointing out that meta comps are more likely to succeed PUGging attempts (and thus waste less time); the second group claims to hold the moral high ground: meta is ‘boring’ or ‘cookie cutter’, that it’s not sufficiently ‘versatile’ or or ‘true to the casual nature’ of GW2.

For what it’s worth, I agree with both groups: there’s good reason to restrict the types of builds for PUGging attempts and there’s value in allowing for creativity. Which is why I would never join a PUG or static group without learning which type they were and adjust my expectations (and build) accordingly.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It’s under ‘Camera’ in ‘Control’ Options.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Options#Control_Options

Good luck.

You can also set a hot key to toggle the camera on|off. I found it incredibly useful during Halloween for farming the Labyrinth (a spot that is practically designed for dynamic retargeting). It’s also good for certain builds that emphasize positioning rather than targeting (e.g. some no-target thief builds).

I’m on NA. I can confirm that the achievement isn’t broken — it just takes coordination, which is often most easily done with a sponsoring guild.

Obviously it presents a greater challenge for PUGs. For that, you need to start on the map a bit sooner and collect a core group who are willing to spend much of their time waiting at launch pads, so that they can be in the air on time to break defiance. Ideally, you also want a group dedicated to break the bar of crystals. There will still be people who ignore advice and just autoattack or use profession skills to CC the dragon, but it won’t matter.

Terrific news. Thanks for the update.

For what it’s worth, the list looks great to me. I don’t support any of the tweaks offered above. Just because it stacks and accumulates, doesn’t mean it belongs in material storage — I think the items you’ve chosen keep that balance.

I appreciate you taking the time to keep us updated, too. Awesome work.

PS I lit a candle for your disappeared spreadsheet. I hope that helped

I don’t believe you can (I’ve assumed you completed Pact Mastery).

You have three choices:

• Spend the two points now, confident that before you finish XP on the mastery track you really want, that you’ll also earn the rest of the points to train.
• Don’t spend the two points and work quickly to earn the other mastery points.
• Pretend that you can’t see the annoying reminder.

Ryou.2398:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ryou.2398:

it is hard to find a guild that will run through it with you.

Vayne.8563:

If you’re on a US server, hit me up in game. I’ve helped many many people through HoT.

Here’s someone offering to help the OP out, no obligation to join a guild. That’s hardly toxic.

@OP: are you not on an NA world?

I thank everyone who offered help the first person whispered me in game and we did some of it, as far as finding a guild goes I have been looking and have yet to find an active guild doing many guilds events or any for hot exploration but thanks for judging me and assuming.

What have I assumed?

Excellent Name.9574:

What went wrong with HoT, IMHO, and should never be repeated:

For starers, not everyone agrees with you.

01. Pricing the expansion as the full game for players already owning the original game

See the 30 other threads on the topic — not everyone is bothered by this, and some welcome the influx of new players that identical pricing brings.

02. DLC worth of new content, not worthy of expansion name

I totally disagree that this is an issue. For me, adding gliding and autolooting completely changed my game experience; that’s plenty for an “expansion” for me.

I think the ‘problem’ could be better restated as “too much emphasis on mechanics and revamping systems, not enough emphasis on things to do, especially after a long content drought.”

03. Rushed and short story mode, with a really underwhelming final battle design.

Also a matter of preference. I didn’t find it rushed or short. I like the final battle.

04. Questionable map design, not the beauty of HoT maps, just usability. Minimap system is not enough for HoT layout.

Map design is awesome. I really like the maps, even though I have extremely limited spacial relationship abilities (partly exacerbated by dyslexia). The minimap has always socked for multiple heights — it’s a problem in e.g. Black Citadel, not just HoT.

05. Lack of new character slot for the new profession (remedied after an outcry from players).

in other words, they already addressed that for HoT

06. Killing the casualness of the original Guild Wars 2 in more than one way and thus making maps either extremely hard or right down impossible for solo completion.

Can’t agree with either statement. Maps are soloable (with a few exceptions) and I feel open world remains casual.

I’d rephrase it as “there’s no transition zone from core Tyria to HoT — you’re forced to deal with verticality and more intense mobs, even as you are working on masteries and just finding your way around.”

07. Nerfing the older content, all in hope player base will be forced to buy into deeply flawed new one.

I have no idea what this means, except that I disagree that ANet intended to “force” anyone to transition in the way you suggest.

08. Essentially killing off PvP with tying it to the expansion.

Maybe you mean the new specializations are too high-powered compared to the old ones.

