Guild Wars 2

William Fairfield.1428:

These are being given out in waves to avoid a strain on our mailing birds. They are not super birds!

William, thank you for replying to this thread in such quick fashion.

Perhaps threads like this, some of which have over a hundred replies and thousands of views, could gain some official attention? We’re customers, Will. I think sometimes that is forgotten. If you haven’t been paying attention to the discontent to your RNG focus, now might be a good time.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/dragonbash/Out-of-25-Rich-Dragon-Coffers/page/3#post2197195 (5 thousand views in one day)

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

People, please stop buying these coffers. Send your money to a cool kickstarter project instead. This is such a waste of good dollars.

Yup. Vote with your wallet.

Additionally, spread the word about what is going on here. A company is nothing without its reputation.

I’ve been financially contributing to GW2 by buying Gems. I figure its good to support a game that I enjoy so that development continues. Recently, however, I feel that my support is being wasted. ANet is deviating from the game I used to love. Content is either temporary (and sloppily done) or locked behind abysmal RNG chances to acquire them. Its so far from the ANet I used to know and so close to the NCSoft products that I loathe.

So, I refuse to support ANet financially anymore. This isn’t a pithy statement; its my right as a customer regarding the service I’m getting. You (ANet) changed your business model to bundle new content in gated mechanics where if I give you real life cash there is a 1% or less chance that I will get what I want. How is that ok with you? Its not with me. In fact, this RNG path you’ve adopted is so not ok with me that my whole perception of ANet has irrevocably changed for the worse.

Sadly, I don’t think ANet has any say whatsoever in how their game is monetized anymore. That slippery slope can’t be climbed and that horse cannot be put back in the stable. They aren’t even addressing this issue either, which I find to be in poor form. But, on that note, what can they really say? RNG is not going away, and the most desired content will continue to be locked behind it.

Vahkris.6847:

Illysharia.7286:

VKP Butcher.2751:

It’s not what you’re hoping it is, sadly. It’s just basic armor with the same stat arrangement as the new trinkets… http://www.gw2db.com/search?search=settler

Hate to burst your bubble but there it is, more than likely at least :/

Well, since the merchant isn’t there yet and we haven’t heard anything to back that up, there’s no use making speculative assertions. No bubbles to burst yet.

I think it would make sense to have LS themed gear, done in the same fashion of tokens-to-gear like the SAB. Putting in regular stuff wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense considering the effort it will take to make the merchant available. Having to gain control of all the areas takes some effort and organization. Doing that to make the merchant pop and then to find out his offerings are what you suggest would be a real let down to say the least. I certainly wouldn’t participate to access a gear merchant with Healing+Toughness+Cond stats :/

But you know, you could be right. It seems that their preferred choice is to gate the new skins behind RNG crates/boxes.

Yes, you’ll participate…lots of people will participate. When the merchant pops, there’s also a World Boss that spawns that gives a daily bonus chest of 2 guaranteed rares. People will be causing the merchant to spawn along the way towards getting the boss to spawn.

This setup is very similar to the Orr temple events, except the merchant happens before the boss.

Thank you for trying to step into my shoes and speak for me

I’ve seen and done all there is (for me) to do. I don’t need to join a frantic zerg for the last couple days of this event to cap it off.

For me, overall, the Southsun chapter of this Living Story left a lot to be desired. I’m quite disappointed that such a large percentage of the rewards were single (a rare chance through a direct Cash Shop purchase) and double (rare drop crate then rare drop chance again) gated behind RNG. I disagree with the path ANET has chosen in that regard, and I feel the event itself was sloppily done. <— All my opinion.

I don’t feel a need to see or participate in any more of the Southsun event.

VKP Butcher.2751:

It’s not what you’re hoping it is, sadly. It’s just basic armor with the same stat arrangement as the new trinkets… http://www.gw2db.com/search?search=settler

Hate to burst your bubble but there it is, more than likely at least :/

Well, since the merchant isn’t there yet and we haven’t heard anything to back that up, there’s no use making speculative assertions. No bubbles to burst yet.

I think it would make sense to have LS themed gear, done in the same fashion of tokens-to-gear like the SAB. Putting in regular stuff wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense considering the effort it will take to make the merchant available. Having to gain control of all the areas takes some effort and organization. Doing that to make the merchant pop and then to find out his offerings are what you suggest would be a real let down to say the least. I certainly wouldn’t participate to access a gear merchant with Healing+Toughness+Cond stats :/

But you know, you could be right. It seems that their preferred choice is to gate the new skins behind RNG crates/boxes.

