Guild Wars 2

Voted no. I could not care less about leaderboards in any game I play.

PimmoZ.5497:

It was not desolate at all… but this is the part I really dont understand from Anet. Dungeons are meant to be farmed. Hard at first but because of practise gets easier and easier. Fractal were meant to be the challenging offset to this with the increased difficulty. I hope they dont go for raids as the most challing content available because just like with dungeons it will be on farm shortly…

Yeah, unfortunately for some of you…fractals are the new dungeons. Hard at first but clearly meant to be farmed infinitely, which is why we have dailies for them. If you want a real challenge you will have to raid.

The problem with developing this kind of content is that you simply can’t have it all. It’s like a triad of Challenge, Fun and Re-playability where you can only pick two elements.

Yenn.9185:

So what’s the most efficient source of liquid gold nowadays?

Fractals, at least 10g from all of the dailies.

Yeah, I noticed this as well. However, it is still infinitely better than it used to be.

For what it’s worth I’m at…

Shoulder x 4
Coat x 2
Boots x 1
Gloves x 1

No leggings or helm as yet.

A topic about stacking and skipping?

You’re a bit late but unfortunately, dungeons are over man.

John Smith posted about this a few months ago. He made it clear that they lowered the rewards to discourage players from running dungeons. They won’t remove them altogether, but they don’t really want us to play them either.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

This is just sad.
It only shows how you are not enjoying the game and just want to finish it ASAP with the less effort possible.

This post if full of B* because it’s not “personal playstyle” but an abuse of the game mechanics. You are free to play the way you want as long as it does not affect the game mechanics.

The lone fact that you use the world “nerf” instead of “fix” tells everything.

After the novelty is gone most of the enjoyment lies in beating encounters as quickly and smoothly as possible, the social aspect and the rewards. There’s only so much fun to be had repeating a scripted encounter with the same enemies in the same environment. It’s why dungeons are essentially dead now. Very, very few people are going to repeat content for its own sake.

Honestly, I’m sure the devs feel differently about this but these tactics offer the best possible experience for the largest number of players. Truly difficult and time consuming encounters are usually avoided, or just kitten people off. I’ve seen this time and time again. Generally it’s much more fun to breeze through a fight, maybe have some idle banter with your fellow party members, collect the loot and part as friends.

And I don’t consider anything a player does using only their own intelligence and the game client, that is not to the detriment of other players, as an ‘abuse’. It’s simply smart play.

RNG is a cruel mistress. I had seven armour boxes drop from Veteran and Champion level fractal dailies (192% Base MF). Haven’t even used any of ’em, still waiting on a full set before I do.

If you want weapon boxes these seem to drop more frequently from PvP reward tracks. Got two of those since the Wintersday launch, playing only a few unranked matches a week.

I can dig this look. Would have used another dagger skin though. The flesh reaver-y looking one. Malefactarym or whatever it’s called.

The core problem that plagues all PvE content is effort vs reward. In order to get anything even remotely worthwhile you need to repeat content ad nauseam. It’s flawed design, but ‘necessary’ for Anet’s business model.

Personally, having experienced a variety of approaches to various fractal encounters a few dozen times, I’ll stick to the fastest and safest method where possible. Longer fights really aren’t any more fun. I suspect a great many other players feel the same way.

The CC is definitely frustrating. Hell, it was a pain in the kitten even in core Tyria, where even the lowliest mobs can stop you dead in your tracks for a few seconds or knock you flat on your kitten.

The hard-hitters (snipers etc) are easily counter played when you get the hang of it.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

And how do account bound “good drops” remain good if you’ve gotten them before? if they are something you don’t want or need are they still good? How often do they drop?

Exotics are always salvageable, so there’s that. Ascended drops are good for alts, or alternate stat sets for a main character.

There’s a metric kitten ton of items in this game, and I think that way more stuff should drop from time to time. Crafting mats and components, recipes, consumables, you name it. ALL exotics should also be available as account bound drops in appropriate content with an appropriate level of rarity. For example, Forefire weapons should drop from mobs in AC.

I’m posting this with a candy cane mojito in my hand, lol.

Used em to create a Drow themed Sylvari, pretty pleased with it.

Overall, Berserker is still a safe bet. Viper is a close second but only a couple classes can really make the most of condition builds, and Engineer is the only class where condi is an absolute must.

rchu.8945:

hi,

I havent done FOTM in a very long time, but what do those specific FOTM levels mean? Are those providing special rewards or higher % to get some crafting materials?

How long is long?

Fractals are tiered differently now. 1- 20 (Adept), 21 – 50 (Veteran), 51 – 75 and 76 – 100 (Champion). There’s daily reward chests for completing various levels of fractals, and yes the loot varies accordingly.

As for the rewards, I find that completing all the fractal dailies gives a decent gold reward, which is about on par with what was earned in casual dungeon tours, but with way less actual loot.

