Guild Wars 2

I don’t see what’s wrong with the idea of having an elite spec provide 2, 3 or 5 different skill options for a weapon that’s available to a core profession. Some professions have room for more “new” (i.e., existing in game but not for a given profession) than others. Warrior, for instance, has less wiggle room for a “new” weapon than, say, Engineer. That said, as much as I would not want to see Warrior getting scepter, staff or focus for an elite spec, I’m aware that my preferences are not universal.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’m going to guess that the reason there is no $1 gems option is the fees credit cards impose on transactions. These fees eat up the profits from small charges and it’s the reason why small businesses will have a lower limit on the amount that can be charged.

https://www.valuepenguin.com/what-credit-card-processing-fees-costs

This seems likely. I know of several businesses in my area that either restrict credit card charges to higher amounts or charge a higher price for credit card purchases than for cash (gas stations which charge $.05 to $.10 per gallon more for credit come to mind for the latter).

Feanor.2358:

IndigoSundown.5419:

WvW is a game mode, raids are not. PvE is the game mode raids are part of. One can get the GoB doing most anything in WvW — zerging, roaming, doing PvE-like dailies over time. Once cannot get LI — and thus Legendary Armor — without doing a very specific part of PvE that is aimed solely at the hobbyist gamer. The comparison to the GoB requirement does not stand up to scrutiny because one does not even need to play WvW as a pastime to get the GoD — one need only play for a few hours at one’s convenience.

Consider legendary requirements in time. Legendary weapons are the first to appear in the game and they require something out of every game mode (even though you can get around PvP and buy the associated stuff on the TP).

The backpacks are more recently added and they both are specific items requiring you to play specific game modes. And in the case of Ad Infinitum – a specific part of a specific game mode. This may well indicate a change of design philosophy – rather than make you try everything, the items now try to get you involved in their associated area of the game. This is certainly the case for the armor, by the way.

Again, I agree WvW would benefit from getting access to something similar, I just feel the argument is a bit biased.

The game, and the way it allocates rewards, has certainly changed. This might be a change in design philosophy. Alternatively, it’s possible ANet badly misjudged how players would act in relation to rewards and have adjusted how rewards are allocated to fit an original design intent they didn’t get right. The latter is certainly what they said about Exotic gear proving to be too easy to get to be max tier, and thus why Ascended required so much more time/effort.

Astralporing.1957:

Azoqu.8917:

Go back and read how hard dungeons were supposed to be before the game came out.

I do remember. Perhaps better than you do, because i also remember that they did expect for everyone to be doing those dungeons eventually. They were supposed to offer greater challenge than the rest of the game, that’s it. They were supposed to be “this game’s version of raids” only inasmuch as the “damage, control, support” was to be this game’s version of holy trinity.

I remember dungeons being aimed at, “…coordinated groups of skilled players.” IF Anet intended that everyone do dungeons “eventually,” (and I don’t remember that being said at all) how do you know that ANet does not now expect “everyone” to do raids “eventually?” After all, they’ve designed what they call “easier” raid encounters.

phys.7689:

IndigoSundown.5419:

phys.7689:

you are in fact correct, a lot of the game is designed for the trading post. I however still believe the trading post should have been designed for the game. The Trading post design sucks the fun out of the game …

It’s my hope that “sucks the fun out of the game” is a statement about your personal experience and not a more generalized assertion. I find that the TP enhances my enjoyment of the game. I play whatever content I like, then if I gain things I don’t want I can easily sell them. The gold gained allows me to get things I do want.

I believe that the design intent was more along the lines of creating various content in the hope that people enjoyed playing it, with the TP as a means to allow players to gain some rewards that might not be available in their preferred content. It’s an unfortunate side effect of that design that those who prefer to play specific content until it grants the random reward drop may feel that some rewards which can be gained via the TP do not fit their image of how the game should be. Also, it’s worth noting that a lot more rewards are available as drops in specific content than was the case at launch.

so you think they did not design 7200 silk for ascended because they had too much silk in the economy? Or the price for halloween costumes? Or you think that teir 2 legendaries really need that amount of wood, because they just designed it that way first?

Nope, they have said that before they come up with a item/reward they have to run it through the economy guys to decide what costs they want it to have.

The TP should be a means for people to trade value between various tasks, but it has taken its own life, and now almost every item is based decision of, how will this effect the TP? How can this balance some tp values? etc.

To make it clear, im not saying everything has to be rare drops, i am saying the item design exists to feed and balance the TP, not based of what is a good game play design or incentive.

thats why you often get some ridiculous numbers on how many widgets you need for almost anything.