I think positive, critical feedback is a good thing. The Dev’s have shown that they read our comments; sometimes they enact change based on it. I think they listened to the F&F dungeon feedback from their customers (a good thing!) and shifted gears to end Southsun differently based on that. Here is my perspective on that change and my experience with the instance:

I thought the instance was a little too simple. Well, a lot too simple, if I were pressed to make a judgment call on it. It was a small cave, with a guy, and an annoying mechanic using mines (and not your own skills) to whittle his health down. Now, it took me 4 tries (and a repair bill) to work around being tossed around like a rag doll (please stop with using knockbacks and knockdowns as a mainstay game mechanic), but I learned which mines were which and I eventually killed him.

It was moderately challenging to learn what to do and memorize the mines. There really isn’t enough time to kite and hit that detect mine button plus deactivate before you get slapped around again and blown up. Using a item that replaces your learned skills was disappointing to me. It turned the whole instance into a mini-game feel and I didn’t really like it.

So, positive criticism time. I think its a great idea that you made a solo-friendly instance at the end of Living Story, while also including a group option as well. Giving options to recognize the different playstyles of your customers is fantastic. Thank you for listening and adjusting your content so more people could finish the LS!

I do think that the instance is overly simplified. One room, one guy, and an annoying game mechanic for filler as challenge. Perhaps in listening to the feedback about F&F you went too far over on the left? Maybe it was a time constraint so you couldn’t build a more expansive dungeon/instance? If it was a matter of swinging too far over to your idea of Easy Mode, I’d like to comment on that for a bit:

It is possible to do a dungeon (a real dungeon) that doesn’t require a full group to run. I’ve played many games and I’ve always been an avid fan of spending hours delving into the depths grouped and solo. If you have experience with EQ2, think Fallen Gate or Stormhold as the classic dungeon style I am imagining. They are intriguing, you explore, you have fun boss encounters, discoveries, and they’re generally pretty cool.

What was presented with Southsun was the polar opposite of that. I hope that isn’t the result of the feedback to having more options and accessibility, because if it is you completely missed the mark. People didn’t ask for simple (one room, one guy), they were asking (mostly) for scaling so a dungeon could be done with 1-5 people.

Whatever the rationale for the design decision, I thought it was a very shallow experience, with the same annoying throwbacks and knockdown spam that we’ve seen before. It felt rushed and overly simplified.

Xuro.5861:

ahuba.6430:

Xuro.5861:

text

drama queen much?

Thank you for your major contribution to my thread, your outstanding intelligence as shown by your post is very impressive.

---

I didn’t miss the statement about also unlocking a group mode but my point still stands, a solo instance shouldn’t even exist in a MMORPG. Why play one if you can solo everything? Seems pretty pointless to me.

I was hoping that after the enormous complaints on the Personal Story (I dislike the fact that this is all singleplayer too), they wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes again with future content.

I want to play a MMORPG, not a singleplayer game.

Oh, this tired old horse. I have no idea why certain people insist on resurrecting this poor beast. As such, I will not belabor a point, and discussion, that has been going on for years. The onus is not on anyone here to make you understand. ANET made the design decision to have options rather than follow a linear path, as a welcome response to lengthy customer feedback.

For myself, I am very thankful the community was listened to. I am rather pleasantly surprised the dev team has made changes so quickly to affect this next installment of the Living Story. Thumbs up guys!

Perhaps this is a sign that options, reflecting the spectrum of playstlyes, will be given in other areas as well. Maybe we will see changes to the Personal Story ending, and even perhaps to dungeon scaling. Regardless, this change to the LS renews some faith that our feedback does get listened to.

lordkrall.7241:

Blackwyn.8127:

It’s just generally a justified number to compare to. The issue is not about it being a convenience item. It’s a about a price that is not justified for the alternative means of using a stationary crafting station.

A silly scenario would be:
‘Oh I have to craft stuff for today’s daily. Rather than just clicking for a few seconds and get to my home borderland in WvW or going to LA. I’ll buy a portable crafting station for 100 gems!’

These things offer no advantage over others whatsoever and as you said. It’s just a convenience item. So the more reason there should be a permanent version of it.

Why? ArenaNet does not want people to buy stuff via in game gold, they want people to buy gems with real money. Therefore they will never take the current gold to gem rate into consideration when pricing items.

