Guild Wars 2

Clipbord.8726:

I can guarantee you most MMO players don’t play for the story. I didn’t read all of your post, but from what Ive read, it seems you’re trying to force players to focus more on the story. The whole loot/reward system is what makes most MMO successful.

There are a lot of players like Clipbord in MMO’s. I’ve highlighted in his post the reason why changing MMO focus to story would not work for them. They aren’t interested in story to that degree.

And no, I don’t have any problems with Clipbord or anyone else, it just struck me that that one phrase captured the gist of why the OP’s suggestion in not a viable one.

Rather than an /inspect, how about a one-button ping gear? How often are players running around with identical sets of gear with different stats? It seems like a lot of effort (and gold) spent just to try to run with the big kids. If these people exist, they’re going to try to fool inspect by changing once the run begins. If players notice anything, say, “X, ping gear now.” If s/he takes the time to change out a minimum of 13 pieces, this should be noticeable.

Unlike WoW, which had tons of lore but did very little to provide me with a sense that my character was the protagonist in a story, GW2 has such a story. The Living Story continues to provide some sense of story, though to be honest it does not flow as well as the personal story did. This is not surprising, given the relative time put into making the two.

Fact is, writing a coherent story takes a lot of time. Time is one thing MMO developers don’t have. Players who are not kept engaged with something quickly become bored. Some of them play many hours every day. If they become bored, they move on, which is a loss for the developers.

The fact that Living Story exists at all is a nod to those who prefer story to progression pursuits. Normally, MMO’s don’t provide any more story than is needed to give a thin veneer of purpose to quests that amount to “kill ten rats.”

Shifting the emphasis to more story over more “typical MMO pursuits” has drawbacks. A lot of players don’t care, will ignore it and then complain about wasted developer effort because they have nothing to do.

Many players who do like story will be critical story because the constraints of writing a story that is cost effective to produce in a virtual setting often limit player choice. GW2 has been criticized for funneling players into the story, limiting the choices to which sub-story they do, not allowing them to interact in different ways. Even SPRPG’s — which exist for story — usually give 3 choices. Many of them are simplistic. Sometimes, you pick the choice that seems most like the character you envision, and then hear the character say something off the wall. In SWtOR, how did “I will get you that thing you want.” become, “Murder and mayhem await!”?

I’m afraid that asking an MMO to provide good, ongoing story that will engage a majority of players is like asking for a motorcycle to carry a 5-ton payload. It’s not the tool for the job.

colesy.8490:

Raine.1394:

colesy.8490:

Failure? Every time I have had two invasions completed, Balthazar is taken since it bumps up pact morale to get more reinforcements. If you want to rush and just do one invasion that’s fine, but you’ll lose. If you really want to play it safe, do all three.

It will only fail if you don’t make an effort, which is why it’s a very well made event chain.

It’s a ton of fun to do and even more fun to organise, and maybe with incandescent dust being needed to make crystalline dust people won’t mind farming the t5 mats and bags.

You are obviously what is missing then. It is in failure state on all NA servers. If only we had one of you on each server to lead the way.

Well, no. Any co-ordinated group that completes two invasions will beat Balthazar, and if you’re still worried then, message the people in your guild or in LA to go to Rally Waypoint for the final attack and I guarantee you’ll make it. If all of the NA servers can’t do it, that to be honest just means the people over there are too lazy to actually organise themselves and just want to mindlessly zerg everything like how you can at Melandru, Dwayna and Lyssa or the other world bosses.

Maybe people got burned out on being a raid leader and came to GW2 because there were to be no raids. Some NA servers do the event — just not all of them. Nor are Melandru, Dwayna and Lyssa mindless zergs.

In GW1, Fissure of Woe, The Deep, Urgoz Warren, the Underworld, Domain of Anguish and to some extent Sorrow’s Furnace and the Temple of the Primeval Kings took the “place” of raids. Being the game it was, these instances were often completed due to party build plus knowing mechanics as opposed to pure player skill, just as standard MMO raids succeeded due to knowing the mechanics and gear.

