Guild Wars 2

Delryn.7235:

Guild Wars (one) had a better balance between melee and ranged, you had your melee characters and you had your ranged – it was all fine and dandy. Your melee would run in and and do what they did while the ranged stayed back doing what they did.

Though Guild Wars had a better balance for melee and ranged there were still some places where melee was at a horrible disadvantage. Me and a friend were doing a mission and we had a few henchmen in the party, the mission was insanely difficult because when we did it we were under leveled. We kept on trying again and again and again and failing again and again and again.

Our henchmen kept on dying no matter how fast we tried healing them, they’d just get wiped out too quickly because the enemy had some powerful melee attacks that surrounded it (I think said skill is called Double Dragon, it’s an elementalist elite). We decided to throw out the melee henchmen and replace them all with ranged, EVERYONE in the party was ranged… the very first time we tried doing that mission with only ranged, BOOM done, we won – first try.

Now in Guild Wars I found it to be a LOT more rare finding encounters where melee had a horrible disadvantage than I find in Guild Wars 2 – SO many places in GW2 are so unfriendly to melee – and this is clearly obvious and shown by the simple fact ALL melee classes have ranged weapons… because you’re not meant to be a 100% pure natural melee for all the content, yet being 100% pure natural ranged for all content is completely acceptable.

THAT I think is wrong.

I found GW1 to be full of melee hate. Ranged in GW1 had to worry about very little. Casters had to watch for Backfire. Then there was Spiteful Spirit, and maybe a few other things, most of which also affected melee. GW1 was also full of cripple, knock and blind. Blind affected rangers (but they did not get targeted if they were using longbow or flatbow with a terrain advantage. Blind did not affect casters’ spells. If you were avoiding melee, knock and cripple didn’t even get applied a lot of the time. Yes, cripple and blind can be removed, but since most mob groups have multiple members who can apply them, they would often just get re-applied.

On the flip side, there seems to be less melee hate in GW2. Mob cripples tend to last a long time, but if I remove it, is not immediately re-applied. Blind is a small bump in the road. Knocks can be dodged. The biggest issue for melee in GW2 is the heavy hits put out by mobs in dungeons (and some Champions and Event bosses in open world).

I never met an unidentified dye I didn’t like.

I’ve found a lot to like in GW2. I’ve also found things that I think could have been done differently and better. Perhaps some of those problems will be fixed over time. One of my dislikes at launch was the many bugged DE’s. Over time, I am seeing less and less of these.

Instance ownership in GW2 is poorly designed and implemented. So many other games got this right, but for some reason, GW2 did not. I agree this needs to be changed.

There is a perceived difference in efficiency between a geared 80 and a geared low level. I don’t see how debating the actual difference in efficiency (or lack thereof) is relevant. A few people throwing numbers around in a thread are not going to convince anyone they are “doing it wrong.” It’s a group’s prerogative to limit their group composition. It’s not our prerogative to tell them not to.

Devil’s advocate questions to those saying the difference is quite small and matters only for speed running. How do you know that every group asking for 80’s-only is not looking for the best speed possible through the dungeon? Who gets to decide what their goals are and how achieving those goals is best accomplished, if not the members of those groups?

Mackdose.6504:

Spencer.1386:

Geotherma.2395:

Grinding for a month for 1 piece of the best gear in game. I have no words to express how very much I wish EVERY game was this “difficult” in this aspect.

I have great appreciation for the epic feeling of working toward something for a long time and finally achieving it. The problem with your ideology is that it doesn’t fit in this game. Guild Wars 1 was never about getting better gear, the stats where all the same. It was about getting cooler looking gear and ascended gear is better. Ascended gear has higher stats which gives an advantage to players who where hardcore enough to get it. I’m not saying grind is bad, I enjoyed my 6 years in World of Warcraft. I’m just saying that grind wasn’t intended to be a part of this game.
“Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games.”
- Mike Obrien

Your logic fails in this respect: You don’t need to be hardcore to get ascended items.

