Guild Wars 2

Sadly, GW2 core had a fair amount of this stuff, but I see less of it in added content. Unfortunately, a lot of players told ANet that they weren’t interested in such things, and only cared about virtual rewards, and ANet has complied.

One of ANet’s goals with Hot (both raids and persistent zones) was to requires players to make fuller use of many of the game’s character mechanics to succeed. While I’m sure raids could go further towards doing that, they come a lot closer than anything else in PvE. It’s impossible to design PvE content that requires players to make full use of many of the game’s character mechanics while also allowing them to use whatever the heck they want. If the goal of easier raids is to enable players to play whatever they want, that runs counter to the design intent of raids.

There’s also the issue of content meta compositions being player derived. In the event an easier mode were constructed, PuG groups would develop a meta to do it most efficiently and enforce that, because faster completion, easier completion or whatever the reason of the month is. That’s what players do. Hoping to PuG easier raids with whatever you want is a fool’s errand.

I don’t know what Anet will do with raids. I do know that when they were faced with a lot more complaints about HoT persistent world than I see about raids, their response was to redesign how rewards were assigned, reduce the OHK from certain champs some and remove a few of the random mobs. That was it.

It’s my hope that ANet will leave raids as is and focus on keep the focus for content for those who currently don’t raid on stuff I care about, like persistent world. Is that selfish of me? I suppose it is. However, there isn’t anyone here who isn’t looking out for their own interests. At least I’m willing to let others have what they want without demanding it be adapted to my preferences.

crimlet.9872:

I would just like to know why in the years this game has been out, the vast majority of the population doesn’t seem to find this a major problem, and some don’t even consider it problem at all.

I don’t know if the following will answer this question, but fwiw here’s my experience.

1. When I played my first character through the game’s leveling content, I had a much harder time with mobs than with any other character (except the aforementioned Mesmer). One reason for this is that I used whatever gear I got as drops or from Heart vendors, most of which was a hodgepodge of ineffectiveness. Another is that the mobs have been nerfed (see number 3).
2. As I played more characters, and garnered enough in-game currency, I began reequipping every few levels, always choosing glass gear. When I do so, my experience is that the on-level character has been almost as effective as my level 80’s when in that zone. The difference is maybe one hit on a normal, two on a vet. I’ve even gotten lackadaisical with regard to reequipping with my last 2-3 characters, changing only after 10-15 levels rather than my earlier 6-8. The effectiveness level just does not seem to be all that impacted. On the rare occasions I’ve done the horrid daily event tasks with an on-level character, I never seem to have any trouble getting kill credit.
3. The core game’s mobs have been nerfed both directly (their numbers, usually their damage has been reduced) and indirectly (player traits and stats were changed in ways that made them more effective). As a result of both this and players learning to play better, there is little challenge in the leveling zones in the persistent world unless you are significantly outnumbered by the mobs. This is so regardless of whether one’s character is on-level or down-leveled. The problem is that if you’re with other players, it’s harder to get that outnumbered condition.
4. If your experience is different than the above, it would stand to reason that you are doing something differently than I am. What that would be, I’m not sure. It could be stat choice, trait choices, weapon choice or profession choice (leveling a Mesmer produced a much more difficult leveling experience for me until I got to level 40 or so).

In short, I believe that other players don’t mind because they’re not experiencing the same thing you are. It’s not that they don’t find being down-leveled easy, it’s that they don’t find being on-level to be harder enough that they notice. There’s also the possibility that — with the proliferation of level tomes — a lot of folks don’t bother to actually level anyway.

A couple of weeks ago, someone from CD was complaining that they couldn’t advance to T3 because they were stuck with the lesser pairings in T4. Thus, they couldn’t boost their score as a result. I don’t know how much those complaints influenced Anet’s actions.

It seems CD kind of held their own in T3 (less than 30,000 from SoS and in third to YB by ~2500 points). CD was certainly closer to SoS than either DH or SF were to CD or SBI since this pairing started. What this suggests is that there are 4 servers (plus linked secondaries under the current pairings) that “belong” in T3 and only 2 that “belong” in T4.

Given the current linking and the 3 server game mode, somebody has to be kittened. While I’m sorry it’s you all, I’m also sorry for SF+ and DH+, who pretty much never get to have good fights because the T3-level server pairing we get stuck with outnumbers us. What this means is that any time we try to do anything, we get rolled over by bored players looking to do something. While this creates boredom and frustration for you, it also creates boredom and frustration for us.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s an easy way out of this. Maybe better linking would lead to more balanced fights across tiers. At the moment though, T4 is going to be a drag for whichever “T3-level” server gets stuck there.