Sure, the in-game economy is a factor. However, it is not the only or even the main factor. The main factor is real economy. MMO developers need to keep people busy “playing” the game. After all, whether the MMO developer charges a sub or has a virtual store, player longevity is where the money is.

I believe that ANet’s original intention was that fun was to be the main focus of GW2. I also believe they were naive in believing that all MMO player demographics care primarily about fun. Once substantial numbers of players set them straight, they modified the game so that it took people a lot longer to achieve reward goals. You may recall there was a major issue with lack of long-term goals shortly after launch.

The problem is, while many players require long-term goals, many others want short-term gratification. The developer can try to give both what they want. However, it’s inevitable that some things put in as long term goals will be desired by some people who want short-term gratification. Mystic coins (whether supply is “low” or costs are “high”) are not a problem for players who don’t care if it takes longer to make virtual gewgaw X.

Feanor.2358:

paleonal.1280:

What makes this game great to me is the possibility to get the best gear/rewards in the game doing whatever I want to, if I want to pvp and just do that for the rest of my life, I can. That’s why I came to Gw2, because I was tired of MUST make PVE to get my PVP armor in other games.

By putting Legendary Armor only obtainable after I clear a raid, I don’t need to explain why this is a huge mistake. I don’t matter to farm it 100x harder on pvp as long that I still can have it, as long the possibility still there. Players that makes raids MUST get it easier for SURE, but to me, what makes this game unique is everybody can have their legendary weapons doing anything they please.
Please, don’t tell the gamer what we should do, don’t make the other mmorpgs mistake, they are all falling. LET WE CHOOSE what we want to do, don’t FORCE us to do raids/dungeons.

I know elitists players will disagree but think about it, you are a pve exclusive player and the best gear is only avaliable through pvp, how would you feel?

Thanks.

Ok, I had to edit this to explain that I’m talking about WvW not SPvP.

I’m inclined to agree with you, however legendary weapons require a Gift of Battle, only obtainable through WvW. It doesn’t feel unfair if the legendary armor also has some sort of requirement tied to a specific game mode.

WvW is a game mode, raids are not. PvE is the game mode raids are part of. One can get the GoB doing most anything in WvW — zerging, roaming, doing PvE-like dailies over time. Once cannot get LI — and thus Legendary Armor — without doing a very specific part of PvE that is aimed solely at the hobbyist gamer. The comparison to the GoB requirement does not stand up to scrutiny because one does not even need to play WvW as a pastime to get the GoD — one need only play for a few hours at one’s convenience.

phys.7689:

you are in fact correct, a lot of the game is designed for the trading post. I however still believe the trading post should have been designed for the game. The Trading post design sucks the fun out of the game …

It’s my hope that “sucks the fun out of the game” is a statement about your personal experience and not a more generalized assertion. I find that the TP enhances my enjoyment of the game. I play whatever content I like, then if I gain things I don’t want I can easily sell them. The gold gained allows me to get things I do want.

I believe that the design intent was more along the lines of creating various content in the hope that people enjoyed playing it, with the TP as a means to allow players to gain some rewards that might not be available in their preferred content. It’s an unfortunate side effect of that design that those who prefer to play specific content until it grants the random reward drop may feel that some rewards which can be gained via the TP do not fit their image of how the game should be. Also, it’s worth noting that a lot more rewards are available as drops in specific content than was the case at launch.

For Direct Damage:

Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

In the case of Fierce Shot, using a L80 Exotic Rifle as in Fatalyz’ tooltip.

Weapon Strength (986-1205) * Power (a constant, if no buffs are used it’s just the base power from your gear plus 1000) + Fierce Shot Skill coefficient (also a constant — 0.605 — see the Wiki page) / Target’s Armor (in this case, a constant due to targeting a golem).

Due to the one variable, there are more than 200 possible outcomes depending on the random generation of weapon strength.

I suspect that the number of GW2 customers who bought HoT and were dissatisfied with some aspect(s) of the product was dwarfed by the number of GW2 customers who were dissatisfied with a variety of things about HoT and didn’t buy it in the first place. Those include such things as the perceived sleight to veteran players due to bundling core GW2 with HoT for new customers; inclusion of a new profession but no new slot for everyone; and the perceived small number of new zones and content for the price. It is likely that a lot of those players dropped the game. After all, why continue to play GW2 if you don’t buy HoT when ANet made it clear that HoT is the game going forward (at least until XPac 2).