I imagine that truly hard larger group content in GW2 would have to be based on twitch-skills + knowing the mechanics. If true, this means there would be a smaller audience than either GW1 or the standard MMO. Expanding the potential audience would essentially mean reducing the twitch skill requirement, making the content easier.

Another issue is rewards. Raids serve two purposes in a standard MMO. They provide something for players to do, and they buy time (with their gear progression grind and weekly lockouts) for the devs to make the next step of the ladder. Some players will play content into the ground to get what they want. Make the rewards too accessible and they’re done with it too soon. Make them too hard to get and people complain.

Many of the GW1 instances referred to above featured a very small chance for unique drops. This gave them longevity, because they took time to run and people who ran them really wanted that drop. Of course, speed runs were developed, but that only solved one of the problems, it had no effect on the RNG.

I’d like to see what GW2 ANet would do with instanced content like UW and FoW. Unfortunately, they are being pulled in many different directions by their player-base, and they doubtless have a long-term plan which probably does not include this type of content. Still, I think it would be worthwhile to modify their plans to include it. FoW, UW, etc. contributed to keeping GW alive a long time and provided a lot of fun for its players.

I think it would have been better to have used the new effect for enemy AoE and left the old one for friendly.

S Co T T.7910:

4. i understand its a fantasy game but when have … elementalists used daggers? in any form of fantasy rpg? takes the point out of choosing a ranger for his bow and an ele for his backline nuking skills.

In WoW, mages can use a dagger — or a sword. More importantly, in GW, casters could equip any weapon they wanted to. My prot monk had a Firey Gladius. My Ele used a shield. In D&D, mages can use daggers.

laokoko.7403:

Jaall.3420:

The issue being that I’ve played a lot of mmo’s and most of them with the same tools as WoW have been taken over by this jerk-like attitude, and usually originate from these tools being introduced. Like I said I agree the community is to blame and this community is a lot better but anyone here against such tools has a right to be against it given what it has done to other games.

I dont’ know how wow is now. I played it too long ago. But I always felt the dungeon community is alot worse in GW2 than any other game.

The reality is when you mix veteran with new people nothing ever come out good. Take wow for example, you start with normal dungeon, after that you do heroic, after that you do raid. So chances are veteran players wont’ be mixed with new players.

In this game a person who run a dungeon 1000 times could be group up with a person who never done dungeon before. So what end up is alot of elitist, rage quiter, new players want to get carried.

If you meant to tell me other game have a bad dungeon comunity, I have to disagree with you there. I actually felt GW2 have it much worse.

That’s an interesting point. In Rift, the toxicity was there. The accusations of “selfish,” “elitist,” and “leecher looking to be carried” were there. Maybe this was because TW threw tokens that could be used for raid gear into dungeons. Getting that gear meant shortening the time to be fully decked out, so the better players were doing their dungeons, and didn’t want anything to get in the way of doing them as quickly as possible.

Any time games mix people with different expectations, there will be clashes.

Carighan.6758:

UmbraVictor.9842:

This is dejavu with Blizzard. First 3 months frequently on the game. 4th month forums, complains, etc…etc.

Oh noes, the other players! They want non-braindead grinding! How dare they?!

No offense to you, but I found the temple events to be engaging and non-grind before. After 4/30, Lyssa was made more grindy without improving the fun factor.

Nikaido.3457:

IndigoSundown.5419:

What annoys me about requests for an inspect tool is the following.

I see lots of complaint on these forums by people annoyed by gear-based selection for runs, about speed runs, about any other selective criteria. Every time the people setting those criteria tell those people, “Join a guild, set up a friends’ list that thinks like you do.” In other words, don’t PuG.

However, the people setting the criteria want to be able to PuG. They want to be able to do so with as little inconvenience as possible. They even want the inspect feature added so they can kick faster. It’s all about their convenience, and the answer to complaints about their behavior devolve down to, “Put in extra effort to avoid us.”

I say, if you want the convenience of running with the like-minded, take the advice you offer those who complain about your behavior. Don’t PuG.

Hating the thought of this feature is not going to help you. Whether inspect is implemented or not you are going to get kicked, you’re just going to waste more of your own time if it happens during the run. The introduction of inspect would actually help you, whether you realize it or not. It certainly would’ve helped all these people who did get booted during my runs.