You need to be hardcore to get the items quickly.

I’m taking my sweet time with these items, they aren’t required for me to enjoy the game. If you need maximum stats to enjoy the game then you’ve got the problem, not the game.

^ Sweet Dwayna, this ^

The “pressure” to get these things in as little a time as the game allows is self-imposed. Once you decide, “I’ll get these when and if I get them.” the grind disappears.

Yeah, I love how precursors and even legendaries are sellable, but the shards are not.
/sarcasm

Anwar.2018:

Sadly, it IS the jumping. As you get older, figuring things out doesn’t get harder…getting your hands to do exactly what you want quickly and perfectly does.

I’ve been frustrated at that one, also. I’m old … and have arthritis in my fingers. The last jump is doable, even so. I’ll admit that failing that far in, with the prospect of having to do all that kitten again is frustrating, but it’s just a game … try again when you’re rested, or not. Either way, don’t let it ruin your day.

Alarox.4590:

How about ArenaNet removes Ascended gear and, instead of adding grind to replace lack of quality content, actually adds things into the game strictly because they are fun?

At least, that’s the kind of GW2 I heard about 6 months ago.

But hey, ArenaNet is still infallible right? They’re always right… they must be…

ANet is not infallible. They created a ton of content, assuming that people would play it because it IS fun. What the first few months of live has taught them is that: their idea of fun is not the same as that of many players; or that many players do not play content for fun, they play it to get something; or both.

Nalora.7964:

Yes, I figured you probably realized I was in a foul mood today, and feeling sarcastic.

… snip …

I just want to have fun for a long time in Guild Wars 2, I guess, and more and more it looks like the party is over.

Nalora: I am seeing most of the same things that you are, but I am reacting to them differently. I don’t experience any grind in GW2. Any time I am faced with doing something I really don’t want to do, I just don’t do it. If I decide to do something because I want the outcome/reward then I do it, realizing I chose to do it.

I also don’t stress about not getting something. If I want something, but don’t want to do what it takes to get it, I decide not to go for it. If I want something and getting it faster means doing stuff I prefer not to do, I just take longer. I don’t have to have it now.

There are things about the game I do not like. I ask for change if I think it’s warranted, but I have no thought that it has to happen. If it means I avoid that part of the game, well there are a lot of things in the game I DO like to do, so no big deal.

When I decided to buy GW2, I chose not to look at it as an MMO, with the expectations that I have seen expressed about MMO’s here, there and everywhere on the internet. Instead, I looked at it as a game. I was paying $60 US for a game that I have to this point played for > 1200 hours. To me, this has been a good value, since I have paid as much for other games and played for much less time.

This is not meant to criticize your way of looking at GW2, but to suggest a different way of looking at the game that might promote your having more fun. You can say no to grind and still play and enjoy GW2. Whether you want to do that or not, good luck going forward, no matter what your choice of entertainment is.

Astral Projections.7320:

Apparently there is a cooldown between revives. It may be there to stop people from repeatedly suiciding themselves by leaping off high places so that others can rez them.

A good low level spot for revives is the Thaumanova Reactor in Metrica. Lots of dead NPCs in there.

I’ve got several spots to find NPC’s. This was a player. Well, if it’s a CD, then no need to report as a bug. Thanks.

For some people, dungeon running is all about speed. I read a thread yesterday that was a guide to speed running CoF Ex-1. One of the tips to GS Warriors was, “Only use Whirlwind Attack when the boss is up against the wall, you will lose more dps running back than WA will give you.”

The point is that people speed running want to spend as little time as possible to get the reward. They perhaps perceive that a level 80 with full trait points, and presumably exotic gear, will have better numbers than a lower level character. Better numbers are going to yield better results, assuming equal skill. Skill can be taught, but no amount of teaching can improve a lower level character’s numbers.

Since GW2 is a game to “play as you want,” it’s perhaps better to let them play as they want than to complain about their preferences on the forums.

