Guild Wars 2

I salvaged and transmuted over a LOT of quality stuff before the wardrobe and dungeon armour collections were added, thus losing out on skins and a couple achievements.

Biggest regret is missing out on a couple TP opportunities. Back when Super skins were dirt cheap I thought to myself “These’ll be worth a fortune someday.” but never bothered to stock up on them. Ah well.

I can definitely support an optional WP unlock that costs a modest amount of gold. That aspect of map completion is pretty boring, and requires the least effort of all. Similarly, it does stand to reason that we could be ported into a dungeon or fractal from any location, and only the ‘opener’ has to physically enter.

Thumbs down on the mounts, though.

Gems and weapon skins. Probably give one or two of my characters a makeover.

kitten.6582:

this is an opinion based argument so the only way i can objectively argue against it is to compare gw2 to other games with cosmetic endgame allure. The game i have most experience with is LOL (league of legends). its an ftp (free to play) dota style game and it generates 100% of its revenue (which is a LOT) on cosmetics. it feels like every time i open the game they are advertising new character skins (many of which change animations). I am normally really stingy with my money on video games but i have to confess i have spent about 40$ (which is a lot for me in a ftp game) on skins and other goodies for characters i am most attached with. It increases the fun of the game and makes me feel slightly better than my opponate who is wearing stock skins (even if they own me).

That’s a fair observation, I haven’t done any number crunching. However, within each armour class I’d wager that there are at least a hundred possible combinations using in-game armour only. And of course, dyeing and weapon skins are major factors as well.

LOL isn’t a very good comparison. Each skin is made for the individual champion, the models are smaller in scale and less detailed for example. You also neglected to factor in champion sales and a few other small offerings as a part of Riot’s revenue.

Having said that, I’m in agreement that we can never have too many cosmetic options. There’s quite a few NPC outfits that I’d love to see added as cultural or gem store purchases. I’m just suggesting that you might as well fully explore the wardrobe before you decide that it’s inadequate. After all, we aren’t likely to see any new armour skins for a while.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Plus 1 for SKATE. Well put.

What I gathered from that post is just that there’s too much ‘rubbish’ loot in this game, not that Ascended Rings eventually reaching their end-of-life is reasonable.

There’s actually loads of options for customization we can piece together with both in-game and gem store armour. Check out GuildWarsDyeJob on reddit or any of the ‘post a pic of your character’ threads in this forum for ideas.

Even some of the basic looking, lower level sets have a few parts that look amazing in the right combination.

We could use some more practical back items though. The recently released crafting discipline sets are kind of silly, imo.

We’re more likely to see cultural outfits than armour sets. Far from ideal, but I can live with it.

Still holding out hope for the Norn shaman suits to be made available.

Ah, this thread again. I don’t have a problem with ‘skimpy’ armour for anyone, but I disagree with the view that there needs to be complete equality in the appearance of male and female gear. It’s impractical and seems a bit petty.

Imo, what really matters is the overall aesthetic, not how much skin is or isn’t shown.

Marndeis.7815:

Second issue with your suggestion is although it seems annoying time gated rewards are what help keep this game with a flowing population. If you could do a week or a months worth of activities in one day, you would see the populations of this game SURGE at one time and then go ghost town for 90% of the other time. this is a mechanic working as intended IMO. Having a reason for players to come here and play on a regular basis IS a positive for the game, even if it means you have to wait a little longer to complete your personal goals.

I disagree. Personally, this would just be an incentive for me to play even more. Remove time-gating and it’s far more likely that players who have more time would have more stuff. There’d be some changes to the market (this would likely affect the supply and value of a handful of items, and cause significant inflation). That’s about it.

I miss the days when dungeon rewards were per-character, though.

It’s interesting that ‘yellow’ is the only tier defined as Rare, all of the others suggest a level of quality rather than scarcity.

