Guild Wars 2

So I googled whether this was possible and found a post from 2013 stating that it wasn’t

Now would be a pretty good time to introduce that feature, if it’s technically possible.

Would be great to just add them five slots to my existing account, OR have combined AP or something.

Trajan.4953:

It is not a rip off.

Entitled gamers…. lol

True, it isn’t a rip off, but it is odd that they’re not offering better incentives to existing players. The packages are a bit insulting, tbh.

Considering that most of us have been fine with $10 skins for the past couple years, we really can’t compare the base game’s initial cost with that of the expansion. Using the current gem store content as a frame of reference, $50 is quite reasonable.

I think people are upset about the lack of value in the standard packages for existing players. Personally, at this price point, I would have expected the perks of the deluxe to be included in standard pre-orders. At very least an additional character slot, for kitten’s sake.

Ralanost.8913:

But rewards will never make people like something that they don’t like. They will just find ways around the system to get the rewards without doing the content they hate.

Well, yes and no. The rewards have definitely encouraged more people to at least try to get into PvP (I did after a while, hated it at first). And I definitely wouldn’t have bothered at all if not for the reward tracks.

We could use something like this in the open world, inject some life into the dead maps.

I’d be happy with just the mask, which is arguably his best and most practical aspect. Two dragons are cool but they’d probably be difficult to incorporate into the outfit, which is painfully dull without them. Don’t hold your breath on this one. Wouldn’t rule it out but there’s four more gods to go, as well as the seasonal outfits and so on.

Paradox.1380:

We already have Grenth’s Mask. So if they do a Grenth outfit I don’t think they’d re-used the mask they already have in game. So they’d have to change his, that kinda debunks part of your theory. But its a good one. I do imagine we will, at some point, get an outfit for every god currently around though.

Grenth’s outfit would be fine even if they re-used the mask. If you have the mask you can combine it with any armour, while the outfit is basically a onesie with optional hat.

I’m fairly confident they will stay true to the six human gods’ appearances when designing the subsequent outfits.

Sylent.3165:

I personally don’t think they should be brought back. Items like that are a way for players to either show off wealth, or that they have played for a long time. Considering it’s an mmo those types of items are very typical.

I….gotta disagree. There’s far too many prestige skins as is, and very few players have a reasonable chance of ever buying them. Don’t see the point of adding things to the game where you’re screwed if you don’t get them right away.

Aesthetically, the Iron Marches is my favourite. I love the transition from ordinary Ascalon into the branded bits. It’s one of the few zones that has the truly otherworldly feel I enjoy in fantasy games. Also a big fan of exploring Orr, Dry Top and Southsun for similar reasons.

For actual game play and rewards, Dry Top wins. There’s a good balance of actual loot and zone specific rewards tied to event completion. Too bad they ruined it with an overly complex topography. A year later and I’m still getting lost in there.

It’s the greatest hustle ever. Players have long considered cosmetics to be optional fluff, so Anet made cosmetics the endgame and charges premium prices for ’em.

Luckily, 250 gems is only a couple days’ worth of farming. A week at the most.

I wouldn’t have cared if it was back up a week after scarlet wrecked it. The only thing that ultimately matters in LA is the distances between the mystic forge, banks and the TP, lol.

But it’s also nice to see makeovers, I am rather looking forward to this.

I plan to make this eventually, mostly for the skin, since I don’t mind scattering bloodstone dust to the four winds. What’s the approximate cost if one were to buy everything? (none of the guides I’ve seen have this listed)

It’s a common enough mistake, support should sort you out. There’s really no good reason for them to be unique though. Would love to see this phased out in a future patch.

Carcharias from the mystic forge and Lord Taere’s Shadow from a champion bag.

Critical Lag.9075:

It`s been beaten to death, yeah, but i agree with that. I enjoy fractals but getting little to no rewards is pretty disincentivizing. Sure, I`ll do them once in a while or when there`s double daily but thats all.

When sometimes I have limited time to play I`d rather do SW/few dungeon paths (which I also enjoy) rather than fractals just becouse rewards are non-existent.

My feelings exactly. And I don’t consider farming and fun to be mutually exclusive.

I’d still tossing an entire stack or two out everyday. /shrugs.

Evion.6298:

No Beautiful black girls?

I can live without seeing either continent (although I’d love to see them added), but would definitely like to see their cultures represented more in the game. We’ve got some nice Canthan cosmetics, and had the Zephyrites show up. Elona needs some love now.