It’s not going to help me, mate. I took that advice, I don’t PuG.

I oppose the feature because the downside is somewhere between lack of privacy and griefing and the upside is convenience. In my mind privacy + grief-free > convenience.

Iirc, LotRO had an opt-out in options whereas WoW, when I played it, did not. If GW2 adopted an /inspect feature with an opt-out, all well and good. If some random kitten who wants to look at my stuff for the lolz because he’s bored, and decides to bother me about hiding my stuff, that’s what ignore is for.

So, don’t be concerned, I will never inconvenience you with my presence.

What annoys me about requests for an inspect tool is the following.

I see lots of complaint on these forums by people annoyed by gear-based selection for runs, about speed runs, about any other selective criteria. Every time the people setting those criteria tell those people, “Join a guild, set up a friends’ list that thinks like you do.” In other words, don’t PuG.

However, the people setting the criteria want to be able to PuG. They want to be able to do so with as little inconvenience as possible. They even want the inspect feature added so they can kick faster. It’s all about their convenience, and the answer to complaints about their behavior devolve down to, “Put in extra effort to avoid us.”

I say, if you want the convenience of running with the like-minded, take the advice you offer those who complain about your behavior. Don’t PuG.

OZEL.4872:

It seems like this thread is rather dead, but . . .

— snip —

1. Bandits and krait are harder than centaurs because their conditions are more effective. Having condition removal helps enormously. So does avoiding the most dangerous attacks with dodge, block, etc. However, that last requires being able to recognize those attacks. Having difficulty with these mobs is not attributable solely to down-scaling giving them a chance. There are just harder and easier mobs. Another issue might be your gear. I was having difficulty on a level 70 fighting level 72 mobs, until I noticed my gear was 12 levels below mine, 14 below the mobs. A change of gear, and suddenly no problem.

2. The higher level down-scaled does have an advantage to a character on level, often a significant one. My observation has been that the down-scaled character kills faster than the on-level one by x2 or more. Again, check your gear, make sure its at or close to your level. Also, make sure you have trinkets, their stat boosts are not insignificant.

3. Dungeons are meant to be 5-person content. The blog you linked talks about trying to solo 5-man content in a level 40 dungeon on a level 41 character. This was ill-advised. If you wanted to group for such content and could not find one in guild, zone or in Lions Arch, there’s always gw2lfg.com, a third party site — although there are fewer groups for story mode than for explorable. I;ve seen forum posts indicating that ANet is working on an in-game lfg tool, but it’s not here yet.

4. Finally, it’s been my observation that most of the people who have trouble in GW2 are playing it like it was some other MMO, where movement is counter-productive. Back in the beta, when open world mobs were more difficult, it became apparent to me that GW2 was about move intelligently or die. Now that the open world is easier, this is less true as a general rule, but there are still plenty of combats where trying to face tank the mobs is not a good idea.

Nope, I would prefer they stay away from further Ascended altogether. I didn’t want it in the first place.

It might be useful to differentiate between rares from dungeon tokens and rares from other content. Pedro did not do so, and it might be relevant.

In an average distribution with a Master Kit you would get:

75% of rare items salved would yield 0 ecto.
25% would yield 1-3
Average of 1-3 = 1.5

100 items would yield: (.25*100) * 1.5 = 37 globs
166 items would yield: (.25*166) * 1.5 = 62 globs

Both the OP and Doomknight are above the curve.

To get a consistent average return of .9 per salvage, you would have to have a lot more than 25% of the items salvaged yielding globs, or you’d have to get an average of better than 3 on a 1-3 curve: (100*.25) * x = 90. x = 3.6 on that 1 in 4.

With only one ecto per salvage, 80/166 = .48 and change, well above the 25% chance the Master’s Kit provides. Likewise 42 out of 100.

I don’t know about the “only one” thing, but will report on it if I observe it (or the contrary). Hopefully it’s either a bug from the new patch or a run of “bad luck” which will self-correct over time. It doesn’t seem likely that a random number generator would generate a result of 1 on a 1-3 chance 80 times — but neither does it seem that getting a result of 1-25 on a 1-100 would come up more than 1 time in 4 consistently either.