A little rarity is a good thing and adds a sense of value to some items, but the massive gap in the frequency of Rare and Exotic items hardly seems warranted.

Our loot tables need to be spiced up in a general way though. There’s too many items in this game that you almost never see.

This is typical of PvP, unfortunately, but I think you were just unlucky in being grouped with the dregs of our community. There’s lots of really good players who will even call their team mates out for it if they’re being toxic or abusive.

I still completely fail to see how changeable stats on Ascended gear would be game-breaking and OP. We’re talking about 400 gold suits of armour, with a minimal % increase over the freely available Exotics.

As many others have stated, before Ascended crafting Legendary weapons were nothing more than gaudy and expensive skins. What ANet probably should have done was make Ascended gear and Legendaries completely equal – with the only difference being the skin.

Pandaman.4758:

Joking aside, it doesn’t benefit everyone, it only benefits people who have only a few ascended weapons; for people who took the time and effort to craft ascended weapons for all of their characters (which I’m not, by the way, I only have an ascended greatsword and hammer, both from ascended weapon chests that I got from PvP), this not only doesn’t help them, it debases their efforts. It would create the same kind of drama that we saw when the wardrobe angered people who spent the time and money crafting dual Incinerators/Bolts just for the skin.

And, honestly, it’s really not worth the development time. I’d rather see ANet work on other aspects of the game than add stat switching to weapons (and armor, you know people will demand this for armor as well) that are only marginally better than exotics.

First off, I don’t think broadening options for everyone should be restricted because it will upset a few.

Even a player who owns one or two full Ascended sets (armour, weapons and trinkets) now has access to all of the stats. He or she can then simply give the extras to any alt. The only way one can ‘lose’ with a change like this is if you’ve already crafted full sets of every possible stat combination available in-game for all of your characters.

Ascended weapons are in a pretty good place, but the armour is so outrageously costly and time consuming to make that it really ought to offer something more than a minor increase in efficiency. This isn’t something I would consider a waste of dev time, Ascended crafting is a significant portion of the endgame in GW2.

+1 to the OP.

This thread makes my head hurt. I just can’t with you people sometimes. What kind of a player base rejects an idea that benefits all of us?

This wouldn’t take anything away from Legendary weapons, rather it would be adding value to Ascended gear. It’d take us one step closer to the seamless build swapping so many of us hope for, and every Ascended drop would be truly amazing (as is, some stat combos are so worthless you’d be better off equipping a green).

I swap weapons now and again, never armour or trinkets. Been getting more or less the same loot for the last year and some. Lots of rares but very few exotics, and always low-end crap like ‘Stardust’.

Wouldn’t say that my luck is much different from anyone else’s though. Players have been complaining about bland loot as long as I can remember.

Thread title is kind of misleading. This is essentially a request for some sort of GvG battles (bigger than PvP but not quite as large scale as WvW), and this would be pretty cool. I’m all for more options.

The beauty of this game is that it actually begins at 80. There’s nothing at all that you can’t do at the level cap.

It would’ve been nice just to have some more variety. There’s a lot of under utilized but interesting creature types.

Demons, branded and watchwork/steam creatures are all pretty cool.

No Pulse.2967:

I think this summarizes the OP quite well.

I categorize transmutation stones as gem store items since that is the most consistent way to acquire them. My post included ALL items sold there, in order to back up my initial point; that the gem store is necessary to enjoy the game.

In order for us to have meaningful discussion on this and most other game design issues I think as a community we need to establish and accept some pretty basic premises. Here’s three general points I think most, if not all of us, can agree on.

- In MMOs, character building and progression > game play and mechanics. While GW2 has pretty engaging and action oriented combat, it’s not something most players would enjoy for its own sake.

- In MMOs, this character development is primarily concerned with two things: Power and Cosmetics. GW2 is designed so that there is a hard cap on power progression and it is within everyone’s reach, instead emphasis is placed on cosmetic progression.