If you enjoy GW2’s gameplay, all of the classes are fun to play. Even the ones that under-perform in comparison to the others. Without knowing more about your preferences, anything else would just be rambling on my part.

You wouldn’t like me when I ramble.

Two days ago I was running through Queensdale doing the daily, and saw a player doing the skill challenge near the vale Waypoint, solo. The player was downed. I went in and revived, and got credit for the healer daily. I then stayed to help DPS the challenge NPC and the player went down a second time. I revived her again, and we finished the challenge. I got no credit for the second revive, which was shortly after the first (10-20 seconds).

Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know if this is as intended? Should I report it as a bug?

After trying RP in AoC, I stopped because I prefer tabletop, and I do not type fast enough for the interaction to feel natural. On the other hand, I have nothing against others RPing in an online game. I also try not to annoy anyone, including those who RP.

One of my tabletop RP friends has a T Shirt with the quote, “An armed society is a polite society.” Haters exist, but will only manifest that behavior when they can get away with it. There are rarely any real consequences for griefing in an online game. That is the problem.

My complaint against MF is that it is an unnecessary tax on farming. If you want better drops, you have to have it and wear it over the long haul. If they dropped MF on gear and boosted everyone’s drop rates by 100%, they’d alleviate a lot of the complaints about the game being unrewarding.

Tolmos.8395:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raine.1394:

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

Seems like the overwhelming majority of opinion in this thread is that the items in the chest are not worth the cost. If that is true for the overwhelming majority of players, then chests/keys are a failed “glaring funnel to the gem shop.”

If the RNG for them wasn’t so craptastic it would be worth it.

When the game first released the RNG wasn’t near this bad. My loot for headstart weekend:

1 Abyss dye
1 Black dye
1 Midnight Fire dye
1 Everlasting Mystery Tonic (or whatever it’s called- the infinite mystery tonic :-P)

I got all of that between Friday-Sunday. I was one of 11 people in headstart that I saw on Divinity Reach chat say they got one of those tonics… and I didnt stay in DR that much, nor does that count for the other towns. I used a total of 7 keys to get it.

After that? In ALLLLL the time since headstart? I’ve have never seen another everlasting tonic, despite having used close to 100 keys since release. My gf, who used close to that many, never saw even one everlasting tonic. And I never see folks saying they are getting them on town chat anymore.

Sometime between headstart and now the RNG got demolished. There is no sense of reward for using the keys anymore. It’s not that there are no good rewards (unless you just don’t like cosmetic stuff), it’s that you have a better chance of winning the RL powerball lottery than actually seeing those rewards.

Tweaking the RNG to allow for some big winners early is a marketing technique common in Asian MMO’s with gamble boxes. Perhaps it was used here as well.

Raine.1394:

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

Seems like the overwhelming majority of opinion in this thread is that the items in the chest are not worth the cost. If that is true for the overwhelming majority of players, then chests/keys are a failed “glaring funnel to the gem shop.”

Celtic Lady.3729:

It wouldn’t break my heart at all if they ever decided to separate out the PvP and PvE map completions. They already have separate PvP and PvE dailies, so it makes sense to have two map completion categories: PvP and PvE. Both would be required for legendaries, of course, but if the map completions were separate, players could decide to do them both or just do the one they prefer. That way everyone could have a 100% of their choosing or go out and get both.

I’ve been saying this for a while. It’s a good idea that should please players who prefer PvE only and ones who prefer WvW only. Giving players things to do is never a bad idea in an MMO.

Just give me…

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=yff80awe&p=ring+of+fire

I also wonder about chest loot in GW2. Just for comparison, item rarities in GW1 and GW2:

• GW1: White * GW2: White
• GW1: Blue * GW2: Blue/Fine
• GW1: Purple * GW2: Green/MW
• GW1: Gold * GW2: Gold/Rare
• GW1: Green * GW2: Orange/Exotic

Now, the only chests that I can recall in GW1 were in dungeons, FoW and UW. Those chests always dropped 2 items (gold or green), as well as rare crafting materials. The chance for a Green (given the frequency with which I saw them) was not a miniscule chance. Some of the gold items were also highly sought after (more valuable than the greens, really), as they were rare and highly desirable skins (e.g., Voltaic Spear). Even the common yellows might have a desirable mod that could be salvaged. Now, in GW1, doing a dungeon might take a bit longer (though there were speed runs there, too).