It is because of that belief that I also believe that ANet is taking to heart complaints about HoT gameplay. After all, if they lost a substantial portion of the total player base who did not buy HoT, retaining those who did becomes more important. Companies can (and do) of course turn their backs on customers as much as they like, but that practice can lead to reduced revenue, and even sometimes catastrophically reduced revenue. It’s not that I think GW2 is there yet, but when they make game design decisions that cause long-time supporters to say they like the game less — and I’ve seen lots of that — I also no longer believe that GW2 2ould never get to that point.

Raiding is a hobby, and I chose to play GW2 just as a pastime. I wondered if L. Armor would make me regret that stance. Thankfully, it has not. For all those who like it, I hope that it lives up to your expectations.

Jski.6180:

I get what your saying but Anet is putting every thing into raids and raids only. They are putting all there work into a game type that only the top gear players and top organized groups with very lock on numbers and timing.

Even from the stand point of logic this is foolish. All of your work into one game type or the all your eggs in one holder type of working is doom to fail.

So, there is nothing to do and no rewards/goals to pursue in any of the LS3 chapters or zones? There won’t be anything in the new chapter next week? While I think that locking L. Armor behind raids was good for raids but not for the game as a whole, I think you’re over-reacting just a bit.

I’ve never understood the attraction of player housing in MMO’s. To me, it’s something to put time into but in which I cannot actually do anything. Thus, it has no attraction. What I’d like to understand is the motivations of those who do like such a feature.

Feanor.2358:

Djinn.9245:

As for more difficult mobs in core Tyria, soon it won’t matter whether they do it or not. That game that many of us loved is gone. Soon core Tyria will be an anacronism in the new, different, GW2 with the majority of maps being more difficult with content / mobs.

Really?

Core Kryta is 5 maps, not counting Southsun Cove, all of them easy.
Core Maguuma is another 5, again, easy.
Core Shiverpeaks and Ascalon have 6 each, and I’d rate them all easy again.
Orr has 3 maps, let’s be generous and say they are hard.

So core Tyria has 22 easy maps. How many hard are there? 4 HoT maps. Maybe you can count Lake Doric. Add Southsun to “hard”, Dry Top and Silverwastes to “easy”. 24 easy, 6 hard. Let’s be generous and count FGS and Fireheart as “moderate”, although they aren’t. Let’s also say Bloodstone Fen, Bitterfrost Frontier and Ember Bay are moderate, although they really aren’t either. Still 22 easy, 5 moderate, 6 hard. So how soon do you expect this anachronism to happen, around 2030?

The problem with your rating system is that you are unlikely to generate consensus from the players who believe HoT was too hard. Still, running with your estimate, and assuming ANet keep to their “map per LS Chapter every 2-3 months” trend … with LS maps as moderate to hard, it would take 22-33 months to catch up. 33 would be by early 2020. The possibility that there would be a hiatus on new LS maps would be balanced by the likelihood that we’d see a new XPac by then. Any XPac maps might be easy, moderate or hard, so who knows — and ANet may not make the perceived mistake of low-balling the number of new maps as they did with HoT.

In other words, no one knows, and educated guesses, aren’t.

ArchonWing.9480:

As another silly thought, why can’t you drive enemies off cliffs?

Mobs are dumb. If their pathing allowed them to go off cliffs, they might do so even when not fighting a character?

Allen.1620:

Thought we wont have to do what we don’t wanna do in GW2, i been playing 1702 days, only did fractral when it was released and it immensely bored me, never tried raid.

Now i wonder how can i get legendary armor? why are we forced to do raid to get them, before i brought the game it was said and emphasized that in here we will do what we like to do nothing will be forced.

I have gold can get more at will, have 2k laurels , need a way to get legendary weapons and armors through wvw. I will NOT do raid or fractral they are just lame.

Or the promise we had before buying GW2 4 years back was fake ? That we will do what we like to do and get same result in game, no one will get advantage.

Make it cost 20k gold 2k laurels for wvwers or something but we sud be able to get em asap.

Specific rewards tied to specific content have been a part of the game since launch. Also, no one is forcing anyone to do anything in GW2. Not being “forced to do things” was never meant to include optional rewards like skins. That bit of hype — however it was worded — was about the endless gear tier chase without which one could not keep up in other MMO’s.

That said, I think Legendary items as the biggest endgame goal should have had multiple paths to acquisition. Just as Dungeon skins later appeared in PvP/WvW reward tracks, there should be methods to gain the ultimate goal in the endgame without going into niche content.