The big problem with trading with strangers by mail is trust. Do you send them the big-ticket item first? Do they send you the gold first? Do you ask for half first and half after? How does either of you know the other will follow through?

Those who accused you of scamming may be thinking you are trying to get people to send you gold, then not sending the item. They may think this because they have trouble envisioning you trusting something worth that much to the honesty of an anonymous stranger on the internet.

Thanks for the fyi, Andrew.

RoterFuchs.9216:

The most challenge I get is from sPvP, since players are unpredictable.

Until they make mobs unpredictable, they will never be challenging for someone who has mastered the content.

ANet decided to troll the playerbase. Early this year, they were talking about reducing the AoE damage available to players. Players complained. Those player AoE changes have yet to happen. However, the Risen have been given more AoE, so now we can experience the proliferation of AoE in both WvW and PvE.

Stupor.2786:

You say you start this video 11 minutes into the fight. The Priestess should be half dead by then. Why isn’t she? Because most of the people in this video are spread out fighting adds outside of the temple. This is the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

At the start of the fight, everyone should run into the temple and focus their fire on the Priestess. Ignore the adds. The adds will run in after and be killed by the AOE being dropped on the Priestess. With everyone concentrated in the relatively small area inside the temple, you are better able to support each other by laying down combo fields and rezzing. Fighting outside the temple should only happen when you need to defend the seals or if a small group wants to kill the trebuchets (useful but not necessary). I think if you follow this strategy, you will find the fight to go much faster.

I agree with you about the summoned gorilla illusion though. It should de-spawn when the Priestess dies. It doesn’t make sense to me that the illusion stays up after the mesmer dies. Hopefully this is a bug and Anet will fix it

Times I’ve run it since the changes, people were leaving the center because of pressure damage from the huge mass of mobs, and they needed to get away from the pressure to heal. Of course, any mob that was targeting them followed. It’s natural to target the mob that’s attacking you if you are trying not to die. I’m not saying this is optimal behavior, but it is understandable.

The new Risen have more AoE than they did in April (which was more than they had last November) and it is a small area. Sometimes there is literally nowhere to stand that is not AoE, especially if the Risen artillery is all focused on the center temple platform.

And yes, get rid of the Champion once the event is over.

FYI, ranger shortbow auto-attack is range 1200, thief shortbow auto-attack is range 900.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crossfire
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trick_Shot

GoddessHrist.8472:

We already have the ability to ping gear. High performance groups already require it. Adding an inspect feature will simply make it impossible for dishonest players to lie.

I regularly speed run CoF and it is easy to tell when a new addition to the group is not running the required gear and a kick at the acolytes follows. Gear inspection would save everyone time.

How would a toggle-able inspect feature promote elitism anymore than gear pings do currently?

An inspect feature would not save “everyone” time, just the players who have gear requirements. Don’t like the current system? Take the advice offered to people who complain about groups with gear requirements. Make the effort to accumulate a friends list that wants what you want, then you won’t have to pug.

I find people team for: dungeons, WvWvW, or with friends/guild members for leveling. Dungeons can be done starting at level 30. The other two can be engaged in any time.

In GW2, players have the resources to avoid damage. These resources are readily available, albeit in limited quantity. The content has to be mathematically doable assuming players use these resources. If a team uses all of their resources to the fullest and time everything perfectly, but the math says they still failed, well that’s bad design.

The percentage of players who can time things perfectly with consistency is small, so the devs build in more forgiving math. This way, a slip-up is not always a fatal flaw. Too many slip-ups (usually in the form of limited resources used too late, or used at the wrong time and thus not available when needed) will almost always result in failure. This last is, I believe, the major reason that so many find dungeons too hard.

The problem comes in because of the need for repetitive content. Once a skilled player knows what to do, and when, the only issue is timing. If a player has good timing to begin with, s/he will master content easily. Even with adequate timing, s/he will get it down with practice.

So what could harder content test? It can’t be undoable mathematically. Once you have the right gear and know the right skills for the encounter, build is not a factor.