So, how does the same company come to the conclusion that chests (dungeon and open world) in GW2 should drop blues and greens, whose value above vendor price or salvage is mostly non-existent?

Leamas.5803:

GaiusJuliusCasear.7253:

I know I am waiting for Elder Scrolls Online. GW2 wasn’t as fun as I was thinking it would be. I know I like to craft which for GW2 is a huge gold sink.

ESO will let you do what you want to do. GW2 has me feeling forced to do a single path to 80. If you start as a profession you often will be leveling in those lands. However, there are a fine amount of hearts and just a very simple personal story for you to do.

ES games I often hardly touch the main for a while. Heck, I run into more dungeons and find bandits then sell their stuff off. I have never been poor for long in any ES game.

Keep in mind…this is “ESO” and not “ES”. Don’t count your chickens quite yet. The dynamics of the on-line game are going to be vastly different than a traditional ES game.

Yeah, KotOR was a great game, SWtOR had good story (well, some of them), but was a mediocre WoW knock-off as an MMO.

kiba.2768:

logged on for 45 minutes before going out to dinner. this is what i got after doing 5 events. atypical for me, as i usually see 5g/h.

i’m estimating 11-13g after everything’s been sold off

Never mind the rares, 92 Heavy Moldy Bags, in 45 minutes? 92?

Are there even any broken events in Malchor’s Leap? I don’t recall any. My sojourn there after reset was terrible drop-wise. 2 Heavy bags, 2 whites, 1 blue, a few bones, a few copper.

MaRko.3165:

1) If you want to play a ‘farming’ game there’s “Farmville”, otherwise the term has no place in a video game play ‘style’.

2) Its simple really, unless players wish to deal with uncontrolled inflation there needs to be a limit to how much gold is ‘in the game’. Gold going into (drops) the game needs to be less than or equal to Gold taken out of the game.

3) Those that focus their game play ‘style’ on extracting as much riches out of the game as possible just shift those riches out of the hands of the many into the hands of the few. This limits the amount of riches available to other players.

4) I could understand that this is more of a ‘style of play’ rather than abuse if Anet has not constantly ‘nerfed’ the DR of popular ‘farming’ events and locations.

1) So, all those years, people in every MMO who harvested drops or nodes to sell them have been doing it wrong. Got it.

2) Yes, inflation can result from the amounts of gold in the game; the prices of exotics has inflated; so has the price of ectos. Supply is only part of that equation, however. Yes, games have money sinks, but these do not “take out” an equal amount of gold to that provided by drops. Money sinks ablate the amount of in-game gold, they don’t come close to balancing it.

3) I might agree that TP players are making gold by shifting it from others to themselves. They are doing something similar to what commodities traders do irl. However, players farming Shelter/Pentitent are not taking gold out of your bank. This assumption presumes that there is an absolute limit to the amount of gold in the game, and that is just not true. If every player played more hours, and more efficiently, there would be more gold in the game.

4) The presented reasons for DR (bots) and for changing events like Plinx (they wanted people to experience other content, not just do Plinx every 10 minutes) do not match your assumptions. If ANet considered farming to be abusive, I doubt they’d be adjusting drop rates upwards (Champion/Vet adjustment, more heavy bags in Orr, level appropriate drops for higher levels playing in lower-level areas).

Ruprect.7260:

Lol how do you go for hours without seeing a dead npc. There are so many places in this game where they are everywhere just randomly, not even during an event.

Finding bodies littering the ground is zone dependent. For example, if you’re playing to map complete Lornar’s Pass, or Bloodtide Coast, you might go a long time without seeing anyone downed, player or NPC, especially if you haven’t memorized the few places in those zones where you can find some.