Lord Baelish is a thief who spends most of his time TP flipping.

Morfedel.4165:

As the title says. I don’t mind an occasional boss where stacking works. But its used all over the place, especially in dungeons.

And it’s a crying shame, really. It turns encounters that could be very exciting into brainless exercises.

Exciting? I suspect you’re in the minority with this belief. I think most of us came into GW2 with your mindset and were annoyed at the way most encounters worked. I know I absolutely hated stacking at first. Over time, I just accepted the game’s design and learned to enjoy it. Speed and efficiency are king here, and if you can’t get into that kind of game play you may never really enjoy dungeons like the rest of us. And believe it or not, we’re pretty happy with the established tactics. A good group melee fights and breezes through the dungeon with banter and occasional jokes.

Morfedel.4165:

The key is to do it without nerfing melee characters. Maybe make the characters more mobile, or causing its damage output to increase the more it stays in one spot with little movement, or higher regeneration, or something.

Yeah, stacking and simply fighting on enemies really makes fights a lot easier for melee characters because the high damage attack skills root you in place. There’s nothing more frustrating that running around behind an enemy trying to hit him while another party member kites it away and safely auto attacks from range.

Morfedel.4165:

I want encounters where you have to think more. Yes, I can voluntarily “nerf” myself and do it the hard way, but unless I find a group willing to do likewise (highly unlikely), it simply isnt going to get this tactic to go away.

PvP might be more suited to your needs, in that case. AI is always going to be limited and predictable. Plus the content is old, man. PUGs are in it for the gold and nobody wants to run the same instances for the same loot if the enemies are suddenly more challenging.

The headpiece wings are bit too large but I like it. Looks much better on female characters, but it makes sense as Dwayna is a goddess. Definitely gonna snatch this one up.

Can’t wait to see Grenth and Lyssa.

To me, this game only really begins at level 80. You can then get a full complement of traits and top tier gear. It’s why so many people rush through the levelling process – there’s relatively little to do at lower levels besides exploring, story and PvP.

It’s weird how casuals are less tolerant than meta players.

You don’t see us hootin’ and hollerin’ for Anet to change the game so that you guys have to conform to our play style.

The dreaded Z-word is a nice big red flag to let you know to steer clear if that ain’t how you party.

Berserker groups tend to fill up pretty quickly as well.

Dungeon guild groups have certain advantages, but are impractical for many players because it takes more time and effort to put together a guild group than to create an LFG listing. We’re at a stage in the game where most people who run dungeons should know the deal, and most PUGs are at very least capable.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I think one problem is no clear agreement of what is “good loot” has ever been stated. Yours seems to be any skin that you don’t yet have, rarity and price is no consideration. (A position I also agree with by the way. I’m happy when I get any new drop, even if it’s only worth a few silver on the TP). But imo, when most people say good loot, they are saying, they like the way it looks, it’s something they can use, and it’s worth good gold on the trading post. If any one of these 3 aren’t true, then it’s no longer “good loot”, but bad loot.

Just look at the wardrobe. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of skins in there. Granted, a large number are not from drops but that still leaves a substantial amount that does. Yet apparently all these are not worth considering since people are still calling for more variety and better loot. That’s why I don’t think gutting the karma and the mystic forge system will work in the long run. If the available drops aren’t good enough then adding those only pushes the problem back for a while. It doesn’t solve it.

Good loot is useful or valuable. It’s nice to get exotics period, because you can always make some coin, but it’s far more satisfying to get something cool or interesting looking. There’s lots of skins I don’t even want, but would be happy to add to my wardrobe collection.

The problem with the wardrobe is the uneven distribution of skins. There’s a handful that are as common as dirt (and just as appealing) and dozens more than are virtually non-existent. I’m not calling for a gutting of the mystic forge, but we are don’t get many new in-game items. Everything added since Ambrite is BLTC, and historically these only increase in value over time. If all of the new skins are going to be inaccessible for the majority, then it stands to reason that some of the older ones get tossed into circulation.

The problem as I see it is just boredom. Drops are predictable and bland. You literally know what you are and are not going to get from different types of content. I think this is bad, because it funnels players toward the most profitable content (SW at the moment), and then directly to the TP to get what they want. It is a good thing that we can earn rewards this way, but the rest of the game suffers as a result. There’s a wide, wide world out there that is largely neglected because there’s nothing worthwhile in it. Just throwing stuff out there adds far more value to the game than is removed from the forge and karma vendors.