So, why shouldn’t people be allowed to do that if they want to? Does it hurt you in anyway that people have the ability to pay a few gems in order to craft where they are standing at that time?

There is a very elaborate Trading system, designed by ANET, where Gems and Gold are interchanged in and out of game. I think if “ArenaNet did not want people to buy stuff via in game gold” then that system would not be there. Right? Mmhmm. So, a discussion about the cost of this new item in terms of in game gold is quite appropriate.

Additionally, for clarity, no one is saying people shouldn’t have the right to buy this. That fictional argument was created only by you.

It won’t be an item that I would buy. It takes 2 clicks (at most) for me to get to a crafting station at zero cost . I can think of better ways to spend in-game or RL money on.

Necrid.2705:

If Southsun cove has taught us anything, it’s that MagicFind gear is absolutely and totally worthless. If there is no difference when running around slaying veteran karka’s all day with 400% magicfind, then there is no reason to give up a stat to strive for the 185% you can normally get anywhere else. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Honestly, I am pretty much convinced its a placebo. RNG is hard-wired into this game for a reason.

Shiren.9532:

Jemmi.6058:

Did you honestly say shame on you ro ANet for adding something which is too difficult for you? That is just plain silly. Imagine this in PvP.

That guy kills me.. I turn around and say “Shame on you for being a better player and killing me!”

You can’t have and do everything, but if you really want it, why not learn to play better instead?

Your example is not appropriate. They gated one of the only cosmetic rewards that (in this person’s mistaken belief) required jumping puzzle completion otherwise both of the back items could not be obtained (because he believed the sample at the end of the puzzle was required for the Fervid Censer as well as the 25 achievements for the Scelerite Shell). He believed getting every other sample location and doing all the other achievements would leave him one sample short of completing the final achievement and thus missing out on both items and devaluing all the other content he had done.

Fortunately (unlike you) ArenaNet agreed that would be a sucky situation so they created an additional sample so that the jumping puzzle sample was not required and the achievement could be completed without doing it (as well as other achievements which would count towards the Scelerite Shell) because jumping puzzles are supposed to be an optional extra for people who enjoy that content and gating the primary rewards behind them (and so far, exclusive rewards beyond achievement points) is not fair.

I’m glad you addressed her before I did. You said pretty much everything I was going to, but with more tact. I will add:

There is no reason to be unnecessarily rude on these forums. Too often, I see the same people attacking again and again. It really fosters a poor forum environment. If you disagree with someone, please try to be constructive. If you can’t do that, try not to be a negative influence and refrain from adding pollution here.

Jaall.3420:

It doesn’t really upset that many people though, people don’t like it but these items aren’t needed.

When you build your game around collecting skins for cosmetics, then lock your cosmetics behind RNG, yes, it upsets people.

Jaall.3420:

If they were best in slot then yea they would lose a lot of players, but in this case they really are only sacrificing a small portion of players. I would also bet that while everyone says they’re going to quit over this, they wont and will keep playing for a very long time, because it’s human nature to dramatise a situation in order to see results, but is usually just all bark and no bite.

I think you are missing the big picture here. In fact, I know you are.

ANET made a lengthy song and dance in their pitch when they launched GW2 to herd all the jaded, burnt out gamers that were tired of the mainstream MMO status quo. It worked. That, combined with the reputation ANET had built up with the GW1 community made them the goose and this game their golden egg.

Following me? ok.

In comes Nexon and their monetization specialist. Now everything that is perceived as being valuable in the game is locked behind RNG. It is an effective way to make money, but this isn’t Maplestory. What people are catching onto is that there seems to be a shift to make GW2 more like a Nexon product than an ANET product.

You speak about sacrifice and small numbers, but you miss the point of reputation. A company is nothing without good street credit. Look at EA. ANET, in some people’s opinion, have taken that same path.

This is what happens when you let Nexon influence your company.

I thought GW2 promised not to be “like those other games”. Wasn’t that part of the big lure? Wasn’t that why so many people nibbled on the bait? I did :/

I see the heavy dependence on RNG to be a drain on the community. There have been enough lengthy threads across the forums to back that up. For myself? Yeah, its a game changer.

Xalugami.2096:

I would really hope this Living Story segment ends in a dungeon at least half as good as the Molten Weapons Facility (because it’ll still be better than most of the permanent dungeons). Of course, they best not add that cancerous RNG garbage like they did for the Jetpack (I quit after 40 runs, screw you RNG).