MaRko.3165:

Personally, I blame the ‘farmers’. If everyone were just playing the game ‘normally’ then the DR’s could be adjusted UP so everyone could enjoy. However since there’s a percentage of players abusing content by ‘farming’ it, Anet has no choice but to lower the drop rate for everyone because of the abuse of the few.

I dislike the idea of DR as much as the next person, but seriously… you blame people for playing the way they want? Farming is abusing content? Why is “your” way of playing “normal” and other peoples’ way of playing “abuse?” I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that people can play GW2 “the way they want to.”

Celtic Lady.3729:

No, you’re not wrong. They “said” it was meant to be a long-term goal. I’m just saying that this purpose more or less falls apart when you consider that the path of least resistance is to simply buy any legendaries a player wants. Some people will take the route of trying to acquire one through gameplay, sure, but a lot of people won’t since it’s more work and takes longer to do it that way. I’m sure it was taken into consideration that folks will be likely to buy gems for gold for legendaries, so A-net obviously benefits from this arrangement. I’m just saying it would seem a lot more like a long-term goal intended to keep people playing if everyone actually had to play the game to get them.

That sounds suspiciously like common sense on the internet. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

Celtic Lady.3729:

IndigoSundown.5419:

On the Legendary: this was meant to be a long-term goal.

Honestly, I think if acquiring a legendary was truly meant to be a long-term goal, these items would have been account-bound, at least. Being able to buy them off the TP is less of a long-term goal and more of a shopping spree, to my way of thinking. lol

Well, darn it, I’m pretty sure that one of the dev blogs pre-launch talked about Legendaries as long-term goals. Maybe I’m wrong, though the comment about Ascended providing a bridge between the easily-acquired dungeon sets and the hard-to-get Legendary suggests I’m not.

I’m not sure why the decision was made to make them sellable. Maybe because the hardcore in GW1 farmed the best weapon skins and sold them for lots of platinum and the devs wanted some of that action in this game? Maybe because ANet figured people with more disposable income than time would spend it for gold?

Hellkaiser.6025:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Hellkaiser.6025:

RMT is fine, but GW2’s Cash Shop feels like it’s “You’ll suffer unless you give us your cash freeloader” when the most successful ones are “If you like us you’ll support us which is win/win”

I’m curious. Since this is very much not my reaction, what is the difference between us? I don’t feel I’m suffering and I only give them cash when I want something — like I do with every other merchant. The only thing that comes to mind is that I doubt I will ever forge a Legendary item.

Our in-game goals and what drives us are clearly different, neither one of us is wrong or right, I simply see it that if aesthetics were to be the driving force behind your character progression post 80, that making those goals insanely gated by RNG then adding in “boosts” and “random chance boxes” containing “exclusive” loot was a very dubious method, add to this the fact that for a supposedly horizontal and aesthetically driven system there’s a TON of re-used skins and honestly? I don’t know what’s going through the cash shop developers mind…

There on one hand seems to be the potential to match other superior aesthetic RMT services of other games in terms of quality and whatnot, and yet it falls far short of this by simply being what many would describe as either “pointless” or “not worth it”
Don’t get me wrong, quaggan backpack is epic, and hopefully we’ll see more of the likes in future, but well… this was obviously stuff that should have been included earlier, at the end of the day, buying gold with gems was always going to be a bit odd and would affect the game and the minute the game feels unrewarding it was going to shoulder the blame for it.

And honestly I used to talk EXACTLY like many who defend this game do which is kind of scary, because once I hit the brick wall that was “endgame” and seen my options for repeatable content I found the game lacking, either that or quite literally “torturous” without giving myself a little “cash boost” which honestly, is the last thing I after so many years gaming want to spend my money on, it may seem odd to deem something like a unique skin in league of legends as better than a exp boost or flat gold conversion in GW2, but the difference to me is large. One is a permanent way to show I support the game and it’s developers and get a nice aesthetic difference often with unique animations etc (nothing major) and the other is a tiny drop in an ocean to help in terms of grind towards a long term goal that has little to no structure and is one horrible journey to get something that holds no prestige.