Naggar.2047:

I once got called racist for no apparent reason, I just didn’t bother and ignored it.

/chuckles at your account name.

Khisanth.2948:

Jahroots.6791:

I think more frequent Ascended drops, even with bad stats, can still be satisfying. For one thing, players will have at least one more thing to look forward to. Worst case scenario we get a gold coin at the vendor. Even in a best-case scenario where selectable stats are implemented I still believe the drop rate could use a slight increase.

Not really. See complaints about the piles of useless ascended rings from there.

Yeah, but the rings are worth far less at vendor value. Weapons sell for 1g.

I did Arah for the Dungeon Master title way back when it drew a lot of water around here. Hardly been back since.

Most of the others are enjoyable in their own right.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The thing is, I don’t think that will solve the problem in the long run, as people will quickly enough get the skins they want, and it causes problems in both the short and long run.

For example, making high level karma weapons as a drop. Karma is already considered a worthless currency with little to buy except karma skins and mystic forging karma items. If these drop commonly enough then this would devalue it even further. If it’s a very rare drop, then how can this make a difference to player perceptions of never getting anything good?

With an appropriate drop rate it will still take quite some time to collect all skins. Worried about karma? Then they could add more items to karma vendors.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Making mystic forge crafting items drop. If the weapons drop frequently enough, then that impacts the prices of the mats needed to make them and the prices on the trading post of people crafting to make gold. It could also make the most expensive and rare ones less prestigious if Random Noob Player can get one when killing a low level champ. If they don’t drop frequently, then again, how are they going to make a difference to player perceptions.

The entire point of improving loot is so that we can take some steps away from the ‘get gold, buy stuff’ type of game play and instead be rewarded a bit more for just playing normally. Bear in mind that I’m not suggesting an increase to the exotic drop rate, merely that we get more variety, so that your first thought on receiving an exotic drop isn’t how much it’s worth on the tp, because it might be something you actually want the skin for. And remember that there are dozens of skins in this game, with new ones added every 6 weeks or so. As is, all of the new skins are premium and the old ones just get more expensive. I think we have more than enough expensive, prestigious and hard to get items, and not nearly enough nice but accessible stuff. The game won’t suffer if some old items decrease in value a bit

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I don’t have any answers myself, but when people start talking about increasing drop rates I didn’t think they’ve really considered how that would effect the prices of everything from the mats used to craft to the prices of the weapons in the trading post. /shrug. If everyone is happy with getting lots of skins that either are unsalable or only worth a few silver, then maybe that’s the way to go.

Again, I’m in no position to speak with any authority either. I just want some nice surprises in my loot now and again. And imo, mat prices are not more important than satisfying game play.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Personally, I don’t see getting an ascended chest that has items I can’t use because of bad stats as a good drop, unless maybe it’s for the skins and that’s what you are thinking. I would rather they kept the same drop rate or maybe a little better and made the stats selectable. Then it would be a good drop. Most people are disappointed when they get an ascended chest and making a disappointing item drop more frequently isn’t the answer to the bad loot problem.

The +3 sword of Kittendom, was that from a gear progression game? Because it’s hard to have these items in a static gear game. I’m not even sure how they would do it in this game with its static gear and all the variety of stats that aren’t right for your build. How would they get equivalent items to the players on a consistent basis? Which imo, brings it back to cosmetics. If the skins drop frequently and are sellable, prices crash. If not sellable, the second one is worthless. If not desired, each account bound one is a bad drop. In each case people will complain about bad loot. In addition, with a high drop rate, people quickly enough get what they want, and after that the loot again is unwanted and bad.

The other problem I see is budget. Can ANet afford to pay its artists to make new skins and then give the skins away for free to keep up with player demand for good loot? This isn’t a subscription based game where they get your money each month. This is a “sell cosmetics to players” game. They would have to redo their economic basis to be handing out new free skins as an ongoing answer to complaints about bad loot.

I personally don’t see a way around the problems of frequent but cheap drops or frequent but account bound. Either path will have people calling the drops bad.

You make some fair points. It’s hard to predict the impact these changes would have on the community. For one, there will definitely be complaints. Hell, people were upset with the login reward changes because it coincided with changes to the daily system. I think more frequent Ascended drops, even with bad stats, can still be satisfying. For one thing, players will have at least one more thing to look forward to. Worst case scenario we get a gold coin at the vendor. Even in a best-case scenario where selectable stats are implemented I still believe the drop rate could use a slight increase.