To the people concerned about group content in an online game with a ton of people playing, I honestly can’t see whats wrong with playing in a team. From the sounds of it, you have the time necessary (unlike a few people I read from, I feel bad for them but you can always plan a weekend around it too if time is an issue). It seems you just don’t like… the layout of the party window? I’m not sure, honestly.
If you don’t mind tagging along with others for skill points and events, that’s literally the same thing as being in a party, just without the party window (and blue text). I feel sorry for not being able to understand where you guys are coming from…

Seriously though, at level 20 or 25 you get in-game mail telling you “oh hey dude, you need to start doing 5-man content because its part of the storyline”, so seeing the last quest take place in Arah is not even remotely surprising; unless you don’t care about the story enough to read the texts, in which case why worry about the story?
It’s not ANet’s fault you guys want to be hermits and stick to a ridiculous solo-only vow in the complete opposite of a single player game. There’s tons & tons of people running dungeons every single day, and so far no one has received fatal physical harm for joining a party, so there’s many opportunities to join on in.

Single party-based instances are practically required due to the fact that Dynamic Event scaling in the open world can’t be tailored to challenge a bunch of groups of players all at the same time. Thanks to the open world, the dragon champions are just absolutely pathetic since there’s too many players (well, given ANet’s current record for dragons in a dungeon, they can’t even do that right either so its still up in the air).

Anyways, if you guys feel the need to call team-play in a massively multiplayer game a “bait & switch” and then completely give up on playing content, that’s your choice (and a rather silly, extreme one at that). However as dungeons provide a great way to challenge the players while delivering vital story bits (and can even be fun, if the temporary dungeons are proof enough), it would be rather silly to not have one here.

Speaking of temporary dungeons… Mad King’s Day bore a dungeon, Lost Shores released with a permanent dungeon, Wintersday had 5 dungeons, and Flame & Frost has a dungeon. I think a reasonable expectation would be Secret of Southsun ending with a dungeon, but it’s never been said outright (for anything) “everything is a group/solo instance” so it’s best not to assume either.

Its rare that I get to read such a long-winded post from someone who:

a) Utterly fails to understand what is being talked about

b) Baits the people who are voicing their criticism and suggestions to improve the game

Non-constructive posts like that really muddy this discussion.

LameFox.6349:

Pirlipat.2479:

I’m sorry to say but tbh the way it is now is seperating even more. I am noone who is asking that all content is nerfed down to my level. I never asked normal dungeon-content to be changed, or stuff like that, but we are talking about some temporary content. I wouldn’t mind if the dungeon was just there but I thought that the idea of that story was to keep people engaged in the content.

The combination of a dungeon and the story in the way it is set-up for several people is just like hitting the wall. That’s why I said it feels like they changed their traget audience in between. Btw I did the dungeon with a group but I personally would have rather liked to spare them my inabilities.

We are also talking about two imo completely different things. That dungeon can be done with five. The difficulty for that amount of people is pretty ok, even though I’m far away to say that it is a piece of cake especially for untrained people like me.

It maybe can be done solo, but then you need a big amount of experience and skill, I would say.

So if you do not have the skill your option is to either leave it completely or to play in a way you do not like. Not everyone who wants to see the story is an uberleet-pro who is doing all sorts of content like nothing. And then again, you are mixing two things imo. Atm someone who wants to play alone needs way more skill than someone who does not mind to group? So how is your proposal to adjust the difficulty for different group-sizes seperating the playerbase in general?

Scaling for group size wasn’t the part I was suggesting, I meant it in the sense that it’d be a selectable option. Not that scaling would be impossible, but I don’t think it would stop the complaints. I mean when you say you did it with a group, but would have preferred to ‘spare them [your] inabilities’, what exactly are you implying? Because it sounds to me like you’re saying you were a burden even with the appropriate number of players, and what does that say for scaling it? Would you be able to complete it alone, or just need to improve anyway? If there are people who fare even worse, do we owe them an option they can complete as well?

Seems to me like if we accept that people are owed story completion in spite of not wanting to do things the way they’re designed to be done, it might as well have an option to be trivially completed by anyone regardless of whether they can handle… well, much of anything. They all paid for it. Is it any worse to draw the line above ‘average player by itself’ than ‘slightly below average player by itself’?