Thanks for taking the time to explain your thoughts. I agree that: there should be more desirable “skins” in the GW2 store, and that the number of re-used skins in an aesthetics-driven game boggles the mind (all of the temple sets look the same, really?).

On the Legendary: this was meant to be a long-term goal. One might argue that it is one of only two long-term goals GW2 provides. Well, once speed-runners “proved” they could get their dungeon sets in under a month, that is. MMO’s have provided long-term goals for a long time, and have always needed to time-gate them in some fashion since players will find the shortest path to any in-game goal, then be complaining about nothing to do once the novelty of their accomplishment wears off.

The large number of requirements for a Legendary is meant to serve part of that function in GW2, and the Precursor RNG is the rest of it. I feel people on this issue, though I don’t share that goal.

The negative aspect of Precursor RNG is that someone gets a Precursor on their first attempt, someone else never gets it. Both extremes are bad, the early-get means that that player is “done” once he gets the other stuff, the never-get means that player is going to be perpetually frustrated. While I understand ANet’s dilemma with wanting to provide a long-term goal, I think that Mystic Forge RNG was a mistake. I can only hope they will sooner or later do something to make a Precursor a long-term goal that is within reach.

Halanna.3927:

I really like the new dailies. I don’t have to go out of my way to do any of them, except the underwater one. I’d like to see that changed from 25 to 10, but…

It happens through natural play. I think they are great. And I never step foot in WvW for any of them, this month anyway.

I think I read next month has WvW, so I"ll be skipping that one. I don’t like PvP forced on me as a PvE player.

But maybe every other month will be like this one and I can actually get my monthlies done now and then! And I do my daily every day, because if you just play the game, it’s practically impossible not to.

If they aren’t planning to allow choice in monthlies as well as dailies, then they ought to be.

This looks more like an anecdote and less like proof. A report of one event ending successfully without intervention might indicate a bug, or that that event is easy, but you cannot generalize from this that all events are (too) easy.

I find them far more fun and far less demanding than in other MMO’s that feature daily quests.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Protoavis.9107:

Given that the only thing world completions gets you is 2 ingredients for a legendary weapon which also requires you to get 500 Badges of Honor from WvWvW I fail to see what the problem is.

It also gets you a completed symbol on your login page, a star beside your name, and 100% for your character in general.

Seriously, there is more than one way to look at most things.

Yeah, some people like having goals they want to complete. Split the achievement into one for Tyria and one for the WvW Mists, then make the legendary requirement drop when you complete both. Design separate symbols for all three. This would please both those who do not want to WvW and those who don’t want to leave WvW.

Krag.6210:

Speaking about utilities and swapping them on the fly.
I’d really like to be able to swap my utilities that are on cooldown, without removing the cooldown of course but just so I can be ready with the rights utilities for the next fight.

Example: CoE, laser part, mesmer. I jump my way to the other side then drop a portal for my teammates, meaning I’m stuck with the portal for the next bossfight event though I’d like my Feedback, Blink, Mirror Images to be ready at some point in the fight.

In guild or friend groups, you can say, “Can we wait x seconds for CD?” In a Pug though, you might get kicked for asking to hold them up.

Ditto on Healing Signet.

If you get in over your head, try circle kiting. With Sword/Ax, staying out of reach half the time while the sword’s bleeds ablate mob health and your heal sig restores yours is a powerful tactic. Also, as you level and gear up, your ability to handle larger numbers of mobs will increase.

Another tactic is to use Rifle in your other weapon slot. If mobs are tightly packed you might be able to pull one, or some, rather than jumping into all of them at once. Also, if you are speccing for some condition damage for sword, this will also help rifle’s Bleeding Shot.

Yes, ax/ax and greatsword will do more damage at higher levels, but you have to spec for it (i.e., you must stack at least some Power and Precision to increase the base damage and get critical hits).