Good luck getting back to T3 next week. At least, then, you might get to have some fun.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I keep looking for the quote from ANet that says that they intended that only raiders would be able to gain spirit shards by gaining XP in HoT maps.

I am among the last people I know to max out masteries (technically, I still haven’t done it; I just maxed out the xp gain part) and it’s been months since XP mattered to me. I can’t imagine that a couple of weeks or even a month or two is going to make that much of a difference to more than a handful of players.

tl;dr I’m waiting for ANet to respond before getting righteously indignant about whether anything should be gated behind raids (outside of raid skins and masteries, of course).

(I suspect that this is more of a proxy fight about whether legendary armor should have been gated behind raids and that a lot of people don’t really care all that much about spirit shards. “It’s the principle!” (and to be fair, it’s an important principle that ANet probably should do a better job addressing/explaining) ).

That’s your prerogative. Whether its a matter of deliberate intent or just inattention to detail, they’ve had plenty of time to respond — if they intended to. Fact is, the “uproar” has not reached the epic stage. Since that’s the only thing that’s prompted them to make a statement before, you’re likely to be waiting a long time.

And you’re right about principles. However, the principle I’m concerned with has nothing to do with L. Armor and everything to do with the Mastery System in general. I’m fine with rewards gated behind specific content, but a leveling stand-in should not be one of them. Ommv.

In WvW where the extra health may make more of a difference than the smallish damage sacrifice, yes, Maruader over Berserker — for at least some of the pieces.

Mandar.9813:

Are you really not aware that that is the entire point of a game? A developer has an idea and content they want to share with gamers, and they decide how you will progress through the content. This game is not a sandbox and has never been described as one, and only a sandbox game is going to give you an experience where play without any restrictions and get all the rewards you want.

Because the developer made it that way is a weak defense. ANet planned that GW2 would not feature raids. The game was that way for years. Raids are here because of a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons was player demands. If “That’s the way they designed it.” was gospel, raids would not now be part of the game.

While GW2 is indeed not a sandbox, the original game offered the broadest range of ways to level of any MMO. Gaining “something” for “leveling” after cap has been part of the franchise for more than a decade. Now, that’s changed, and the leveling stand-ins in GW2 are gated to specific content more than traditional MMO’s, never mind the vanilla GW2.

I’m a proponent of specific rewards for specific content. That’s why I don’t complain about L. Armor and raids, even though I think it’s a mistake on ANet’s part. However, leveling (or its stand-ins) has always been a wide-open system in MMO’s. There needs to be some of that in MMO’s too, because the developer makes more money if they appeal to a wide range of demographics.

Come on, it’s not like we’re talking about something significant. Shards are not the end of the world either way. However, the principle is worth arguing. Is “everything” to be gated behind specifics because Anet has no clue how to make some content appeal to a broader range of players on its own merit? In the long run, that woould be worse for the the game.

Mandar.9813:

Djinn.9245:

Mandar.9813:

Now a rant to all the casual whiners….

How rude – didn’t bother to read the rest of your post because of this rudeness.

I’m just gonna imagine you said that like Stephanie Tanner.

And also its probably for the best that you didn’t read because if you’re that easily offended I doubt we’d get to have productive discourse.

Also I hope you can distinguish between the nuanced assertion that I am not saying casual players are whiners, but rather trying to address the casual players that whine. If you are offended its simply a sign that you are self-aware.

If your intent was to foster productive discourse, beginning with a pejorative was not a good idea. Productive discourse requires a cooperative exchange, and pejoratives create the opposite. They almost always generate negative reactions. It seems more likely that your real intent was to disenfranchise and marginalize.

Teon.5168:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Teon.5168:

Edit: And while I may think that linking might not be the best solution, and is kind of goofy at times, it is sure one heck of a lot better than spending most of my time in wvw looking for any good battles in a lower tiered server. At least there is plenty of action out there now most of the time.

This is relative, though. For me, on FC:

BEFORE
+ Decent roaming 35%
+ Good, fun balanced battles 35%
- Over-matched (bad) battles 20%
- Nothing to do 10%

NOW
+ Decent roaming 5%
- Roflstomped by a mini herd while roaming 20%
+ Good, fun balanced battles 10%
- Roflstomped by the unstoppable herd battles 55%
- Running back to be roflstomped again 10%

Now, maybe the subtraction of 10% nothing-to-do was a good thing, but the overall percentage of good went down from ~70% of the time I spent in WvW to ~15%.