As for separating people, what I mean is that deciding that no content will be released which requires co-operation in order to be completed, or crosses different kinds of gameplay (instance, group instance, open world event, etc), seems fated to create very insular little segments of the game world, where people never go out of their habitual thing at all.

Not that there’s any point in forcing them to, but this isn’t, it’s just offering a reward if you come play a different way for a while. Interactions between the different aspects of gameplay is very important in games that aren’t specialised into one particular thing, because that’s all that sets them apart from a collection of mini-games. And if you only play one mini-game from a collection of mini-games, sooner or later it’s going to dawn on you that you could find a whole game dedicated to this one little thing you do, which will go into far more detail and provide a much better experience than a small segment of a broader game does.

*edited because I left half of a deleted paragraph in here and it made no sense.

It’s ok if you don’t understand what the other players are trying to communicate here. Really, it is. You are not the target audience. The main point of this thread (and the two others) is to have the designers from ANET, who are making this content, hear the voices of their customers that object to being funneled into one playstyle to see Story completion.

I made a post regarding the Living Story and Personal Story here that you may find worthwhile to read.

Strejda Tom.6108:

I am not dedicated dungeon runner. I do WvW, PvP, Dungeons, Guild Missions, Stories. I didnt react only to you, I react to everyone who could play free trial weekends or beta or could read blogs about this game before buying it, bought it and now is disappointed of this game. What content do you exactly expect if you dont want to group up? Should anet make 50% of future updates for people who dont want to group up? I am not sure that this could be the good idea of updating this game since there arent many people like you. Not that many compared to people who are satisfied.

EDIT: I think that people who hate or complain about some area of the game should provide some good feedback and ideas. Henchmens arent the solution of dungeons and stories etc, because even ranger pets are quite dumb and needed many updates. Henchmen AI would need to be really awesome because there are much more movement options, aoe skills etc than in GW1 so it wouldnt be that easy as in GW1.

I don’t normally jump in and address people like you, but I am going to make an exception: Although your edit softened your lack of understanding of what this thread is about, your previous post and the first half of this one show that you haven’t read this thread at all. Jumping in with a reactionary response only inflames the situation with its non-constructive commentary.

To toss you a breadcrumb to spare you reading 8 pages, here are the highlights:

1) The Living Story and the Personal Story are, up until the very last step, achievable as a solo player. Weeks, and sometimes months, of working away at these Stories only to have a 5-man dungeon requirement to see their natural completion has left many people disappointed and angry. Why? Up until the last stage, those Story lines were completable as a solo player. The Stories force you into a 5-man dungeon if you want to see the end, and if you want your achievement.

2) This is not a thread against dungeons. There are many play styles in the game, and GW2 seems to offer a decent amount of content to satisfy all players. Some people prefer WvW and will not step into PvE at all to level; others prefer to spend all their time running dungeons. Many people like to craft, jump from DE to DE, or whatever their hearts desire. If you don’t want to, or dislike, one aspect of the game you don’t even have to go near it.

..That is, except if you want to see the end of the Living Story or your Personal Story. Then, and only then, no matter your play style or likes and dislikes, ANET forces everyone to run a dungeon for Story completion.

3) ANET has produced a wonderfully progressive, brilliant game that seems to achieve what they set out to do: to break the mold of other MMO’s. That’s why people came here. There were bold promises they wouldn’t be “Like those other games”, and for the most part they’ve succeeded grandly. There are so many options for so many types of players in the game that it really feels like someone was finally listening and “got it”. The key word here is Options.

Look at the Daily and Monthly achievements. After sufficient feedback, the Devs changed them so they weren’t so rigid in what you had to do to complete them. Now you get to choose 5 out of a list of tasks and you don’t have to do any you don’t like. It was an immensely fair change that acknowledged there is a wide spectrum of their playerbase who all don’t do the same things.

This is what this thread really boils down to: the current lack of options to see Story completion. Everyone has to do one thing, no matter how they play, or they are left out in the cold.

Tachenon.5270:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

So after spending around 3.5+ hours in that dungeon I can safely say: I’m glad that’s over and I don’t intend on ever doing it again. Better than standard dungeons? Sure. Fun? Hell no.

Just did this dungeon with a PuG. My experience was considerably less painful than yours, thank goodness, but even so I was often somewhat confused about what was going on. As in, what the heck am I trying to dodge? Why are there red circles everywhere? What’s the point of trying to get out of one when the only place to go is into another one? Also – my warrior was killed by being knocked off the platform, but somehow landed… back on the platform? I’m assuming there was a wizard involved.