Oh by kitten, no. I’m generally not in favor of a myriad of convenience features, but the system the OP offers is a buzz kill. No, thanks.

This again? The trait system should not be overhauled yet again. Sometimes, good enough is good enough. This is especially true when the game needs to keep producing content to satisfy an ever-hungry player-base. not only would another total trait revamp take resources away from other projects, it would delay new content production. Content must be balanced against character capabilities. When a major element of the build system is in limbo, new content production would stop.

No thanks.

Healix.5819:

NPCs wouldn’t go very well. They’d have to be at a champion+ level and designed to basically play the content themselves. Scaling for solo play would likely be far easier to implement. They could do an outnumbered buff for example, where your damage dealt and received is greatly modified.

This. Due to the nature of GW2 dungeon PvE — big hits that need to be blocked or dodged, lots of AoE that needs to be avoided or moved out of — NPC AI would have to be phenomenal. GW2 NPC AI is nowhere near this capable. In fact, the NPC AI in GW2 is not in any way better than that in GW, and may be worse.

A numerical buff for solo dungeons such as Healix envisions would be a lot easier to create, as it would need only to change the damage taken and damage dealt formulae. What might require some work are dungeon mechanics that require multiple players, such as the laser grid on CoE.

Ok I Did It.2854:

The price of Mystic Coins it fine on its own, the MAJOR problem with MC’s is that they are used in an RnG recipe for clovers that is the problem, Anet need to make a dedicated recipe,

10 Coins, 10 ecto 10 Crystals, 10 Obby Shards = 7 clovers

The last time I made 77 clovers it took me 370 coins to make them, this is NOT ok, its the RnG in that recipe that keeps them prices high.

Yeah, RNG kittens. Why, reading about how this works, am I reminded of F2P Korean grinders wherein crafting an upgraded weapon sometimes results in success and sometimes in loss of everything? The only thing missing is the store item to “increase” the percentage chance.

jonemirant.1653:

I think the reasonable price should be around 30 to 50 silver, same as ectoplasm. High than 1g is absolutely ridiculous.

What are you basing “reasonable” on? What you’d be willing to pay?

OriOri.8724:

Well if that’s the case, why have such an in depth crafting system in the game?

Crafting serves one purpose in the game. It drives the economy.

Aristos.8026:

People should not be forced to play game modes they do not want or are discouraged to play to get a legendary

A fine sentiment, as long as it’s applied across the board to players who prefer sPvP and WvW, as well as PvE’ers. After all, the PvE’ing requirements for a legendary far outweigh the 8-9 hours WvW’ing that the GoB track requires.

However, I don’t see it happening. Why? ANet wants people to try different aspects of the game and they use carrots to entice people to do so.

So, what does Taimi do???? She’s (apparently) really smart, sees all the answers that no one else can see, and devises solutions no one else is thinking up. She’s Wesley Crusher.

If that’s not an indictment, I don’t know what is.

thrag.9740:

Astralporing.1957:

Why? You can master the fractal mastery line without ever stepping into fractals, after all.

I understand the point your making, which is that the two systems are not consistent with one another if I am interpreting you correctly.

However, my ideal would be that you should only be able to earn exp for fractal mastery in fractals, exp for raid mastery in raids, core tyria mastery exp in core tyria (maybe include dungeons here), and hot mastery in hot maps. I believe this would also fix OP’s spirit shard issue, as they would have HOT masteries maxed and so earn spirit shards in hot maps (I believe they can currently earn spirti shards in core tyria maps right now based on this same rule).

Obviously that is never going to happen, and instead we get stupid things like fractal potions which effectively serve the same purpose (progression in fractals earned only via playing fractals) as masteries but arn’t, grinding easy adventures like drone race to max raid mastery, and grinding cof to max fractal mastery.

So I support a compromise, you should have to do at least one thing in each of the piece’s of content to unlock the line. Its been so long since i maxed the fractal line, i don’t even remember if what you say is true. You should have to complete at least one fractal to unlock the fractal mastery imo.

I can confirm that one does not have to enter FotM to select and finish the Fractals mastery line. I know because I have not been in FotM since I bought HoT and my fractal mastery are 3/4 with the XP earned for #4 just waiting until I decide to worry about earning the points.

Fwiw, I agree that masteries should be unlocked and completed via content in various areas of the game. However, ANet seems to prefer a minimalist approach.

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Asura

That’s a funny way to spell Charr.