Disclaimer: numbers are guesstimates and ommv depending on sever, time of day, etc.

Faik, there’s nothing but balanced battles in higher tiers, but in the depths of T4 NA, two servers and their linkees seem destined to have the other server be someone who belongs in T3 as far as population balance goes. Also, faik, T4 doesn’t matter to the lion’s share of people who play WvW (who are on the higher pop servers).

Finally, to be fair, at least part of the roflstomping I see now seems to be due at least in part to boonshare bull-gravy. Numbers already provide an advantage, but as we know, ANet boons serve as force multipliers which give an even greater advantage to the larger group.

Just be patient. Once Dbl comes back into the mix, you’ll get lots of good roaming opportunities…..and I am saying that in a positive tone.

Plus, I would be curious as to how you arrived at your percentages. I am assuming that it was done with sound statistical analysis?

Read the Disclaimer. Even if I kept careful notes and used a timer, my numbers would not be representative of other players on different servers, playing in different tiers, at different times and with different inclinations.

The numbers represent a best guess, thus the disclaimer. I was using them as an indicator for how much more I used to enjoy WvW and how much less I’m enjoying it now. If anything, I underestimated. Virtually any time anyone tries to do anything in T4 in the times I play, we draw the attention of the ravening horde.

This comment from chat tonight sums it up:

Player 1: Eyes on their zerg?
Player 2: You speak as if they only have one.

Sabetha.4910:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Obtena.7952:

SteepledHat.1345:

MashMash.1645:

Why do raiders get this perk?

The answer to this question is every issue in HoT.

The answer to this is in every game ever: There is a something you have to do to get the reward to finishing that something. Maybe people are to accustomed being told that they are winners for just participating, but that’s not how life works or games for that matter. Raiders get this ‘perk’ simply because they have done what is necessary to get it.

I would have thought that Legendary Armor, exclusive access to new prefix Asc. trinkets for months and better access to Asc. gear in general was enough of a perk for the privilege of being given harder content that the raid demographic has been demanding for a long time.

If you’re going to use other games as a defense, name one MMO where leveling is gated behind raids. The Mastery system is a leveling stand-in. So is Shards.

Also, “It’s that way because our beloved overlord ANet has decreed it be so” is a kitten poor defense. If that were the answer to every issue, then there would never have been raids in GW2.

Raider, 158 mastery points, haven’t finished the Nuhoch mastery, don’t get spirit shards. Still not kicking a fuss about it because it’s a pointless thing to be mad about. Yawn.

Next.

Bully for you. I don’t actually give a rat’s kitten about shards, either. What I don’t like is the move from wide-open progression to restrictive progression.

Next.

Obtena.7952:

SteepledHat.1345:

MashMash.1645:

Why do raiders get this perk?

The answer to this question is every issue in HoT.

The answer to this is in every game ever: There is a something you have to do to get the reward to finishing that something. Maybe people are to accustomed being told that they are winners for just participating, but that’s not how life works or games for that matter. Raiders get this ‘perk’ simply because they have done what is necessary to get it.

I would have thought that Legendary Armor, exclusive access to new prefix Asc. trinkets for months and better access to Asc. gear in general was enough of a perk for the privilege of being given harder content that the raid demographic has been demanding for a long time.

If you’re going to use other games as a defense, name one MMO where leveling is gated behind raids. The Mastery system is a leveling stand-in. So is Shards.

Also, “It’s that way because our beloved overlord ANet has decreed it be so” is a kitten poor defense. If that were the answer to every issue, then there would never have been raids in GW2.

Teon.5168:

Edit: And while I may think that linking might not be the best solution, and is kind of goofy at times, it is sure one heck of a lot better than spending most of my time in wvw looking for any good battles in a lower tiered server. At least there is plenty of action out there now most of the time.

This is relative, though. For me, on FC:

BEFORE
+ Decent roaming 35%
+ Good, fun balanced battles 35%
- Over-matched (bad) battles 20%
- Nothing to do 10%

NOW
+ Decent roaming 5%
- Roflstomped by a mini herd while roaming 20%
+ Good, fun balanced battles 10%
- Roflstomped by the unstoppable herd battles 55%
- Running back to be roflstomped again 10%

Now, maybe the subtraction of 10% nothing-to-do was a good thing, but the overall percentage of good went down from ~70% of the time I spent in WvW to ~15%.

Disclaimer: numbers are guesstimates and ommv depending on sever, time of day, etc.

Faik, there’s nothing but balanced battles in higher tiers, but in the depths of T4 NA, two servers and their linkees seem destined to have the other server be someone who belongs in T3 as far as population balance goes. Also, faik, T4 doesn’t matter to the lion’s share of people who play WvW (who are on the higher pop servers).