Got through it though, and I don’t think I embarrassed myself too badly. I let the group know before we started that I was a total dungeon noob. They were all quite nice. Nobody yelled at me, anyway.

Heh. It was better, in my opinion, than the dungeon at the end of the (im)personal story, but then again that’s like saying that it’s better to be mauled by a lion than by a tiger.

Anyway, that’s done, and now I know what to expect from future ‘living stories’.

My experiences were similar to both of yours.

I think its important that the Devs at ANet get solid feedback on this from all sides of the community. The dungeon runners apparently loved it, but a lot of the rest of the community did not. I fall into the other percentage of non-dungeon running people.

For me, I was left bewildered and somewhat angry that this is what the Devs thought everyone should have to experience as an end to the Living Story. It leaves me feeling they aren’t really in touch with their entire playerbase. Slapping on a dungeon to cap off content and story which was previously completed in a radically different manner, for me, left a lot to be desired.

See, I thought the final dungeon was brutal. In particular, the Boss encounter at the end. It echoes the experiences of others, including the two quoted above. It was, for me, the polar opposite of fun. My party consisted of veteran dungeon players, and me. We spent 2 hours inside, wiped 3 times, and I died so many times I was left completely naked when we finished. I didn’t feel challenged. I left frustrated and feeling like I let my team down.

I think you need options to end your Story lines. Right now, if a player wants to see the logical conclusion they have to run a dungeon. There has been enough feedback from the Personal Story ending that I thought you would know that not everyone likes this type of grande finale.

I won’t be doing that dungeon again, or any other in this game.

Aerinndis.2730:

You do have to look closely at the total achievements to see what is needed and also divide by days in the month. The periscopes were actually only 5 per day and very doable. They only appeared to be difficult if you tried to get all 150 over a short period of time. End of the month is crunch time but with 50 scopes available it is still doable….

And I agree with you! However, my post was not about easy/hard.

Having a straightforward goal allows you to plan. Having hidden, piecemeal goals is kind of deceptive, or, at the least, treats you like someone who can’t handle the bigger picture. I’m not a child, I don’t need to have someone hold my hand and walk me up to the number 3, clap excitedly, then walk me to 6, then 9, then 12.

marnick.4305:

http://dulfy.net/2012/09/16/gw2-jumping-puzzles-guides-guild-wars-2/

Do the ones listed as “easy” and you can have your monthly today.

My recommendation:
- the 3 in lion’s arch (relatively easy)
- tribulation scaffolding and cavern (2 in 1)
- under new management (super easy)
- dark reverie (easy once you get it)
- king jalis refugee (super easy)
- vizier’s tower
- buried archives (extremely easy)
- antre of adjournment (relatively easy)
- spelunker’s delve (super easy)

Good luck

An update:

I decided to take a look at the Jumping Puzzles as an avenue to finish my Monthly. My previous exposure to JP’s left me frustrated, so I didn’t want to go there at all initially. Following your link, I found some that weren’t too bad at all. In fact, I liked the exploration aspect of it quite a bit! I felt like I was in a secret area (which I suppose I was) and I had it all to myself.

So, I am going to pursue those to finish off my Monthly. Because someone asked, the ones I had already completed were: Event Participation, Completionist, and Veteran Slayer. All of those I did just as a matter of playing, and doing regular dailies.

I do still wish they would give a full count on what is needed to get the Monthly items. Yes, I understand the psychological impact of babysteps. That is, doing incremental small goals so it doesn’t seem like such a large deal. Someone else mentioned that mousing over will show if there is tiering. It does show, say, 1 of 4 tiers, but it does not list a final goal.

Regardless, I am not going to belabor my annoyance of how they set up their Monthly goals. There is much to be said about knowing up front what you are working towards.

Point heard.

However, reading various threads, you can hear ANET’s voice of reply regarding unintentional omissions of change. For instance, the Megadestroyer (I wish I knew how to hyperlink here but the forum isn’t that user friendly*) minor thread. Things get missed.

*please add a formatting bar

I think this has been said, and read by the Devs, ad nauseum.

All the class specific forums give much more detail, which, again, have been read by the Devs.

It all boils down to what the GW2 guys decide to play with, and when. They know what’s annoying us; they’ve known it for months. Nothing new. Just when.

Vayne.8563:

Illysharia.7286:

Vayne, the point of the post was to remove tiering of Monthlies.