The only thing left is timing. Ergo, harder content — hard mode dungeons, if you will — would have to remove the practice effect which makes mob attacks predictable. Ways to do this would be to completely randomize mob attacks, add more variety to mob attacks and eliminate the big glowy effect on mobs who are doing a devastating attack. Doubtless, others could add to this list.

Another way is to use unavoidable damage, causing an effect similar to team pressure builds in GW1 PvP. Such attacks would overwhelm player ability to survive them over time. The problem with such content is that it becomes a DPS test. Given the limited player skill involved in attack rotations, DPS tests in GW2 owe more to build than skill. Still, this type of encounter might make for a decent skill test (and thus harder content) if its completion requires precise timing in the use of healing/condition removal, etc. in addition to having the DPS.

What’s also uncertain is whether there are sufficient players who would welcome cutting edge difficulty to make the resources needed to produce it worthwhile — but that’s out of my reach.

If ArenaNet has a problem with CoF P1 farming, they’ll fix it. Why should players care whether other players farm or not?

As for exclusionism, let it be. It’s going to happen no matter what players say or what ANet does. If it’s not 4 W/1 M CoF 1 it’ll be something else, somewhere else. Players can be endlessly inventive, and some are going to seek the most efficient means to their goals. You’d be better off ignoring them and forming your own groups to do what you want, and leave the game design issues to the designers.

tigirius.9014:

There’s an item right now necessary for zerker build that you have to buy 6 of if you want to stack it and it costs 12 gold do to how rare it is to get the mats to drop to make one. It’s going up as we speak but everyone thinks it’s perfectly fine tho.

I don’t think it’s fine. This problem is not caused solely by material rarity — its ancillary cause is the belief that only a maxed direct damage build is desirable. This leads to increased demand. Fix the bloody game balance so that other builds have value and the price will drop.

Here’s a question I’d be interested in knowing the answer to. Are the people who want /inspect because they demand perfection from their random group mates the same people claiming the game is too easy?

As far as the feature itself: the people who want to ensure their group members are perfect have expectations over and above what the game itself requires. This is because they don’t want to be inconvenienced. I have no problem with them playing with whom they want.

That said, those making special requirements should be the ones going out of their way. I see no reason to add a feature for their convenience if it will be detrimental to others’ game experience — which is patently the case.

Bri.8354:

The best reason I can give is that CoF path 1 is out of line with the intended design of the dungeon, is imbalanced in comparison with many of the other dungeons, and as a result there needs to be a change to either bring it in line with what was intended, or reduce the reward so players cannot take advantage of the dungeon being like this.

The reason I suggest DR is because it is the easiest way to address this. The other solution would be a rework of the dungeon, as well as other dungeons which may also be prone to “speed runs” but due to CoF path 1 being the best, are not currently popular.

I suspect ANet will get around to revamping dungeons other than AC sooner or later. I expect CoF P1 will get its day in court when they do — after which their true intentions may be clearer. To me, gauging their intent with dungeon design is chancy, at best.

In the meantime, I have to question whether throwing more DR into the game would be a good idea. The game already has multiple types of DR and adding more strikes me as a poor solution. DR is, as you say, an easier fix — but that does not make it a good idea.

I’m with DarkSider. Orr is fine except for some event scaling issues. I’ll add two things.

1. Gear is very important. If you are running around at level with gear that is 10-15 levels down from yourself and the mobs you’re fighting, you may struggle
2. Events arranged around having players fight Risen in order to protect tissue paper NPC’s are a recipe for frustration. Those NPC’s are static, and ANet has given AoE to some Risen models which did not have it before

Considering that the functionality/effectiveness of staff on 2 of the 4 classes that use it is mediocre to poor, I’d say that form follows function.

morrolan.9608:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Yes, I am biased against games that require a subscription. Why? Because these games all copy the gear-progression repetitive-content mechanics refined by Blizzard, which are essentially designed to keep people p(l)aying every month. I will no longer rent MMO’s. If I want to rent a game I’ll buy a console and go to Redbox.

GW2 has plenty of OCD exploiting mechanisms designed to keep you playing and spending cash in the gem shop.