-Most of the options for cosmetic progression are gated behind the gem store.

Do these sound like reasonable assertions?

Yeah. Point of the post was to express that things are kind of dodgy now, but would have been noticeably worse without the gem store options.

So we don’t stray too far from the topic, I’m of a similar opinion as the OP, but what strikes me the most in these discussions are recurring claims of entitlement among ‘dissenting’ players, and a belief that the core content is all one needs to enjoy the game. I think this is false. We cannot project our own experiences onto those of others, especially when discussing a leisure activity. There’s a certain threshold of reasonable expectation, of course, and I think this post and many others like it are well within those bounds.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Because I say to myself “if only I had a playable harp or flute, I could really enjoy getting my teeth kicked in by anyone else in WvW catching me running alone”. “If only I had that one Metabolic Booster my food I never use would last longer.” “If I only had a Tormented Bow I would really enjoy doing Fractals.”

These activities are inherently pretty fun, this is true. But I do not think GW2 would have the player base that it does today if we only had access to the ‘default’ settings. No upgrades or boosts, no little playthings, no new cosmetics (apart from the in-game stuff). The forums would be absolutely brimming with complaints.

The end game is cosmetic progression. Hell, there’s an entire reddit devoted to it.

Oh, ha-ha. Well, there’s that, and there’s also:

- No outfits, armour or weapon skins (with a few exceptions).
- No transmutation, ever.
- No fancy hair-dids or ability to make a dog faced Charr.
- Five characters, tops.
- One (uncomfortably full) bank tab

Now, Anet has fortunately allowed us to attain all of these things with gold earned through game play, but you’ve got to admit that this game would have a lot less depth without these options.

Lol @ Tobias. It’s funny ‘cos it’s true.

I really just want to throw this one comment out there, in response to all of the white knights and comfortable folk that simply can’t empathize with opposing views.

Most of the gem store content is absolutely necessary to enjoy the game.

That’s why it’s in the gem store. To make money. Because they know players will have a much better time in-game with, than without that stuff.

GW2, played without using any of the gem store items (including the ones they give away occasionally, or allow us to trade), is like a meal prepared without any seasoning or added flavours at all. Sure, you’ll get a bellyful, but will it have been enjoyable? Unlikely.

I agree that this feature is needed, but it’s definitely not something we should have to pay for.

My absolute favourite dungeon is TA. Love the aesthetics, story and encounters. I learned the ropes there and have run it quite literally hundreds of times, since I started (since before the ‘TAFU’ days, even).

Least favourite is a tie between Arah and HotW. Arah simply because I’ve never had the opportunity to learn it, and quite possibly lack the skills to ‘master’ it in the way that I have other dungeons.

HotW has the potential to be amazing, but is full of encounters that just go on far too long. Especially the underwater boss fights.

^ Yeah, what he said.

Sounds pretty neat, though. I’m looking forward to this one.

Fatalyz.7168:

You were intended to do at level 80, what you were doing the whole time that you leveled, with the exception of leveling another character, doing something all together different, or achievement hunting. If you did not enjoy the leveling process, and only played to get to max level to start getting to the “good” stuff, you had the wrong expectations for this game.

That doesn’t make a lot of sense. 1-80 is basically just exploring and doing events as you run into them. Maybe some WvW and PvP if you’re that way inclined. Level 80 content is more along the lines of dungeons, fractals and cosmetic progression.

I don’t like the way the word ‘intended’ is used in these forums. kitten what anyone thought was a good idea at the time of development, as players we get to suggest otherwise if it’s not to our liking.