See, the thing is I wouldn’t expect Anet to just make new stuff and ‘give it away’ to keep up with our demands. I’m suggesting that we get more of the old stuff, the ‘vanilla’ in-game weapons and armour. After all, we have had so much added as premium content (gem store and BLTC skins) , the more basic stuff can be added to more loot tables instead of being locked exclusively behind token systems or the mystic forge. Not such an increase in frequency that they become worthless, but enough so that we don’t keep getting boring exotic drops. Players ping exotic drops with no real sense of excitement because there’s stuff like ‘Arc’ and ‘X6-31’ beta that drops over again, along with the generic ones. I think most of us would be satisfied if the better looking weapons dropped, even if account bound for the sake of skins only.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

So, what you’re asking, if I understand you correctly, is more exotics to drop, for both the purpose of good stats for those who don’t have exotics yet and as skins, and more ascended to drop, up to 1 ascended chests every 7 hours or so (your numbers, from your suggestion of 1 or 2 every 7 to 14 hours). How would that not decrease the need to craft them if people get them at that rate? I certainly wouldn’t, not at 1 every 7 hours. Also to make the high level karma cultural weapons to drop, (which makes karma even more useless imo if it’s not even used to buy these)

One ascended chest or so a week won’t break the game. Even with exotics, its exceedingly rare to get an item with the stats you want (for most of us, this means Berserker or Assassin). It would still take months to have a full set of anything. But you are probably right about the drop rate. Perhaps an average of one chest every 24 hours of game play instead.

I don’t really have a good frame of reference for reasonable expecations in MMOs. This is by far the longest I have stuck with one. In other games though, I do remember getting items more ‘organically’ and being a lot more excited about drops. Play stuff and eventually find a ‘+3 Sword of kittendom’ or something. Here we just get loads and loads of absolute junk dumped on us with valuable but boring and predictable titbits tossed in. Even half the exotics have the same ugly skins as level 1 weapons. There’s no middle ground.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Once your character is geared up, most of the drops are no longer going to be “good loot”. In a game without constant gear progression, it’s going to be really hard to give people useful loot. Mine were geared up as soon as they hit level 80 so very little was good loot after that. How do you get a fully geared char good, useful loot?

The ascended? Again, not much use after you’re geared up and too high a drop rate of these guts the prices for the mats needed to craft them, which means less gold to those that sell mats and less incentive to craft them. So there are economic reasons to be careful with their drop rate since it was intended for us to craft them and not have them rain from the sky.

The other option you mentioned is the specialty event drops. I never did get a dragon jade weapon, in spite of much farming, buying of chests, and frustration. The holographic wings dropped so frequently they were only a few gold in the trading post. I’m not sure if either of these qualifies as a good system, being either feast or famine.

When fully geared it’s the skins that matter. Which is why I suggest that all non-BLTC or specialty (Fractal and Event) skins should be added to the loot tables. For example, maybe have peacemaker and warden weapons drop from mobs in Maguuma. Those mystic forge only weapons? Yeah, put ‘em in champ bags. The drop rate would still be pretty low, and they’d be account bound. But at least it’s a chance at something.

I think ascended gear has had a long enough run as craft-only. I’m not suggesting that they rain from the sky, just set the drop rate significantly lower than exotics but higher than precursors. Someone who plays an hour or two daily should reasonably expect one or two of them every week. That wouldn’t diminish the need to craft, since most people will opt for a reliable approach anyway.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

^

Truly. Define good loot and how do you keep it as good loot when all the other players are also getting this good loot.

People keep on asking for good loot, but they never say what they mean by it. Tell us. Give us some examples.

Good loot is useful. Items you can use (ideal), or sell/trade for what you want. There’s a ton of things in this game, and most are virtually worthless while the remainder are entirely too exclusive.

You keep it good by tweaking drop rates to an acceptable level. Ascended chests should drop about at least a third of the frequency of Exotics. And put some of the good exotics into ordinary loot tables instead of Zommoros’ toilet. Account bind them if necessary to safeguard the TP.

Back in 2013 I recall getting some half decent stuff. Some sort of ticket for a Dragon Jade weapon dropped during the first Dragon Bash. Holographic wings and a mini did too, from regular mobs in COE. We need more stuff like this. Things we would actually use.