They’re next…

Since the proper answer to, “What to do about Asura?” is genocide, a “nerf” to a single Asura seems underwhelming.

What would ANet’s motivation be for expending the resources to make this happen? Remember they wanted to move away from the Co-Op RPG nature of GW and make a true MMO.

Vayne.8563:

Then you gave WoW a chance, and didn’t give SWToR a chance, because it was essentially WoW with a Bioware Story. You don’t need to play a game that’s exactly like another game for a long time to know you won’t like it.

On the other hand, how many times have we seen people return to this game 2, or 3 times and leave, because they really didn’t “get it” because it’s fundametally different from MMOs that they’ve been playing for years….only to come back and find they loved this game. I played WoW and then Rift and they were very very simlar games. I came here to get away from those games.

But if someone enjoyed those games and came here and tried to play this game like they play those games, they might get a completely different experience. Particularly with an MMO, if it’s not just like another MMO, it takes time to “get it”.

In fact, most MMOs change drastically at max level. There are many people who speed level to get to the fun stuff, but when they get there, it really is fun stuff…. to them. I’m not one of those people as I like the leveling experience.

But people coming from other MMOs, often don’t like Guild Wars 2 because they haven’t grasped what the game is trying to accomplish within MMO space.

Agreed. While I understand why ANet does it, I do find myself wishing that they had not made so many changes to try to make GW2 appeal to the people who didn’t get it.

I attribute the weirdly placed dinglydooper things to be gratuitous attempts at ostentation and ornate design. That would make them attempts to enhance the attractiveness of items rather than detract. I observe that trend in multiple MMO’s which feature cosmetics. WoW shoulder armor comes to mind. Why anyone would think that ostentatious is better is a mystery to me, but I am apparently unlike the mainstream in that regard — or at least unlike what the average MMO graphics designer thinks are mainstream tastes.

Blaeys.3102:

Here is the real issue as I see it.

When they added raids with a singular, restrictive mode, they essentially forced (or strongly pushed) people to conform to playing that mode one way.

For people that treat the game as a mathematical sport – min/maxing and constantly grinding for new stat sets – this was a non-issue.

But for many of those that play the game for the experience of being a hero in a fantasy world, it breaks the illusion that they matter in the game.

• That Nomad Guardian that acts as the bulwark between evil and good – that uses his shield to protect his friends – he has no place in raids.

• That monster-inspired Necromancer, swinging his sword and chilling his foes – he is a joke next to the “real monsters.”

• That tricksy mesmer using illusions to misdirect, confuse and torment his opponents – he is nothing compared to his boon sharing bot friends.

• That revenenant channeling the power of Tyria’s greatest heroes – he might as well be channeling Rachel Ray.

• The scrapper powering up his hammer to shred through his opponents – again, no real power at all.

• (and pretty much any other build that isn’t close to the “meta”)

Before, even with the existence of lvl 100 fractals, these players could feel like the hero – they could still face down Mai Trin (at a lower level) with their friends, achieving that feeling that they were a hero in the world of Tyria – that they repelled the threat.

Raids – because they have an single, restrictive tier, change that.

The difficulty of raids are nothing more than this simple equation:

• Copy/Paste Build + Memorize/Mimic dance = dead raid boss

They aren’t really difficult – as long as you are willing to compromise the identity of your character. What they are is restrictive and sucking the fun out of the Tyrian experience for any that don’t want to conform to cookie cutter builds and playstyles.

People don’t want to play as the hero that faces everything down except for XYZ threat. And many don’t want to cater to the stepford wife style that the current raiding model pushes on people. These are the players most affected by raids – that are growing more and more disillusioned with the game.

That is why the simple addition of raids (with a singular difficulty mode) has such a negative impact on the game’s identity – because it damages the player’s self identity. It breaks the illusion of being the hero in a game that is all about being the hero.

While that might be true for you and some few others, it is not true for me and for some few others. What you’ve described is raids-in-a-nutshell in every game they are features in. GW2 offers different endgame pursuits — a lot more than other MMO’s. MMO’s survive by offering different things to fulfill different desires. They cannot cater to the mindset that says, “I want to be able to do everything the game offers and all content has to be designed to fit my desires and comfort level, no matter how far from the mainstream those desires and comfort level lie.”

So, did GW2 change its identity by offering raids.? I think it’s closer to the truth to say that GW2 failed to live up to the design intent for its identity due to the failure of explorable dungeons to fill the coordinated, skilled content niche — and is now trying to address that deficiency.