Romek.4201:

its rly annoying to read allways the same stupid response in all threads

ENDGAME dont need to be a geartreadmill

ENDGAME is what people can do after they lvled to max level without getting bored. And an important tool for this is PROGRESS

PROGRESS can be the fractal lvls – good start from arenanet but no supourt and not enough work on it so too much time now and people bored with this

• would be no problem to add 10 lvl more every 3 months or something with much harder fractals

PROGRESS could be the LIADRI Arena as solo content – People loved it and they even said they will work on this and bring more – but NOTHING

PROGRESS could be something like this wxp system they added for wvw but for PVE

PROGRESS could be counting the lvls i get after lvl 80 on my character and give special title all 1000 lvls or higher or something rly cool like different spell colours

PROGRESS can be alot more and it dont need a kitten geartreadmill

Thank you for saying this. Levelling is so fast in this game that you’d really expect there to be more focus on content suitable for level 80 characters.

Unfortunately, the bulk of GW2’s endgame is in the gem store. This can be changed ever so slightly to add some depth to existing content. Nothing too fancy, just buff some of the existing content, put a few interesting items out there in the world and tone the RNG down to the appropriate minimum.

Tattoos for humans. Body piercing.

The ability to adjust height while maintaining body size (ever notice how shorter characters are literally just smaller models?)

No, if anything I’d argue that this game needs more types of small group content. There are plenty of options for zerg-style play for those who enjoy it.

This is most of my team of 80s, the other two wear full sets or outfits.

Bad idea. There are valid reasons to remove people from dungeon/fractal groups other than being offline or not in the instance. We aren’t obligated to play with everyone.

Also, as a community, we should generally be seeking out more positive ways to improve our game experience. We don’t need more nerfs, restrictions or punishment.

Wanze.8410:

Crazy Mofo Freak.1458:

I know this… And without lvl’s you can’t have Traits. Which reason for the asking of ways to purchase this. Make it easier to gain the lvl’s yes through our pockets. And then gaining the traits be easier. But this is just abotu them adding a purchase way of gaining the Tome of Knowledge

Thats what crafting is for, to level your alts in a fast (and expensive way). If you give players a different way to buy levels, several markets for lower and mid tier mats will collapse because the demand will plummet. That means that new players that level their first toon will get squat for the loot they get and the mats they mine, resulting in a higher wealth disparity.

Those markets will be fine. The valuable lower and mid tier mats are only those used in Ascended crafting, not craft levelling. I’d go so far as to say that nerfing craft XP has actually made levelling through craft far less viable an option for most players.

I’d suggest that Tomes be added to the loot tables alongside Scrolls, with a lower drop rate. Might not hurt to add a vendor where we can trade Skill points for Tomes, at maybe a 5:1 ratio.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Jahroots.6791:

….. In the year and some that I’ve been playing they have taken far more from us than they have given.

I think if you go look at ALL the balance updates as a whole, you will not be able to support this statement across the board. If you are looking at it from the perspective of one or two classes in respect to a specific game-play mode, it may appear like “everything is a nerf”. To be honest, your view of the game from a Dungeon player perspective is (per your own word) a small nitch of the game itself.

True. To be fair fiery rush is almost never used outside of dungeons, and even then it’s usually limited to specific encounters.

My statement was made in a very general way though, about the game as a whole rather than just class balancing. The last update that I can remember that was entirely positive for the players was account bound dyes, and before that the wallet. Most of the others have presented both advantages and disadvantages.

Basically, anything that’s been a part of the game for a long enough time and is subsequently taken away leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

We’ve had the craft levelling nerf, restriction on dungeon rewards to an account bound daily, these arbitrary new trait acquisition methods. On top of all this, gold→gems has completely skyrocketed. Of course, one can offer several explanations in support of why these changes have occurred, but the bottom line for me, as a player, is that the game has become significantly less convenient and accessible than when I started.

Most of us in the dungeon community saw this nerf coming, we were just hoping the devs were busier with other things, and would leave us alone in our little corner.

I genuinely don’t understand why so many people support nerfs. In the year and some that I’ve been playing they have taken far more from us than they have given.

It’s fine in lower level dungeons and on easier paths. Ever so often two people want to swap out simultaneously, which hasn’t been much of a problem either.