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

IndigoSundown.5419:

So, my next question to those who want drop rates increased, are you using MF? MF is essentially a tax on farming, and not using it puts you at the lower end of the distribution.

The people making bank on drops in GW2 are stacking MF as high as they can and must know where to farm, and how to farm. Making money in GW2 is not just a matter of quality of drops, it’s a matter of volume. The drops that are really worth something are Rares/Exotics and T6 Mats, hence the stacking of MF to increase the likelihood of getting one, but all the other crap adds up over time.

This is not to say that chest loot is not pretty underwhelming, or that some people seem to still be experiencing lack of drops from vets and champs (though I am not in that group), or that the drop tables don’t need some work, if only to increase the variety of prefixes and sigils/runes on rare drops.

On the other hand, my bank account is only 12G below W. Kitty’s. I have done exactly 3 dungeon runs since mid-October (no FotM). I have only one character with MF gear (which I almost never use). I have 4 80’s in exotics (absent 1 earring). Oh, and I have not used gems to get gold, nor do I care if anyone believes me.

I salvaged my entire MF set and sold all the runes I got back.

I stopped using MF a long time ago, I still get great drops.

MF is only worth it if you do a lot of open world stuff (mostly in cursed shore)

Oh, I agree … and isn’t that what people claiming to make serious money say they are doing? Let’s face it, there are claims in this thread of ~5G/hour. To make my 172G or your 184G would take about 5-6 hours a day for a week at that rate.

I also get good drops … sometimes.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . and show of hands, if Ascended Gear only had the statistic boost while in Fractals and everywhere else it had Exotic stats, who’d still be complaining?

No one, I hope … but, this is the internet… >.>

So, my next question to those who want drop rates increased, are you using MF? MF is essentially a tax on farming, and not using it puts you at the lower end of the distribution.

The people making bank on drops in GW2 are stacking MF as high as they can and must know where to farm, and how to farm. Making money in GW2 is not just a matter of quality of drops, it’s a matter of volume. The drops that are really worth something are Rares/Exotics and T6 Mats, hence the stacking of MF to increase the likelihood of getting one, but all the other crap adds up over time.

This is not to say that chest loot is not pretty underwhelming, or that some people seem to still be experiencing lack of drops from vets and champs (though I am not in that group), or that the drop tables don’t need some work, if only to increase the variety of prefixes and sigils/runes on rare drops.

On the other hand, my bank account is only 12G below W. Kitty’s. I have done exactly 3 dungeon runs since mid-October (no FotM). I have only one character with MF gear (which I almost never use). I have 4 80’s in exotics (absent 1 earring). Oh, and I have not used gems to get gold, nor do I care if anyone believes me.

Downed state replaced the dedicated healer. It gives your party a chance to give you health back.

There sure are a lot of complaints about drop rates. I’ve seen a lot of nebulous requests for better drops, but other than “drop DR,” nothing specific. So, what exactly would people like to see from drops? How often “should” desirable drops drop? For that matter, what constitutes a desirable drop?

Hellkaiser.6025:

RMT is fine, but GW2’s Cash Shop feels like it’s “You’ll suffer unless you give us your cash freeloader” when the most successful ones are “If you like us you’ll support us which is win/win”

I’m curious. Since this is very much not my reaction, what is the difference between us? I don’t feel I’m suffering and I only give them cash when I want something — like I do with every other merchant. The only thing that comes to mind is that I doubt I will ever forge a Legendary item.

Katai.6240:

Right now our skill list (15+ skills per character) is very large compared to the skill pool, so we can have pretty much everything we want. There’s an illusion of decision, but there’s really none.

Also, some of the utility skills are pretty much a no-brainer choice. Once you get to where you “could” do the dungeon explorables at L35, how many players are slotting stun break and condition removal most of the time? More importantly, how many players in PvP are not slotting a SB and CR?