Finally, to be fair, at least part of the roflstomping I see now seems to be due at least in part to boonshare bull-gravy. Numbers already provide an advantage, but as we know, ANet boons serve as force multipliers which give an even greater advantage to the larger group.

As I’ve said before:

1. Dueling? I’m fine with the idea so long as there is an option to turn it on/off and it is disallowed near crafting, bank, TP, potential RP hubs, etc.
2. Inspect? Nope. What my avatar is wearing is not your business.

Fremtid.3528:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Vayne.8563:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If it was something other than Spirit Shards on offer, I might have an opinion, but….as it is, I have way too many now, so even if I did have all my Masteries finished, Raid or no, I won’t really miss this ‘reward’.

In other words, I wish it was something else one could acquire.

How many legendary weapons have you made? lol

Ah, well, we don’t all play 12 hours a day, do we? Lol.

Why is this the default insult for anyone whose accomplished anything good in the game? omg you make a lot of legendaries u never leave house lawl……

Just maybe in this instance it’s because Cedo knows Vayne plays a lot because Vayne has told us he does — many times.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why do people keep assuming that this was intended behavior? Isn’t it just as likely that this is a bug? (Or an oversight.)

While I would believe Anet didn’t think about the negative reactions, they did program the Shard acquisition to require all masteries be completed. It’s even in the patch notes.

“Added back the ability to receive Spirit Shards once all the Masteries in a given region (Central Tyria or the Heart of Maguuma) have been earned. Players will continue to earn experience, and with every 254,000 experience points gained, players will earn a handful of Spirit Shards, which are useful to spend in the Mystic Forge or with the Mystic Forge attendant Miyani.”

italics mine

That strongly suggests this is neither a bug nor unintended. Oversight, while possible, is not likely either based on past behavior. Legendary Armor, a long-awaited carrot aimed at everyone, is gated behind content that not everyone will do. It’s not much of a step beyond that to get to the XP bar change.

Masteries have failed their stated purpose as a level-cap stand-in. Leveling in MMO’s has always been an open system. Generally, one can level doing a large number of different things that the MMO offers. GW2 took this a step further than most MMO’s. XP is awarded for doing pretty much anything except playing the TP or standing around chatting. In doing so, GW2 took a step forward in MMO design.

The Mastery System takes a giant step away from the way MMO’s treat leveling. Instead of being a leveling stand-in appealing to all, it is a system aimed at completionists. It does not appeal across the entire range of players in the same way a level cap increase would.

Apparently, Anet feels the need to tie anything and everything to specific game elements. This comes across as an attempt to make those game elements appealing. This is being done more and more as the game ages, even though ANet knows substantial numbers of players have no interest in some content.

It stands to reason that ANet’s current approach to game design is going to be defended by completionists. It also stands to reason that the more ANet ignores players with game-play preferences, the worse it will be for them in the long run. Completionists who love the game ought to consider that before they lambast others for having preferences.

To such players, the developer’s attitude seems to be, “If you don’t like and want to play everything we produce, we don’t care what you want or think.” Of course, it could be that they just don’t think things through or try to see beyond their own love for the game they’ve made. While the latter is understandable, it will often be viewed as the former by those such decisions impact negatively.

SolarDragon.7063:

STOP TELLING ME I DON’T LIKE RAIDS. Seriously, being told what I’m thinking (when it’s obviously wrong) is getting really irritating. What I don’t like is having to grind for gear to fit a specific metabuild (that will probably change once Anet gets sick of it) to even be considered to PARTICIPATE in a raid. And then probably promptly fail because of something that I didn’t know, but at least that could be entertaining. Whether or not the raids are ACTUALLY gated behind ascended gear, everyone thinks they are. (I’ve seen proof of well-oiled groups pulling off exotic raids, but outside that level of practice and skill they probably are dependent on asc gear).

While I understand the frustration, what would you have ANet do? They designed raids to be accessible to exotic-equipped players. The fact that random people on the internet use meta builds and set an Ascended requirement to join them is not something ANet can readily fix. It’s a people issue. They could:

• Make Asc. easier to get. However, this would defeat its purposes as a long-term goal and a means to make gathering mats more valuable.
• Get rid of Asc. Can you imagine the uproar by everyone that spent that time to make it? It would dwarf all other negative reactions save perhaps the reaction when it was first introduced.
• Make raids even easier. This would defeat the purpose of introducing raids, which was to provide challenging, fixed-group instanced content.