09. Nearly destroying WvW which survival is still up in the air.

And how did they do that, other than not giving it enough attention for since seasons ended? Recently, they just released a huge patch that was mostly about WvW.

10. etc.

Can’t assume anyone knows what you mean here.

In other words, that was no minipet, that was your actual pet.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

PSA: you can hit the enter key when the dialog is huge, and it will accept it and salvage all the things. I use that, because it’s much easier than trying to find the accept button and click it.

Good tip. I just learned about that last night. (Although I rarely have the specific issue, because I tend to salvage fine first and masterwork after.)

zealex.9410:

Nokaru.7831:

I don’t mind the hammer but I think improving its skills would be a nice. For example, the #3 skill (The projectile reflect) isn’t that useful since most of the Fanatics are melee or use non-projectile ranged attacks. Maybe we could get some version of a few Archdiviner skills. (Like the cone-shaped slam or the cone-shaped pull)

Actually skill 3 is the most usefull as it denys the stun you get at 30 stacks which can be really good when rushing in the last set of seal u just gotta time it. But id like to see the skill 2 change now thats useless.

Same — I use #3 often; never use #2. (That said: I agree with BA; be neat to see some of Archie’s skills on the bar.)

Lady Po Wang Dabang.1394:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sublimatio.6981:

It seems I have my progress back, can we have an official statement if this was just fixed?

See above — it wasn’t “broken”; the connection between GW1 & GW2 was momentarily lost, causing GW2 to lose track of your GW1 achievements.

Or put another way, the disappearance of the HoM/GWaMM reward|titles is a symptom of a different issue, one that resolves itself in a short while.

in which case its worrying that knowing the link can break, they let the system automatically remove achievements and titles without any intervention from staff .

I apologize for making this unclear — it’s the exact opposite situation: they’ve prevented people from acquiring the titles without verification. That unfortunately has the side effect that legit achievers can temporarily be unable to display it.

Fortunately, it only happens when something unusual happens, such as GW1 going down.

You never lost your title; it just stopped displaying properly in GW2.

My favorite map added since the game launched is Draconis Mons, the one where LS3.Ep5 takes place. The ones from 3.1, 3.2, & 3.3 are also really interesting and/or fun. (Unfortunately, my least favorite map added since launch is Lake Doric, included as part of 3.4.) Draconis Mons includes on of the best masteries in the game — Oakheart’s Grasp turns you into Spiderman (yes, that friendly, neighborhood Spiderman — you get to do a lot of what a spider can).

tl;dr worth buying

Ryou.2398:

it is hard to find a guild that will run through it with you.

Vayne.8563:

If you’re on a US server, hit me up in game. I’ve helped many many people through HoT.

Here’s someone offering to help the OP out, no obligation to join a guild. That’s hardly toxic.

@OP: are you not on an NA world?

Sublimatio.6981:

It seems I have my progress back, can we have an official statement if this was just fixed?

See above — it wasn’t “broken”; the connection between GW1 & GW2 was momentarily lost, causing GW2 to lose track of your GW1 achievements.

Or put another way, the disappearance of the HoM/GWaMM reward|titles is a symptom of a different issue, one that resolves itself in a short while.

Feanor.2358:

DutchRiders.2871:

We just wait for the first block to expire maybe auto attack a bit and than burst.

This only works with full buffs (quickness, alacrity, might, fury).

It works without it. My static never has anything close to ideal buffs. It does take proper coordination, which can be hard to come by in a PUG.

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

As long as that means we don’t have to give up any of the currently-planned features, skins, QoL, UI, or any other changes, sure.

Where can I see the list of currently planned features, etc? Is there a list or are you speaking metaphorically?

Some are asking ANet to prioritize adding an option to hide particle effects (either collectively or weapon by weapon, as the OP suggested). That means not working on something else.

More control over the degree of particle effects shown (client side) would definitely be a QoL update. Since we as players have no way of knowing if QoL feature A or B is planned, we can’t claim working on B is “setting back planned features”.

Argue QoL vs Content, argue this vs that QoL, but you can’t say “suggested QoL feature shouldn’t take work away from planned QoL features” because you and I can’t possibly tell the difference between “planned” and “new” features.

I can tell you that whatever those developers might work on instead is something I want more than an option to selectively disable particle effects for legendary weapons.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t make the request. I’m saying it’s not ‘free’ and I’d prefer those resources be used for something else.

Tyncale.1629:

I see some of them are for sale now and I was wondering what the extra benefit is.

I think you’ve summarized the benefits well: one-stop shopping.