In GW2 I can ignore things like Legendaries and RNG boxes without thinking I’m missing anything. In most sub games, I am locked out of a percentage of new content unless I gear up for it. In GW2 I can control what I spend based on whether I think it is worth it or not. My choice in a sub game is to pay or leave.

Dikeido.8436:

When you pay a full price do you expect to get the full game or do you expect to get pieces of it as the years go by? You see all those patch you so proudly mention, many of not all is not new content its just the rest of the game. In other words you play full price for an incomplete game.

When you pay full price for a sub game, do you expect to get pieces of it as time goes by? Subscription games also add content to the game as time passes. In fact, that is one of the advantages those in favor point to when they argue that subscription games are better. Why is that a beneficial feature in a sub game but in B2P its “just the rest of the game” that should have been in at launch?

Either the damage stats need to do less, or the defensive stats need to do more.

Bri.8354:

I’m not sure if this will be the most popular thread, but the issue of repetitive “speed runs” in dungeons is something that needs to be addressed

You go into detail about how, but make no attempt to say why.

I switch between characters all the time. I am currently only leveling four characters because the other 5 are already 80. I play them depending on what I want to do. Node farm in Orr = Necromancer time.

Ayrilana.1396:

It is the responsibility of the GUILD as a whole to wait for stragglers.

^^ This ^^

Being in a guild that is disorganized and does not ensure that all its membership succeeds does not mean the content is broken — although it might mean the guild is.

The Broodmother in Malchor’s was changed to make it more “interesting.” This move seems to have backfired, at least as far as seeing the event completed goes. Unfortunately, though there may be servers with groups of players wandering around Orr, I’m not on one. The leashing/out-of-combat-regeneration thing (while I am still in combat) makes it even worse.

I have 9 characters. I switch between them at random as the mood strikes me. I do most everything in the game. I haven’t done explorable dungeons much since November, but I am hoping my new guild will get to them sooner or later.

No matter what zone I’m in, I find things to do. I try to complete Group events solo. I wander and always seem to find something new.

As far as rewards go, I’ve had to adjust my expectations. In other MMO’s, killing bosses in dungeons and raids is the means to acquire new/better gear. GW2 gear is not acquired that way. It can be crafted, earned with accumulated badges, gained from drops from random max level mobs or gotten randomly from chests. I either buy or craft most of mine, though I’ve gotten a few exotic drops I’m saving for alts.

Since buying is a primary means for me, the crap loot is no longer crap, it’s more grist for the gold mill. A chest dropping three blues, a green and a green crest may be crap loot, but it’s also 5-6 silver. Insignificant in the moment, but it adds up over time.

As far as open world drops, I find the GW2 open world to be more rewarding than the WoW open world, for instance. In all my 13 months in WoW I could count the blue gear drops on one hand. I made most of my money there by farming nodes. Drops from mobs fought while gathering never got me much there, but here they do. Even butter is selling for over 40 copper per, and I get it by the threes and fours in low level zones.

I know that the attitude adjustment I’m talking about doesn’t mean much if you’re trying to accumulate gold for a precursor or legendary, but it does help me to feel rewarded for playing.

SplendidDust of AncientSuns.8453:

How do you know I have a “shiny” or not? You know what? Next time you post another incessant and pompous reply and I don’t troll you… remember that. Think about it.

I have no idea what you have. I suspect you want a Legendary or other hard-to-get skin. If I’m wrong, I apologize. If I am wrong, I have no idea what you find grindy, because those are the the only things players cannot get rather easily in this game.

I remember when grind meant being forced to do stuff over and over in order to progress to the next part of a game, like grinding mob kill XP for level after level because there were no quests, or putting raids on farm for week after week until the raid group had the gear to move on. I guess the term has mutated over time.

SplendidDust of AncientSuns.8453:

It’s grindy to the point of depression. That’s a bad business model. Maybe that puts it down better to you.

This is also subjective. If you find inability to get a shiny now to be depressing, then I doubt you will get a better experience in P2P, because they do make people grind if they want to play every aspect of the game.

In case you’re not clear on the P2P grind I’m referring to, see Karizee’s post below mine.