Your thread title is misleading. Casual =/= solo. Try, “Solo Guilds Disadvantaged.”

If ANet metrics show that more players are entering WvW now, which I strongly suspect, then Anet is going to believe that forum complaints are just the usual outliers. Long live our overlord Metrics.

Nuzt.7894:

SBI queue’d every map ……….

Maybe the goal is to get ppl to quit, because I seriously have no clue wtf is the purpose of this. Sounds like fun for the rest of T4 …..

Darkhaven and Sorrow’s Furnace (and their subsidiary allies) are between a rock and a hard place in T4. Once SBI gets done steam-rolling them this week, CD (or someone else) will drop back down to T4 and they’ll do the steam-rolling.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

My 2 Gold has never been in a bag, but shows up ‘looted’ as soon as I open the Chest, which awards the Gold and Spirit Shards and 10 AP.

More likely, it was the -repair.

Turns out I was mistaken when I said that earlier. You’re right.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Removing servers does not fix the problem of people bandwagonning between servers. It just reduces the number they can go to.

Pretty much this. Server stacking is a people issue. Granted, it is abetted by the mode’s design philosophy, but stopping it would involve removing key elements of that philosophy, like:

• Drop-in game play
• 24/7 availability
• Massive battles (maybe)
• Transfers (put in to help players to play with friends/guild members)

Don’t get me wrong, I dislike mismatches as much as the next person, regardless of whether I’m on the big or small side. However, fixing this issue is not going to happen without ANet taking away convenience and accessibility.

Straegen.2938:

This also hits home with just how OP Durability runes are: 175 toughness, 125 vitality, 20% boon duration AND AoE Protection, Resistance, Regeneration. Name ANY other rune set that bumps stats that high or is even close. If Rune of the Scrapper needed a nerf, Durability needs the nuclear option.

Pack runes provide 175 Power and 125 Precision, so the stat gain is the same. They also add Might, Fury and Swiftness and the duration boost is for Swiftness, not Boons in general, and the 4th rune CD just got a 50% increase (20 to 30). The 3 boons granted by the 25% on hit proc last much less time than the ones granted by Pack runes, so the difference in CD seems warranted.

I don’t believe the Rune by itself is the issue. However, its 20% Boon Duration bonus is likely being stacked with Concentration obtained via Commander’s gear. As is often the case with GW2, it’s the combination that produces the egregious effects. Perhaps it’s Boon Duration in and of itself that needs a look.

Afaik, for linking to work at all, Anet would need to track participation by secondary linked servers separately. How else could they know the impact of adding, say, three servers to Sorrow’s Furnace and only one to Darkhaven? However, there would be no point to track Glicko for the secondary servers, if our “fate” is to be “guests” going forward. This feature is nothing more than server merge without the stigma of using the words “server merge.”

Silly question, I’m sure, but did you open the completionist bag with the shards? The gold adds to my account when I open the bag.

I hate to say it, but I find myself not caring either way. Outfits or armor, the aesthetic in use by ANet designers is overly complicated, producing looks that are too complex, busy and ornate, not to mention a lot of the frills are downright ludicrous. Ommv.

I applaud the OP’s ideas for more unique hairstyles fitting a racial theme. However, I think such can be “in addition to” rather than “instead of” shared styles.

Fashions get shared cross-culturally to the degree that the different cultures are accessible to each other. Tyria has multi-cultural cities, shared alliances, and teleportation. While there is no TV or internet to drive globalization of fashion, there is plenty of accessibility, which can accomplish the same.

Crapgame.6519:

Cake.4920:

Camps definitely need to take longer to solo.

Why?

To me this is a issue with the people on the map. Starting with the commander(s), then propagating down to the roamers, scouts, or back capper parties. This is not a issue of the NPC or Arena Net.

I’ve engaged in a camp solo only to have defenders/first responders reach me before I closed the circle and capped.

Agreed. There is a player-devised solution to the presenting issue of “not being able to get to camps in time to defend them.” Players just prefer the game do it for them. I’d prefer the game do less in that regard rather than more, but then I’m usually in favor of solutions that involve player actions in the game rather than player complaints to the developer.

I’ve enjoyed GW2 for nearly 4 years now. My secret? If in a play session I get bored, I stop playing, and don’t return until I think it might be fun to do so. So far, breaks have ranged from a day to 6 months.

I also know people who set goals for themselves in the game. If you’ve done that and gotten everything you might want, then maybe taking a break is in order. It’s very possible to get burned out on a game, and breaks are also good for getting over burn-out.