Vayne.8563:

nosleepdemon.1368:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Playing MMO’s (and other video games) is wasting time, unless you’re one of those playing an ESport game and are making money doing so. I would not be concerned about playing this game being a waste of time — it probably already is.

The only point to a video game for most is to have fun. If you’re concerned about something other than fun, I’d say you’d be better off giving up video games completely. If you like GW2 as you claim, you’re probably having fun. If so, I’d say keep playing until that changes.

I’m not concerned about the game dying. Not at all. I expect GW2 to last for years more. I’ve seen games with much lower populations hang on for a half a decade and they’re still hanging on.

Truer words are rarely spoken in gaming. People forget, because games are designed to make them forget, that they have a choice: Games are entertainment, they are not crucial, they are not some sort of personal identity without which one is less of a person. One does not have to play a game if it proves frustrating.

If you are slaving away at a game, because you have been told it “gets good at max level”, or because item X will make it all better, then you are making yourself miserable based on an empty promise.

Play games that are enjoyable right now, and if they aren’t, throw them in the bin and do something worth your time.

I don’t know that I can agree with this completely. While it seems self-evident, there is something that called to this whole immediate gratification thing that teaches people to not really give something a chance.

Some of the best books I’ve ever read started slowly and I didn’t really enjoy them until the halfway mark, but I’d have been poorer for not having read them.

The first season of Babylon 5 was meh, but it turned out to be one of my favorite scifi series of all time.

There are plenty of people who come to this game from other games and “don’t get it” because its’ different from many other games. Not giving the game a chance, seems like what you’re advocating.

How many people come here and say it’s hard to level, or they’re bored, because they don’t really understand how the game is laid out or what they’re supposed to do.

Sure, if something isn’t fun over the long haul, by all means, get it out of your life. But there are plenty of things in my life that weren’t fun at first, but I perservered and they became more than I could have imagined.

I guess I’m an old guy. The need for instant gratification to me is something I think that’s a problem…one that’s not likely to go away.

While I understand your point, I think as far as MMO’s go, it is possible for those for whom a given MMO is not their first rodeo to pull the not-fun trigger sooner rather than later. For instance, I liked the story presentation in SWtOR a lot more than GW2’s (imo Anet could learn something from that game). However, after a short stint in beta I recognized that the game play in tOR was going to drive me bat kitten crazy as it was patterned after WoW’s — which I find dated and insipid. In fact, what keeps me in GW2 despite ANet’s many vigorous attempts to convince me to leave is this game’s game play.

Blaeys.3102:

This has never been about difficult or easy. It is about adding to raids – not detracting from them. It is about expanding the experience of raids to a wider range of players – something that would be good for everyone, imo.

Before launch, explorable dungeons were billed as challenging content aimed at “coordinated teams of skilled players.” If that’s not a single-phrase description of what raids have been in other games, then there is no such description. On the face of it, it seems that raids in GW2 are designed to fill that role in the game, a role that explorable dungeons failed at.

WoW introduced LFR because its endgame is built around the gear treadmill inherent in the dungeon/raid cycles inherent in each level cap raise. GW2 endgame features a lot of other options for endgame pursuit. If it didn’t, I’d be with you. Since it does, I see your assertion as a desire to have everything that GW2 offers aimed at your small demographic. That’s not something any development house can offer.

Justine.6351:

Justine.6351:

As an update,

I’ve gotten my second armor box drop since the ending of season 5.

Those super rare drops…

As another update,

1 ascended armor box and,
1 ascended weapon box
10seconds apart.

https://youtu.be/NFc6CnMXp-k
Those super rare drops…

Outliers always occur in larger distributions. Your experience may not be typical.

Attunement dancing on an Ele can be engaging. Also, the low health pool means getting hit by anything can take a big chunk, so I do have to pay attention. For added spice, play the (non-meta) double dagger build.

My $0.02

It may be easy for me to say since I have no investment in getting the achievement, but I think it’s a good thing for some in-game rewards to be gated by some level of skill. There are rewards I think need to be accessible to most players, but this one is not one of them. I have no opinion on just how much of the player-base this is accessible to, but everything does not have to be for everyone.

OriOri.8724:

Not every boon has to be as powerful as Might or Quickness, which is something that I think a lot of people have forgotten. It adds a lot of flavor to have weaker boons that are more widely accessible.