After a while you’ll just shrug it off, I guarantee this. Don’t let the kittenbags discourage you. Keep on fighting the good fight with honour and a bit of humour.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

It’s a privilege to change up your look often. Most agree that one of the largest parts of the end-game we currently have is aesthetic.

There’s an inconsistency here, imo. If aesthetics are one of the largest parts of the end game then changing your look often is core content and cannot be considered a privilege. Always irks me a little whenever people say something is ‘cosmetic only and doesn’t affect game play’ in relation to GW2. Cosmetics are a huge part of gameplay here.

Either way, the wardrobe and transmutation system are definitely lacking in some areas, but there is no sense banging on about it. These topics never really gain much traction. I suppose most players are happy with the current state.

It’s against the ToS for sure, but I don’t see how this affects you at all. Just scroll past and be on your way like the rest of us.

TheDuck.4526:

Single pieces of gear don’t impress anyone because everyone’s seen everything. What will get people’s attention (and comments) are creative armor & dye combos. No joke, if I appreciate someone’s sense of style, then I will go out of my way to tell them.

If you really want to, then go take a look at gw2style— it’s loaded with people who appreciate looking at other people’s characters and showing off their own.

This. You’ll get way more props for a well designed character than a single, pricey weapon skin.

If you really want a distinctive weapon skin you’d have to get one of the ‘first gen’ BLTC sets. Aetherblade, Zodiac and Fused weapons are very rarely seen.

Fewer maps can never be a good thing. All I can see happening as a result of this is longer queue times.

Dawdler.8521:

Some are toxic, true. But most are just common Kraits.

Lol! This comment needed more love +1

It sounds like you’re not really interested in PvP though, OP. I’m guessing you’re inexperienced and playing at a low-ish rank? It’ll get better if you stick with it, and learn how to play. Soon as I got past 50 or so the quality of people I ended up in matches with improved significantly. It gets easier to shrug off any hostility and raging too.

There’s always a couple of snarky comments dropped, that is unavoidable, but I have seen no all out flaming in weeks.

I’m kind of ambivalent on this. Do it or don’t, it won’t matter much anyway. Story is irrelevant for the most part, and adds very little long-term value to the game (which is what is needed most, imo).

Generally I still think the lore and setting of Tyria are too vanilla and basic for that sort of thing. I can dig the bisexual Sylvari, that works, but going too much beyond that would just seem forced.

Here’s a couple of my latest mixes. Warrior, Engy, Thief and Ranger.

‘We can’t stop here, this is Tequatl country…’

Nah, this is way too complicated and restrictive. Why would we want more arbitrary time gating?

Players just need to be more communicative and aware. Read postings and ask questions if unsure. Most of the conflict I have seen arises when someone stumbles into a party that doesn’t gel with their play style or skill level, and says nothing.

Hearts don’t need to be reworked, but the open world needs proper rewards.

There’s only a handful of worthwhile items gained from completing hearts. Stuff like the Jotun greatsword, for example.

We’ve actually gotten a lot of the stuff we asked for, which is cool. No matter what Anet does, it’s going to kitten a bunch of people off unfortunately. Literally every decision made has been met with some degree of vitriol. I still remember the ‘’Living story vs Expansion" debates, many people were convinced we’d never see an expansion. Yet here we stand.

Although, OP, I do understand your position. It would be nice for them to toss some stuff out into the world for a change. Nothing fancy, just something new to do to keep everyone occupied.

Remember when we had to beg Anet for more sources of Dragonite back when it was the hardest of the three ascended materials to gather? Crazy how we’re throwing it away now.

Steak and asparagus for the rare occasions when I feel like min-maxing, glazed peach tarts for everything else. Where applicable I use potions of slaying or hardened sharpening stones, which are cheap and easy to craft.

Vayne.8563:

I think it’s because people are bored, and frustrated, so they act more frustrated. It’ll change when the expansion hits.

It’s exactly this.

Apart from the plush backpacks all of the good ones will take a fair bit of grinding and/or gold.

Wings of Dwayna and Shadow of Grenth are pricey but relatively simple to obtain.

Unfortunately, you’re probably attracting the very worst players to those listings because those of us with reasonable skills and good attitudes usually speedrun, play with friends or rarely do dungeons at all.

bhagwad.4281:

Why should he be forced to play a way he doesn’t want to? It’s not as if forming a team is somehow superior to playing solo.

You forgot your /sarcasm tag.

Either way, you should probably stick to unranked if you want to wing it.