SplendidDust of AncientSuns.8453:

When you P2P you support a dev company that has a steady income from their player base and therefore creates more player-friendly content that nearly everyone appreciates. Something in exchange for paying to play that you take for granted until you play GW2 for a while and you realize how cruddy the rewards are.

Got a nice laugh from this. P2P encourages the development of repetitive content as much as if not more than B2P. That crap is no more “player-friendly” than stuff I see in F2P games, never mind GW2. And no, nearly everyone does not appreciate it. No player base is ever content with what’s put out, no matter which game you’re talking about. For example, look at Rift. In its first year TW put out new content every month, and the forums were a constant sea of discontent about nothing to do.

I’m not saying GW2 is perfect – it isn’t. I still find it far superior to every other MMO I’ve played. You don’t. That’s fine, but it does not mean that one business model is better.

Yes, I am biased against games that require a subscription. Why? Because these games all copy the gear-progression repetitive-content mechanics refined by Blizzard, which are essentially designed to keep people p(l)aying every month. I will no longer rent MMO’s. If I want to rent a game I’ll buy a console and go to Redbox.

Karizee.8076:

Nope. Are you doing events or just renown hearts?

^

8 renown hearts is not enough to get a level at 50.

Morrigan.2809:

I would have said Engineer and I have no idea why you dislike them. Engi and Mesmer are the mokittenn imo and I find my Engi as survivable as my Mesmer- she just kills a lot faster and I mean a lot

The OP has played Warrior, Guardian and Engineer, and only as high as 30. If you compare the damage of the other two classes to Engineer at early levels, the Engineer will be seen as inferior damage-wise. This is designed into the class by ANet’s philosphy.

As the Engineer gets closer to 80, s/he can compensate for low damage coefficients on rifle/pistol skills by using kits — and traits to augment those kits. For example:

• Grenades are very weak until you can take the Grandmaster trait at level 60
• Bombs do excellent damage, but require you to be in close. At higher levels, more trait points and more stat points on gear means that you can stack Toughness as well as Power

And my Mesmer can still out-damage my Engineer. While this is not true for you, it is likely this is due to how you have the two characters specced, not something inherent in the classes themselves.

Boyd.5438:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Boyd.5438:

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s eminently possible to make gold in game. I made 10 today in about two hours, playing inefficiently.

As to the OP? I’m not fond of the spider hatchlings being spawned by the Veteran and the veteran hatchlings spawned by the champion spiders. They drop no loot, are a pain to kill (the vets anyway) and add nothing but tedium to the fight.

show me where. dungeon or orr? what about t6 mats? how many?

if you did not get t6 mats, what did you get?

if no t6 mats, what happens when even TP runs out? its so cheap, blood and scales are up to 25s each. maybe it should hit 1g each like lodes

btw, im talking in general, and im farming/grinding for mats. not gold.

I ran around Orr for two hours; mostly farmed nodes, which I sold. I did a Jofast’s, a shelter and a penitent. I also wasted (from a time = reward standpoint) 10 minutes killing a Champ Risen Wraith because it took 5-6 minutes for people to get the message to move away during the life drain phase. I got about 40 Moldy Bags in total, with maybe 7-8 T6 mats in them. Sold them all along with 31 Ori, a stack of mithril, a half stack of wood, omnoms, etc.

likely u got 30 bags from those penitent events, and maybe 10 more from odd mobs. ores only from nodes.

i have rows of orich and mithril, pretty useless but serves as a backup instead when i need them.

back to point. after all that 2 hours and u got 10 gold. how much t6 mats in total did you get? that you sold? i mean, bloods, scales, bones, totems etc. not including leather, gossamer and mithril/orich trash.

10 gold can only get you about 38 bloods. or 10 icy runestones. or a crafting recipe. (that is by sacrificing loot you get for gold and converting back into a different mat.)

to get full set of 250 of each t6 mats and 500 ectos + lodes etc. how long does it take to get them?

or just to fill up your bank?

I wish I could be more help. Like I said, I got 7 to 8 T6 mats. I sold them, and don’t remember exactly what they all were — although I do remember getting a blood, a venom sack, a dust and a claw. I’m not collecting for a legendary, so I pretty much sell anything I don’t need right now for crafting exotics for alts.