Tyncale.1629:

What I know: they are a one way waypoint to a special location, free to use and you have all utilities in a small area.

Correct.

Keep in mind that the utilities include a Mystic Forge, all crafting stations, a variety of vendors (laurel and, for some areas, the dungeon token dude), and portals to the major cities.

Tyncale.1629:

When I open my map and pay at most 4 silver to get to Lions Arch, I pretty much get the same. So there must be more to it.

Nope, there mustn’t be

Tyncale.1629:

Is it the special location that you can not reach otherwise? Do people dislike the 10-20 yard runs that you still have in Lions Arch? Do the silvers that you save add up to a substantial sum over time? Is there whacky roleplaying going on in those locations?

Special location: yes, although usually not important to reach.
Dislike the moving around? Yup, much more convenient for those who use the services daily.
Silvers add up to savings? Nope.
Whacky Roleplaying? Not usually in the exclusive zone.

Tyncale.1629:

I am considering buying one. People with passes, please enlighten me.

It’s a convenience item. Nothing more. Don’t buy it if it doesn’t sound helpful to you.

Sometimes, all you have to do is close GW2 and reopen. If that fails, with GW2 closed, start any toon on GW1, close GW1, and restart GW2. (And if that fails, follow cdsmith’s suggestion.)

GW2 periodically double-checks to make sure your GW1 titles are ‘earned’ and occasionally, can’t reach the HoM calculator API to do so. If that happens, you automatically get an email saying those titles are being revoked. Sometime after, GW2 rechecks and if it still can’t verify, it revokes the titles.

Starting GW1 (and sometimes entering the Hall) forces the two games to start talking to each other, which resolves the issue… well, unless GW1 is completely down (in which case, it will get resolved when it comes back up).

tl;dr don’t panic. The problem will fix itself eventually or enter GW1 to jump start the repair.

Ryou.2398:

I did not say friendly I said toxic, perhaps you missed that part?

What does that mean?

Do you think your experience is a large enough sample to extrapolate to the entire community? Do you really think that players who own HoT represent a dramatically different demographic (and therefore set of personalities) than the main game?

What exactly did you want help with? How did you phrase your request? What was the response?

Haleydawn.3764:

Taken from the WvW skirmish release page;

Pips earned every tick based on the following criteria:
Your world’s position during the skirmish (first, second, or third).
Your WvW rank.
Whether you’re commanding a squad with at least five people in it.
Whether you’re fighting while outnumbered.
If you’ve been playing on the same world for at least three weeks.
In addition, to discourage transferring for rewards, you can only earn pips if you have not transferred recently and if you have earned WvW participation.

They have clarified what they mean by “playing on the same world for at least three weeks” and “if you have not transferred recently.” If the OP moved 2.5 weeks before the patch, they should qualify for some pips, not none. Loyalty is a bonus that applies after a minimum of three weeks participation; eligibility delays (for earning at all) are a maximum of 14 days (minimum of 7).

Haleydawn.3764:

It wont do any harm to open a ticket for clarification though.

If the OP is correct that they transferred over 14 days ago, then something is wrong if they aren’t earning pips.

The only way to address that is to open a ticket.

Loyalty

We need to update the loyalty pip description. You need to earn at least 3 wood chests for 3 weeks to be considered loyal. We wanted you to have to participate in skirmishes to be considered loyal

…It’s the first set of chests you get on the Skirmish Track. So basically earning 75 pips for 3 weeks will get you the loyalty bonus.

And

We need to update the loyalty pip description. You need to earn at least 3 wood chests for 3 weeks to be considered loyal. We wanted you to have to participate in skirmishes to be considered loyal.

Earning Pips

Pips cannot be earned if you have recently transferred or if you do not have enough participation.

…You must play on a world for an entire match in order to be eligible for earning pips.

And

It’s not technically 1 week its “a whole match” meaning you need to be a member of the world at the start and end of the same match. Depending on when you transfer this can be as short as a week or as long as two.

Angelweave.1856:

With the introduction of dps meter’s it is apparent that player versatility is narrowing, i.e. if you see a thief running dual pistols you immediately know they bring little to the table whatever game mode they are playing (pve/wvw/pvp).

I personally like dps meters though the gap between meta and “play the way you like” is a substantially large gap (not because people run nomads vs berserkers) it is simply that some weapon sets perform subpar.