This is a point that I think gets ignored by some. If the game only allowed one to have one boon at a time, then regen would be weak. However, one can have multiple boons, and combine them with other skills and actions. Thus, it is appropriate to look at the total of what’s possible and the effects produced, rather than the singular merits of any given aspect of play.

flog.3485:

And yet this “pinnacle” is so easy to ignore. We are not playing a game where most of armors are released in game, skins are rather released through gemstores and you can straight convert gold to gems. Consider this as well: if you design an easy long term farm to obtain the legendary armor, don’t you completely undervalue the other skins that are released because of the uniqueness of having an “animated” armor ? I say it is best to let a player choose the skins he can/wants to grind because even if you make it easy some players will straight feel like a second class citizen due to the fact that they just don’t have enough time to dedicate to the game. Furthermore, I strongly believe that Anet didn’t want the legendary armor to be only an easy grind but rather something that also shows some skill, hence why it took them that long to finally implement it in the game.

I won’t argue against any of that. I believe that ANet prefers to cater to what they perceive as serious gamers. However, what perplexes me about that is the back-again forth-again approach to whether the game is catering to the serious or the drop-in gamer. It’s as if Anet wants to do both.

What i do believe is that — whether Legendary items are ignored by large numbers of people or not (and I see an awful lot of Legendary Weapons in the NA server cluster), ANet has hyped them entirely too much for Armor to be a reward only for raiders. I don’t know if there are enough people who are going to be upset by the gating to matter to the bottom line, but I do believe it’s a risk on ANet’s part, just as the NPE was a risk in the other direction.

I also believe that ANet will produce other Legendary Armor over time. However, the current iteration is appearing at the speed of late. Whether they would get around to it (if at all) soon enough to matter to the disenfranchised remains to be seen.

Finally, while there are armor skins in the store, the sets are all from before their statement that armor sets would be in-game rewards. New skins in the store are all either single pieces (back, shoulder) or outfits.

flog.3485:

The problem though is that this “pinnacle” is soooo subjective. If I follow your argument then core legendary weapons are also the ultimate weapons to get. And yet you can not say that everyone has farmed for this supposed pinnacle. I can pretty much tell you that personally I prefer the skin of the Anomaly to the Minstrel, order of whisper staff and the centaur skin staff over Bifrost and so on. We don’t even know what these legendaries armor will look like, how can you say it is already perceived as a pinnacle ? And where are these lots of complaints ? HoT release without an additional character slot generated a lot of complaints, here it is pretty much the same 10-15 people arguing over and over whenever raid subjects are brought up. Not every die hard fan of the game are going to play quote wars 2 complaining whether it is Reddit and/or GW 2 forums.

You’d be hard pressed to find agreement about anything across multiple demographics in any MMO player base. That does not mean that Legendary Weapons (and now Armor) are not seen as the pinnacle of the cosmetic endgame in GW2.

Crinn.7864:

IndigoSundown.5419:

The main focus of GW2 is the cosmetic endgame.

No it’s not. Some people might obsess over cosmetics just like people do in literally every rpg ever, but that is not the core focus of the game.

The core focus of the game has always been the unique combat system, dynamic events, and horizontal progression.

Next you’ll be telling us that people don’t repeat raids for the rewards. ANet may have started with some illusions about players repeating content “for fun” before they launched the game. The incessant posts about rewards, the game being unrewarding, and lack of motivation because there is nothing to chase disabused them of those illusions. The fact is that virtual rewards, be they cosmetic or stat-based, fuel endgame repetition in MMO’s. There may be a few other rewards that require as much investment as Legendary items, but they are few and far between.

Vinceman.4572:

Blaeys.3102:

Doesnt change the fact that a lot of players like him are becoming disillusioned with the game because of this issue (some faster than others).

And, yes, you can be huge fan of the game and still hate the direction is going in. It is important for Anet to see posts like his – and understand the potential long term damage this direction is doing to the game.

Ok, that’s sad if ppl become disillusioned about one single game mode in the game they are not pleased with.
And what specific direction? Raids are not the main focus of GW2, ppl should stop making a drama out of it. Raids are one little part in the game – nothing more, nothing less.

The main focus of GW2 is the cosmetic endgame. The pinnacle of the cosmetic endgame is Legendary Equipment. It’s a pity that ANet couldn’t come up with something sufficiently epic for a raid-exclusive reward without tying the only iteration of Legendary Armor for the foreseeable future behind that “one little part of the game.” I believe we’d have seen a lot less complaints about raids from non-raiders had they done so.

Miellyn.6847:

Unless you are a tank, this is also not existent in any other game that features easy modes and automated queues. Yet people find time to sit an hour in a queue but can’t be bothered with manual search.