If they they removed Daily tiering, they can remove Monthly tiering.

Yes, my point on B & S was a dramatization. I concede and apologize.

However, your 3rd paragraph is dismissive. I chose the 4 options that were within my playstyle. I’m not being an excessive complainer here. I did what was required.

ANET changed the goals once I achieved what they had set out. This is all I am saying.

There is no bullet biting. There is no “Doing something else”. I did what the Monthly list required. Then it was changed once I met that requirement.

But when they removed the daily tiering, people DID complain. That’s my point. It’s not like everyone would be in favor of less experience/achievement points.

I personally like the tiering, because if you cant do the whole thing, at least you get some reward. Probably the reason they didn’t remove it from the monthly, but they did from the daily. The monthlies have higher requirements and made more sense to have them tiered.

If I don’t do all the periscope, but I only do 50, I still get some XP and some achievement points. If you tier it, I get nothing (because I’m not going to farm periscopes).

Two sides to story, that’s all I"m saying.

It’s not right or wrong to want to remove tiering. It’s an opinion that won’t be shared by the entire player base. The question is how many people would rather have tiering.

See, if they removed tiering before, they did it for a reason. Why? False expectations. People work towards a goal. Completion! Yay! Oh, wait..I have to do X amount more.

If ANET changed their policy for that, they can change it elsewhere.

Star Ace.5207:

Do note that I am a casual player and finished the monthly very much ahead of time, without doing those Audio Logs. In comparison, most of the other options are easily doable (I chose JPs even though I don’t really enjoy them, the events-just100!-which I do enjoy, and two other things I already forgot about that were also easily done. :P) In fact, I was expecting having to do 5 of the items, but forgot it’s “only” 4. Even by now (4/24) you would have time if you just started to do this monthly-no kidding anyone.

If it’s any consolation, monthlies are easier than ever now, since a few months back-they used to be very rigid to the point I never really worked for them (50 WvW kills is too many for those that don’t care about that aspect of the game-did it only once during October or November, and never did it again, thinking it was too much work for what it meant to me). Back then, I didn’t do them and it was fine by me-you just gotta learn to be fine with it if you don’t want to work towards them (you lose nothing, and only win a little, so no worries if that’s the case.)

(Note that this is no “I am better than you!” post, but rather “if I can do it, so can you, as I didn’t work that hard!” So I am trying to encourage you, not putting you nor your preferred playstyle down.)

(I think the Audio Logs required are 250, though I forgot-it made me do the JPs instead. :P)

I appreciate the time you took to write that. I am also there with you!

However, your comments aren’t addressing what I am saying: my Monthly achievement goals were reset (tiered) once I thought I had completed them.

Vayne, the point of the post was to remove tiering of Monthlies.

If they they removed Daily tiering, they can remove Monthly tiering.

Yes, my point on B & S was a dramatization. I concede and apologize.

However, your 3rd paragraph is dismissive. I chose the 4 options that were within my playstyle. I’m not being an excessive complainer here. I did what was required.

ANET changed the goals once I achieved what they had set out. This is all I am saying.

There is no bullet biting. There is no “Doing something else”. I did what the Monthly list required. Then it was changed once I met that requirement.

I was on 3/4 completion.

The last obstacle was, of the choices that were within my playstyle, simply getting 25 of those periscopes. I am so very grateful that 1) the periscopes were made newbie friendly in the starter zones and 2) there seemed to be an apparent reduction from the previous need to get 125 (or 150?) of them. So, I finished getting my 25 periscopes today and handed the rest of them in.

..

Then I noticed I didn’t get my monthly reward. So, I checked my Monthly Tab, and saw that the count went from 25 to 50.

That is the literal translation of Bait and Switch.

If the monthly count to get that was 50, then why not post that in the first place.

Today, I was so excited thinking, “Yay, its near the end of the month and I did X of this and X of that, now all I need is 3 more periscopes.”. So, I did what the Monthly said. I did. And then it switched the count.

I’m not happy with this.

I did the other monthlies that fit within my playstyle. People in chat, when I brought this up, said I should WvW to make up for the rest. No. And no, to doing sPvP, or Fractals, or Jumping Puzzles. There are options there for various playstyles, and I did it, for my playstyle, and I thought I was done. Yay for me?

TLDR: Stop with tiering goals. If there is a number to achieve, post it. Setting false goals and annoying your customers doesn’t make for good business.