Let’s also not forget about the effect of stats and traits on weapon choice. For example, say a Necro builds for PVT, and not Condition Damage. This choice shunts the Necro to Ax or Dagger main hand. Sure, that Necro can slot a staff or scepter, but without + condition damage those weapons will under-perform.

It’s a gamble box. The only way that it could be worth it is if you get lucky with the RNG. So, do you feel lucky?

All I’ve seen is that bunker Ele is getting “adjusted downward.”. Just how hard and in what way remains to be seen. I hope Ele doesn’t become the new Engineer after the nerf, but my confidence in the dev team is not that strong right now.

Every mob I’ve seen in game takes condition damage, including the tree.

MaRko.3165:

The point here is not the cost – its what your getting for it.

Worth emphasizing. Most sub games consist of boring game play with no story, all aimed at getting you to the endgame dailies and treadmill that is designed to keep you p(l)aying. I know some people swear by this type of game, so gl and hf with it. It’s not for me, whereas I am finding GW2, warts and all, to be more fun than any other MMO I’ve played. If GW2 was designed around a sub, it would likely be just like the other MMO’s with subs, and I will no longer support that.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

I think this is why all the dungeons should be revamped so the casual players can actually do all of them without causing undue grief to other players. This way, the core players who already know the strats essentially get a more relaxed run without having to worry about random pugs wasting their time.

Or you could have adjustable content for skill levels – For example, players must complete each level before progressing to the next tier, at least this way…you know the player should at least know the dungeon.

Baby – Basically, the dungeon ~ everyone can complete, lowest level of loot
Easy – For Casual players ~ average loot
Medium – Slightly harder level, better loot. More mobs.
Core – For the average players, considered ‘normal’ mode.
Hardcore – For guilds or hardcore players, better loot – harder bosses
Elite – Equal to hardmodes, for highly geared/highly motivated players only.

I’m not sure there’s a need for that many tiers. CO has 4 tiers and no one uses the middle two – although to be fair, their Elite difficulty is not that hard. GW1 had normal and hard modes. GW2 could get by with easy, normal and hard.

Sharkinu.8096:

Lynne.8416:

Here is an example of MY issue with RNG. Party of 4, playing together for a few hours.
Participant #1, wow! this is awesome! I netted 6 rares, 10 greens!
Patricipant #2 wow! this is terrible! I only netted 1 green!
Particpant #3 I did okay with 1 rare and 4 greens
Particpant #4 I did pretty well with 3 rare and 2 greens

Most people expect a certain amount of reward for their effort and when they don’t receive it, they feel like they were taken advantage.

If they feel they do not receive enough of a reward to justify their participation, then they stop playing the game.

The thing is that most people only remember the bad moments. They always remember that dungeon run when everyone else got 2-3 rares and they only ended up with 3 greens, or when they farmed for 2 hours and never got a single rare, or when they opened the dragon chest and only received blues. But they will quickly forget when they got an exotic from that chest guarded by a champion which they never killed, just dodged and run away, or when they got 5 mystic clovers from 6 attempts, or when they salvaged 8 ectos from 3 rares, or getting 2 rares from 6 monsters 5 minutes after login. The RNG is not as bad as some people think, they hate it because they only remember the moments when the “RNG odds” worked against them.

Actually, I remember quite clearly the two exotics I’ve gotten as drops (i.e., not thru crafting, TP or zone completion). One was from a Young Karka in SSC. The other was from a L80 Ooze in Cursed Shore. Both times I was on my mesmer in a party with 1 or 2 others. I have 3 other 80’s and have played all of them more than the mesmer. Fwiw, I’m old and my memory is not what it used to be, so the fact that I remember exotic drops is an indication of their rarity.

I won’t say I remember every rare I’ve gotten, but then again, rares don’t mean that much to me, just a salvage for a chance at ectos, or a sale for < 50 silver. I also don’t remember every play session wherein nothing better than blues dropped, but my sense of it is that there have been a lot of them.

The new dailies only have 1 tier, not multiples. What you see when you look at the interface is the max you need.