People probably find it hard to watch Netflix on their second monitor if they are actively seeking others. Convenience is the new watchword for games. Everyone wants it, even raiders who set up groups with requirements. It’s just that some people want more convenience than others.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

No, it’s not. It just changes the type of problem.

How so? I have a wide monitor and have no problem.

Nocturnal Lunacy.8563:

ProphetSword.5427:

She does all that stuff when you log out.

This is a good plausible explanation, but our characters are controlled by us. They have no independent movement or thought etc. So this can’t be done unless anet has created a bot to do this for us while we are logged out.

If you’re going to play that card, then — since the characters have no existence independent of our playing them — they are puppets, not people. Puppets need not eat, sleep or excrete.

Wide screen monitor, problem solved.

Paying companies before they produce what’s wanted only encourages companies to produce inferior products, knowing that consumers will throw money at them to improve the product to what it ought to have been in the first place. Consumers will do better for themselves if they withhold money from a company that is failing to produce what they want.

ANet devs do play PvP and WvW. Your assumption that they do not is based on your perception that anyone who actually played would see the same problems you do. That is not necessarily the case. If you look at these forums, you will not find a single topic on which all posters agree. Not one.

The thing with regen is that it is not supposed to — by itself — keep you up. Used as part of overall defensive tactics including evades, blocks, reflects, protection, etc. it is fine.

Chad.6104:

If you have 3 factions not tied to servers, won’t you have long queue times instead?

Three factions is the system in Edge of the Mists. It’s my understanding that EotM uses the overflow system, spawning new shards as needed.

Frankly, an easier way would be to use the existing instances, and have the easy and difficult modes add a step to damage calculation. For example, a player clicks a toggle and formulas change (the following is for example, any real formula changes might require more thought than I gave it).

Easy: Outgoing Damage = 1.5 x (Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient) / Armor
Incoming Damage = (Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient) / Armor + 500

Difficult: Outgoing Damage = .5 x (Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient) / Armor
Incoming Damage = 1.5 x (Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient) / Armor

It’s not that this approach would be without problems, but at least the devs would not be recreating two additional copies of everything in the game.

ProphetSword.5427:

She does all that stuff when you log out.

/thread

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You know, I’ve read many times on this forum players that absolutely refuse to enter WvW because of its PvP aspect. It doesn’t matter if it is easy or difficult, scary or pleasant, boring or exciting to others; it’s just a game mode they can not and will not participate in. Now, for these players, Mistforged Hero’s Weapons are and have been locked away behind content, and are unavailable…because those players choose to abstain from WvW and there is no other way to obtain these weapons (at this time).

Who knows? Maybe, some day, there will be another way to obtain these weapons; maybe some day there will (an)other way(s) to obtain any kind of Legendary, or any and all items in the game. It happened with hats in GW…eventually.

Some people (maybe even most people) don’t have that kind of patience for a game.

Ayrilana.1396:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

How can you really master something if you only do a few things in the expansion?

Sorry, but this line is bull-gravy. Clicking on something and many other so-called Mastery Points are not evidence of any kind of “mastery,” just as most “achievements” are not really achievements. These things are just names used by the developer to ID different systems.

The point behind Masteries is the same as the point behind anything developers put into MMO’s. That is, it gives players something to do. This is important to the developer because MMO business models are based on players playing over time, whether they spend money on a sub or in a virtual store. A better progression system would have included everyone because in the end that is what is best for the developer.

ANet seems to believe that locking things behind specific content will encourage people to try that content. This only works in some cases, not in all. People who came to GW2 because they wanted a game that did not have raids are not going to try raids no matter how much lipstick Anet puts on the pig.

Why do you assume that mastery = skill level? By doing all of the achievements for the mastery points, you’ve completed quite a lot of the expansion content. They are spread out enough to encourage just that.

Mastery:

1. comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject or accomplishment:
2. control or superiority over someone or something:

If we’re going by your definition, they’d be called Completion Points.

Ayrilana.1396:

If players don’t want to raid then they do not have to. They should just not think they are entitled to the same rewards that have done them if only just once.

Gating a level ding reward behind niche content is stupid design for an MMO. Raids have plenty of other rewards. If they need a spirit shard drop on ding (or whatever other minor reward might replace shards eventually or never), they are in trouble. It would be better design to have some rewards be inclusive. ANet is going more and more towards exclusive, and it’s likely costing them, in good will if nothing else — despite your ardent opposition to anyone who dares question the status quo.