In a perfect world I would like to see that, head to head each weapon set and weapon combination is viable either due to direct damage output, additional utility, cc, etc…

There are tons of “viable” builds; there are fewer “optimum” builds. I don’t expect that to ever change, because part of what makes those builds “optimum” is how they are played — better players will always be able to get more out of some builds than most people.

People tend to gravitate to builds posted on websites that are benchmarked with high numbers; that doesn’t mean that everyone (or even most) will be able to reach those numbers. We also don’t know what people are running “in the wild” — there was a dev comment (on Reddit iirc) suggesting that we have some misleading impressions about what people are using.

In short: the content allows for a lot more “viable” variations than build sites suggest, folks running posted builds don’t always get the high numbers, and we don’t really know what’s commonly run. In other words: there’s already a lot of variability.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

As long as that means we don’t have to give up any of the currently-planned features, skins, QoL, UI, or any other changes, sure.

Where can I see the list of currently planned features, etc? Is there a list or are you speaking metaphorically?

Some are asking ANet to prioritize adding an option to hide particle effects (either collectively or weapon by weapon, as the OP suggested). That means not working on something else.

Vinceman.4572:

I think the problem here is T3. In this tier you don’t have that many experienced players. Most of them are on the road to T4 and there Subject 6 can still be an issue but not that much than in T3 I guess.

Rising Dusk.2408:

If you can’t burn him down quick enough then you just need to slow your DPS enough and actually kill the oozes. If you never mess up that mechanic, it’s a cakewalk.

I agree with both these statements.

Subject 6 requires that all five of you follow the same plan. The two strategies are:

• Burn so quickly that oozes won’t reach the boss quickly enough to matter. I think we can safely assume that T3 PUGs can’t reliably do this.
• Slow & steady — do just enough DPS to generate oozes slowly. Focus-kill them as they appear and drop everything to CC the Vets.

Even for method 2 which should work with just about any team, I wouldn’t assume that people are familiar with how to make it happen. Accordingly, I’d type out the overview in chat, ask everyone what CC they are bringing, and target the oozes. Bonus suggestion: set up a CC rotation (e.g. mesmer focus pull for little oozes, etc.). Safety suggestion: don’t CC the boss; save it for the vets (that’s terrible for experienced groups, since it makes things much slower; it’s important for PUGs since the boss isn’t the most dangerous mechanic).

• The “cooldown” timer started at 48 hours.
• It was announced on twitter

My prediction: they’ll offer the game at a single price for everyone, veterans who pre-order will get a skin + character slot, veterans who order after launch will get the skin, and the base price will be less than $US50. I further predict that regardless of what they do, the forums will be filled with complaints about the costs.

I see the possibilities as:

• Offer the expac at the same price to everyone. This is what they did for HoT and everything they’ve said since suggests they favor this model.
• Offer the expac at a minor discount to existing owners. Based on the number of posts on this topic (and the umbrage, both hyperbolic and reasoned), I’m sure they are reconsidering this.
• Offer an extra character slot or other account bonus for veterans. They did this for HoT pre-orders (after some kicking & screaming by owners). It seems likely that they do that again, without waiting for the kicks|screams.
• Offer the expac at a lower base price than in the past. The core game launched at US$60 & HoT @US$50, so maybe they’d try US$40.

Ashantara.8731:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

It almost never happens that ANet servers are busy enough to slow down the loading of the TP. If you’ve seen it happen at all, contact support so they can help you figure out what’s causing the delays for you.

I know when it’s a server issue (I ask other players) or a local issue (busy traffic in my region), thanks. Also, I am not the one who made the original post.

I replied to you because you’re posting information in a way that might steer others the wrong way.

If you continue to experience long load times for the TP, make note of the times and file a support ticket. The TP sometimes hiccups or stalls, but it shouldn’t be that noticeable — nothing worse than closing & reopening the TP window (or perhaps restarting the game to clear your cache). If you’re seeing long load times consistently, there’s something else going on.

I’m not saying that you (and others) aren’t experiencing a slow TP. I’m saying it’s very unlikely due to an issue with the part of ANet’s servers that handles TP traffic.

@OP: I’d recommend starting a support ticket. I think you’ll need an individual to check out your account to clear this up.
https://help.guildwars2.com/anonymous_requests/new

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

Haleydawn.3764:

Don’t you have to have played on the server 3 weeks to earn pips?

No.

The longest you might wait to earn any pips is 14 days; the shortest (if waiting at all) would be 7 days.

The three-week wait is only for earning loyalty pips. (And it also requires playing a few hours of WvW during those weeks.)

So if OP moved 2.5 weeks ago, they should be earning something.

edited to clarify