While I appreciate the change, I might wish I could toggle to Spirit Shard mode rather than remaining in Mastery Mode if there are lines, or points within lines, I either have no interest in or prefer to do without rather than do the peripheral stuff it takes to get Mastery Points.

He can always get a job bad-mouthing Bookah. The Asura always seem to have a lot of personnel doing that.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but the anecdotal evidence based on my experience as to cause of death in WvW runs like this:

1. Death by zerg. Very common.
2. Death by direct burst. Common.
3. Death by condition pressure. Seldom, though it does happen. Even rarer, for me, is running into condi burst.

My pet peeve right now is high-sustain bunkers with high burst output. Builds that can shrug off glass direct damage and hit like trucks.

Filth.1479:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Filth.1479:

I know there’s a golem to test it on. I’ve done that. That still doesn’t show me if I’m the only one actually trying to do good or if the boss simply has billions of health.

Bosses simply have billions of health.

The thing is.. having pugged a lot of fractals, I really start to notice that sometimes I get these groups where the boss dies in seconds and then other times I get groups where it takes several minuttes. I’m mostly referring to Molten Boss, but it is the same in other fractals. It’s just more noticable on the Molten Boss.

That bothers me a great deal. The fact that the majority of the GW2 playerbase is either oblivious of that fact or chooses to completely ignore it, scares me. How can anybody play a game for years and just accept that their contribution to the group is 0?
If nobody can see that persons nonexisting output, nobody is going to tell him what to do to improve. And we’re just fine with that? As long as he wins the fashion war?
This game is too good to just die off like that.

That difference is indeed there. Max damage in GW2 is obtained by a variety of factors. Ideally, Might gets stacked to its limit of 25 stacks, Fury is up constantly, and the Vulnerability cap (25 stacks) is also reached and maintained as much as possible. Meanwhile, well-timed defensive buffs like Aegis and Reflection limit or eliminate DPS downtime due to dodging or being downed. In such a coordinated party, the party’s damage is greater than the sum of what the individual members could put out individually (i.e., if not coordinating).

That doesn’t mean a lot of bosses don’t have high health pools. It means that some group’s damage output is a lot higher. That doesn’t mean that individuals are not contributing in those other groups. It does mean that what’s possible for a group requires specific comps, specific builds and a commitment to apply/maintain those group buffs.

Pugging is always going to be a mixed bag. You’ll run into players who want to play their favorite character, even though it doesn’t contribute as much (or at all) to max output. You’ll run into speed run wannabes who look up meta builds, but don’t really understand how to get the most out of them. As one might expect, the best way to guarantee a group comp is to find a guild that wants that, too. Failing that, you can advertise (as people do) for “experienced only” or whatever the filter criteria of the month is. Sometimes,as you note, you get a fast group. Sometimes, not.

This is an artifact of GW2 being somewhat different than those other MMO’s. In other games, you can get non-optimal parties, but since people can set gear tier requirements, PvE inefficiency usually boils down more to inferior rotations and positioning. In GW2, you can add gear inefficiency on top of the others, and failure to position and buff optimally leads to a dramatic drop-off in effectiveness.

Hypairion.9210:

https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/17/arenanet-talks-guild-wars-2-dungeon-difficulty/

There ya go. The word endgame is not specifically used. However, the references to Elite areas in GW make it clear dungeons were intended to be equivalent content. Elite areas were very much the endgame PvE in GW, especially hard mode elite areas.

Dungeons were seen as very hard by a lot of players around launch. Since then, we’ve had multiple nerfs. Most were not specifically aimed at dungeons, but some were. Players got better. [shrugs] So, sure, dungeons are seen as trivial, now — but it was not always that way.

Elite, as orr areas ? And players at the begenning of the game were not very comfortable with their class. So something that was hard at the begenning may be trivial today with the actual meta.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/countdown-to-launch-raids/

still not the same as this for me ^^ I continue to think that the target audience is not the same between raid and dungeon. Thus, i can agree to a nerf to dungeon, as more players were involved. And the powercreep didn’t help of course.

But something is true about dungeons and raids, players are becomming better, and wing 1 is becomming trivial in a pug settings.

That’s exactly what happened to dungeons. Picture wing 1 in 2.5 years.

Orr? No, nothing like the elite areas in GW.

I’ll agree, though, that the target audience expanded from dungeons to raids. For all that Colin Johanson referred to GW2 explorable dungeons as the game’s equivalent to raids, ANet learned that the content title “raids” has a certain cachet. Thus, GW2 raids were intended to be attractive to the audience that dungeons were originally aimed at. They were also intended to appeal to players who disdained GW2 because it had nothing called raids.