The bag estimate might have been closer to 25 at events and the rest from random mobs, as I got several during the 10 minutes or so it took to do the underwater kills for the daily.

I agree that it takes a long time to gather for the legendary, but those were put in to the game to be massive time sinks, so yeah, that’s grind by design.

The grass is always greener.

Try to enchant gear in Neverwinter without spending money. A poster on their forums calculated that if one were to do all of the in-game activities that reward the correct currency each day, it would take 83 days to get one enchantment. This is a boost to stats.

In WoW, I farmed mats nearly every day and after 8-9 months had enough gold to buy 6 crafted Epic armor pieces that were not even BiS. As of right now in GW2 — about 9 months in — I could buy 58 BiS gear pieces and I have only farmed inefficiently and irregularly.

The only grind in GW2 is for a legendary weapon.

Boyd.5438:

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s eminently possible to make gold in game. I made 10 today in about two hours, playing inefficiently.

As to the OP? I’m not fond of the spider hatchlings being spawned by the Veteran and the veteran hatchlings spawned by the champion spiders. They drop no loot, are a pain to kill (the vets anyway) and add nothing but tedium to the fight.

show me where. dungeon or orr? what about t6 mats? how many?

if you did not get t6 mats, what did you get?

if no t6 mats, what happens when even TP runs out? its so cheap, blood and scales are up to 25s each. maybe it should hit 1g each like lodes

btw, im talking in general, and im farming/grinding for mats. not gold.

I ran around Orr for two hours; mostly farmed nodes, which I sold. I did a Jofast’s, a shelter and a penitent. I also wasted (from a time = reward standpoint) 10 minutes killing a Champ Risen Wraith because it took 5-6 minutes for people to get the message to move away during the life drain phase. I got about 40 Moldy Bags in total, with maybe 7-8 T6 mats in them. Sold them all along with 31 Ori, a stack of mithril, a half stack of wood, omnoms, etc.

Wow. I have enough gold to exotic somewhere between 10-15 alts. The only thing I cannot afford is a precursor or legendary. Good thing I don’t want one, eh? That said, I don’t farm that often, but when I do I feel content with what the game gives me.

I’ll bet the spider hatchlings don’t drop loot because they are “technically” part of the original mob. Whether they drop loot or not, Veteran Spider Hatchlings as infinite repeat summons is a bad mechanic. It can get out of control if you are at the minimum number of players to spawn the champion spider in the first place, with no hope to ever catch up on killing them.

It’s eminently possible to make gold in game. I made 10 today in about two hours, playing inefficiently.

As to the OP? I’m not fond of the spider hatchlings being spawned by the Veteran and the veteran hatchlings spawned by the champion spiders. They drop no loot, are a pain to kill (the vets anyway) and add nothing but tedium to the fight.

TooBz.3065:

First, I don’t think anyone complained about getting an alt to 80, that’s easy.

Nor was I talking about getting an alt to max. I was talking about getting them to be competitive in top tier endgame, a very different thing.

TooBz.3065:

Second, why is it that nature of the MMO beast? And is that the best nature the beast could have?

Some players require MMO’s to keep their attention over extended periods of time, while playing many hours each day. That is why MMO’s have repetitive, time-gated content. It may not be the best, but all games do it because the alternative is that those players leave if they don’t have something to do.

TooBz.3065:

Could someone help me understand how it would harm the game to have ascended gear be account bound instead of soulbound? I don’t think it would harm Vayne’s casual play style. Nor would it cause harm to the gear grinders with a single toon. But it would greatly help those who have already leveled multiple alts to 80 and are just waiting around for BiS gear.

Ascended gear is account bound, until you use it on a character. In the course of getting that first character to high fractal levels, chances are players will accumulate Ascended gear for alts.

Before Fotm/Ascended, many players sped through dungeons under the token system. Exotic/dungeon gear was BiS and was easy to get. Many players complained
about the lack of progression and incentive to keep playing over time. FotM and Ascended gear were put into the game in answer to those complaints. Removing soul binding from used Ascended gear would not be in accordance with the reason it was put into the game in the first place.