One guy wanted to swap in CoE though, we did okay without him but the group wasn’t too pleased. I was just amazed that he ran a level 20ish toon all the way down to Mount Maelstrom.

The Asuran animation trumps ’em all.

Lol. I kinda caught on, it seemed like kind of odd timing for trolling this topic since everyone’s more or less adjusted to the change.

Maybe some good’ll come of this topic. Players who are having trouble with the fight, or are afraid to continue stacking might try the approaches suggested and have them catch on.

Not sure if serious….

Nonetheless, someone showed me a pretty useful tactic that allowed our group to stack her easily, you just have one of the Warriors use ‘Fear me’ as soon as she starts winding up for the first AoE attack. With at least one Ele in an ordinary DPS spec’d group that should be more than enough time to burst her down. Unfortunately I had little success when I tried teaching it to PUGs.

The safe approach takes about a minute more but is almost foolproof. Just take out a few of the gargoyle turrets, kill the spiderlings then have at the queen any which way you choose. Ice bow usually does the trick.

Dungeons are a far better source of gold for reasonably skilled and experienced players, even in PUGs. The rewards are specific and measurable: a set amount of gold, plentiful low quality items for salvage/sale as well as containers that have a decent chance of giving valuable loot. There’s also a very good chance for rare drops and the occasional exotic (although this is much less frequent). You can make a bit of gold off the tokens after you’ve farmed enough of them as well.

As far as I can tell Dry Top just gives you a chance at getting T6 mats. Some people like this kind of farming, but it’s much more of a gamble. The buried chests are a great alternative source of Dragonite though.

I’ve seen someone trying to pull this off in DR a few weeks ago, claiming they had a permanent hair stylist contract but not enough gold to sell it. Someone reported them, I think.

Capes would apparently require a ton of work. I’d be happy if we got some practical looking back items for a change though. Some sleek and elegant, or at least differently themed quivers would be a nice start. Maybe a set of blades like Anton’s. A bag of scrolls and potions and witchy looking things such as a Necro or Ele might actually need.

I die a little inside every time I see someone wearing the spinal blades. God-kitten those things are hideous.

phys.7689:

That said, as you say businesses exist to make money, so they will obviously try to make money. Essentially its up the customers and the competition to say how far they can or should go. If people are buying, then from many standpoints they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing.

Indeed. And it’s a bit disappointing that the gaming community has so readily bought into ‘pay per use’ micro transactions and RNG nonsense.

Permanent contracts for this and most of the other basic services should have been made available in the gem store, perhaps even as cash only purchases. This is the only sort of content I would further support this game with real money for, and be perfectly happy to do so.

Bleh, PUGs really aren’t that bad. I see all of those things you’ve listed in at least one run a day. I get more upset by players’ poor choices in fashion than anything else.

Never did get the issue with skiping Kohler either. That fight is as pointless as it is fast. His chest is utterly worthless and a lone champion bag doesn’t make much of a difference in the greater scheme of things.

All AP measures is how much content you’ve completed. It has absolutely nothing to do with your abilities or approach to gaming.

Yargesh.4965:

can you describe this elephant you are seeing?

Can’t you see it sitting in the corner on a pile of AP? It’s pink and draped in little leafy laurels.

Dahkeus.8243:

As best as I can tell, it’s an attempt to get people involved in crafting.

I think just as many (if not more) players would become involved in crafting just to make gold off this. I’ve made quite a bit off the inscriptions and bolts of damask meself.

Well we have been getting new gem store armour skins every 2 – 3 months so far, and the last sets were released in April, so there just might be a new set out by month end. I do like the high quality outfits we’ve been getting of late though. Certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of those. The lack of customization is a relatively small price to pay for the freedom we have in applying them.

So ….you want it to take 30 minutes to get your gold reward rather than 15?

Norn NPCs have some of the best outfits, imo. This one’s my favourite.