Heibi.4251:

You offer no proof or logical reasoning as to why it can’t be considered favoritism.

To be fair, neither do you offer any proof that the ANet guild has privileges or powers other guilds don’t. If they’re just like other guilds, they should be able to do anything other guilds can do. So, got anything substantive, or are you just making assumptions?

Filth.1479:

I know there’s a golem to test it on. I’ve done that. That still doesn’t show me if I’m the only one actually trying to do good or if the boss simply has billions of health.

Bosses simply have billions of health.

Oh, and some Thief builds can kill characters in PVT gear nearly as quickly. It might take 2-3 hits rather than one. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be a Thief, some other professions can do it also.

Hypairion.9210:

I’m not disagreeing with you. They totally did say that. And they also said it about plenty of other content in the game that later got nerfed.

Sources for the later? I don’t remember them saying that (challenged end content) for something else than raid actually…

https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/17/arenanet-talks-guild-wars-2-dungeon-difficulty/

There ya go. The word endgame is not specifically used. However, the references to Elite areas in GW make it clear dungeons were intended to be equivalent content. Elite areas were very much the endgame PvE in GW, especially hard mode elite areas.

Dungeons were seen as very hard by a lot of players around launch. Since then, we’ve had multiple nerfs. Most were not specifically aimed at dungeons, but some were. Players got better. [shrugs] So, sure, dungeons are seen as trivial, now — but it was not always that way.

Heibi.4251:

Mushin.3928:

Wat. They make the game and work on it every day, they can play the game and claim stuff just like anybody else. Its not unprofessional – its the opposite, since it shows that they have an interest in the game.

Apparently no one understands what professionalism and favoritism is these days.

The Devs are there to make sure the game is played correctly by players and that they don’t abuse each other. They can participate in every aspect of the game. However, favoring one server over another and “making a statement for a server” shows lack of professionalism and favoritism.

We have to be able to trust the admin of this game to be a neutral party.

There are Anet employees whose job is as you state. The vast majority of employees, including developers, do not have that as part of their job description. Yet, they can all be in that guild.

The thing to ask is, does the Anet guild serve an official admin function in the game? I don’t think so. I am sure that some ANet personnel have admin privileges. I’m also certain they don’t need to be repping the Anet guild to use them. I also have little doubt that repping the ANet guild does not convey any special admin privileges in and of itself. If, as I expect, any Anet employee can be in that guild, they’d be silly to give in-game admin privileges to their HR person, or the janitor.

This would, if I am correct, mean that the Anet guild is a social unit. It can also be used to show paying players that a company employee is participating in the game, just as they are, but so what. As a social unit, it would seem to me that the guild ought to have the same privileges as any other guild, including WvW objective claiming.

It would seem to me that for any claim that the situation represents unprofessional behavior would need to show that membership in that guild conveys special privileges unavailable to regular players. By special privileges, I mean an ability to affect WvW in a way that “regular” guilds cannot. Though the OP is claiming that, I see no proof. Absent that proof, I don’t believe the claim is warranted.

Q: How do you convert difficulty overcome to time spent?
A: You can’t. There’s no way to equate the two criteria.

Q Skill in a game is a continuum, not two arbitrary points. What happens when the “easier” content is still too hard for some players?
A: You have a group complaining that the easier mode is too hard, and saying they deserve the experience/rewards, also.

Q: Would the number of extra reps be sufficiently large that a skilled player would be sufficiently better off not to follow the path of least resistance?
A: They’d have to be. If they weren’t, you know what would happen. Players with the skill/knowledge to complete the harder version would complete the easier version faster. Once the challenge has been experienced, players would seek the rewards following the path of least resistance.

Q: What about when players who think too much repetition is not fun complain that the easier mode is too grindy? Come on, you know this would happen. It’s happened in persistent world PvE anytime Anet puts in repetition-based rewards.
A: It depends on ANet. If they cave (which they have in some cases), then the theoretical (challenge overcome / time put in) equation breaks AND the deterrent to following the path of least resistance breaks. If they don’t cave (which they have also done in some cases), then some portion of the potential audience for an easier mode abandons the content and/or is unhappy.

So,

POTENTIAL UPSIDE

1. Some number of players who are currently unhappy would become happier with the game. This number is unknown. There is a risk that the challenge level chosen for the “easier version” would still be too high for some unknown percentage of them. Perceived “grind” associated with the easier mode risks making some or all of them unhappy.

POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES

1. Dev effort spent to make this happen could be disproportional to the size of the group served. The size of the group that is currently unhappy over this issue is unknown, as is the dev effort that would be involved.
2. Dev effort spent would not be spent on other projects, at a disadvantage to some other group(s).
3. Some of the target audience for raids becomes unhappy. This group could be larger than the group that would be made happier.
4. A precedent is set that would be invoked every time Anet attempts to use rewards as an incentive.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think the quotes are inconclusive: they include the possibility of a second raid with 3-4 new wings and give ANet their usual wiggle room to postpone it until Expac #2.

This.

Capt Vanguard is correct that there has been “backlash,” but that also ignores that raids have been incredibly popular among the targeted audience for raids and gotten some new people into them as well. Given that ANet can’t even give away gems without people complaining, I think the theoretical neutral observer would have to conclude that raids have been wildly successful (and that, as with nearly everything else, ANet could have handled things differently to reduce the critiques, founded and unfounded).

And this. I remember people kittening about free gems. Blew my mind. Also, while CaptainV is correct that there has been backlash, it’s questionable whether that backlash has been large enough to be concerned about. For instance, there was a much larger negative reaction to HoT difficulty and while ANet did make adjustments to event rewards and to mob density in some areas, they did not nerf mobs outside of a few champ one-shot-kills. It’s my guess that ANet is concerned about macro trends based on actual numbers in player reactions, whereas players are more inclined to think of reactions that mirror their own as being a macro trend, whether that’s supported by numbers or not. Hundreds of anti-raid posts are less impressive if half (or more) of them are by a dozen people.

Comments in italics.

Quaggans are Pokemon, you heard it here first. ;p

elkirin.8534:

Ok, lot’s of to and fro comments.

basically if camps were not soloable, how many new players would we gain? How many players would we lose? ( from the mode)

If camps are left as is, how many new players would we gain? how many would we lose?

There’s another issue. Increasing the numerical requirements to get something done in WvW favors the servers with greater numbers. These servers don’t need this advantage. They already have more people to do scouting, more people to herd in camp defense and are more likely to have WP’s close to the camp to get that herd where it wants to go.

Thanks, Jon. Some of us appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Jerus.4350:

Considering it’s one of the few things you can do on your own, no thanks.

Say no to more blobbing.

I also hope you get it back.

Danikat’s suggestion is a good one. It’s what I do … well, it’s what I do now. If it happens to be an older character, you might also want to check birthday status. I deleted one just before its 3rd BDay, so no dye.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I don’t know…Activity took about 3 minutes, and Orr gathering about 5. There was always Veteran Creature Slayer, which takes only a few minutes, most of it waiting for it to spawn.

But, doing events in AB is pretty easy, really.

I’d guess the post was about enjoyment, as in a lack thereof, in doing those activities, rather than inaccessibility or time. I don’t play MMO’s to play mini games, and 2 of 4 PvE tasks were mini-games, so I can understand that distaste. Some people dislike HoT maps, so I get that one. Some dislike even entering a PvP area, so I get that one. What the issue is with Orr gathering though, I’m clueless.

Me? I killed the Vet worm, 5 guards and managed to get Objective Defender so I didn’t do any PvE tasks. Then I left WvW because nothing but blobs.

Obtena.7952:

Why do people think it’s acceptable to complain they want something in an MMO but turn around and say that they aren’t willing to do what is necessary to get it … and somehow, that’s a completely reasonable complaint in their mind.

Because games should be fun, and because crafting is about as far from fun as this game gets.

Hesacon.8735:

In wvw, standing on a wall is very dangerous because of mass AoE hate. It’s much safer to stand on the bottom of the wall rather than on top.

I hate being on those walls in WvW. Unless I actually stand on the battlements rather than behind them, I’m at a disadvantage. I can target neither ST attacks nor AoE’s, but the people on the ground outside are able to target AoE’s on the edge of the wall.

mtpelion.4562:

IndigoSundown.5419:

As to why they haven’t implemented the feature the OP mentions…

It’d be my guess it’s because players can already look in the wardrobe feature in the bank to ID skins they don’t have.

Although the skin name and the item name are not always the same.

I’ve not run into that, so I’ll have to take your word for it.

CMM.6712:

Well, I like crafting, and I enjoyed crafting Mawdrey and the scavenger hunt aspect of it too. Not all gamers are the same.

Which is an argument for multiple means to gain desirable virtual stuff, not an argument to support exclusive access through one preference.

I’m with the OP. I’d much prefer a different means of acquisition, like WvW reward tracks. Account bound I’m OK with. Crafting kills kittens.