The daily chest RNG has been pretty good to me, in the week or so since the update I got 4 ascended chests. Unfortunately, in typical Anet fashion they give with one hand and take with another. Changing stats on an ascended item is a brilliant change, but the downside is that the chest drops now contain a specific piece of armour. I got three chests of shoulders and one coat. Pretty happy with the changes overall, though.

Lots of people run 51, 56 and 67 actually.

Snowblind isn’t terrible with a half decent team, in spite of the instability.

Gaaroth.2567:

Don’t you like shaved girls?

NiisanSora.6289:

I’m not a big fan of groups solely doing Swamp to get the daily runs, as it detracts from running others fractals, save for the Molten Boss fractal. While I don’t have a problem with people who only do the recommended fractals followed by swamp runs, it makes it harder for those of us that want to play more diverse fractals from getting groups.

So…let me get this straight. You want to prevent others from playing lazily in order to enable your own laziness?

The one to Rule.2593:

Not true, my ascended boots yesterday came from adept.

Got two ascended chests tonight, Malicious chest of gloves and Healers chest of coats from the Adept and Champion daily chests respectively. Possibly the luckiest I have ever been in two years+ playing.

When people complain that HoT is too hard, they probably just mean it’s harder than they’d prefer.

Also it’s a lot more than just the actual combat influencing their opinions. You have to consider the entirety of the expansion. Off the top of my head…

- Navigation
- Mob density
- Effort/Reward ratio
- Bugs and PC performance issues
- Unmet expectations

These are all likely to shape individual opinions. Someone who’s miffed about all or some of the above (and there are quite a few people who are disappointed them) is going to become frustrated a lot more easily than a player who is generally satisfied with the state of the game.

Malediktus.9250:

Rewarding the bad players with undeserved rewards will just lower their incentive to optimise their builds and equipment.

Everyone deserves some rewards just for showing up and playing, imo.

Most players have a pretty good idea about optimization, and many disregard it anyway. That info has been completely accessible for a long time now. There’s no big secret to it. From what I’ve seen players don’t really optimize their gear to meet challenges, it’s a mindset you either have or don’t.

Open world content should be adjusted to the lowest common denominator. It’s far less hassle that way.

Let’s be realistic, no matter how the devs try to find the right balance this content is going to be too easy or too difficult for some players.

As it stands, there’s far more people who can appreciate ‘faceroll’ than ‘facemelting’ difficulty.

The former guarantees multiple successful maps, and a good time by most (Silverwastes, for example). The latter usually results in everyone struggling to get into one or two organized instances, and abandoning a map at the slightest hiccup. Not to mention frequent bickering, trolling and rage. The satisfaction gained from beating the odds doesn’t really make up for the other crap, imo.

cranos.5913:

Conner.4702:

No one has the RIGHT to give you kitten as you put it. If someone can’t remain civil then they have no place in any group related content. The community has become more and more hostile over time, but the hostility was mostly contained in dungeons. Now that that has been nerfed to hell all those malcontents are out in the open world.

Rofl “oh god speedrunners are running wild! Please contain them!”

Lol, I swear they try to blame us for everything that goes wrong in this game. Dungeons are cold and dead in the ground and apparently we’re still ruining everything for the shiny, happy outdoors people.

Heh, that was pretty spot on. Basically applicable to pretty much all instanced group content in MMOs.

Siphaed.9235:

Ever notice people’s solution to “gem store problems” is always taking stuff out of gem store to put into the game? It is almost as if their main objective is to obtain things for free because they’re too cheap or can’t afford the gem store items (or are greedy). Weird..

What’s weird is how readily the gaming community has accepted ‘micro transactions’ (a term I use loosely, as most cosmetic and convenience items are actually quite pricey relative to the cost of the game itself.)

The issue you’re overlooking is adding value to game play. I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain this, but one of the core elements of the RPG genre is completing content for rewards. The content itself varies, grinding rep points, killing mobs, beating a dungeon or raid. None of these activities are inherently worth repeating without some kind of reward or progression at the end.

Most rational thinking players don’t want skins for free, they simply want stuff added to various parts of the game to add some value. There’s an immense world out there, full of events and activities that lots of players ignore because there is literally no point to any of them.

The Chak and Auric weapon skins I earned by beating story episodes and achievements were a lot more satisfying to earn than the stuff I ran dungeons ad nauseam for gold to buy off the TP. I’m sure a lot of other people feel the same way.

While I think that most players are capable of attaining the bare minimum level of gear and skill to beat these, this honestly doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request. Faab makes some very good points that I won’t bother rehashing. Lower difficulty for appropriately scaled-down rewards.

There isn’t enough new content in this xpac to justify raids being for the ‘elite’ only.

Draknar.5748:

It sounds like you pretty much want a barbie doll game, where you can unlock multiple outfits and just look at your characters (yes Fashion Wars 2 huehue…). Most people playing this game seek things beyond this.

Anet’s business model, a couple of third party websites and dozens of topics on the forum clearly suggest otherwise. A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into making their characters look cool. I’ll always maintain that cosmetics make up just about half of GW2’s endgame. Without these, we’d very quickly realise how shallow and limited the actual game play really is.

I’m collecting new skins and outfits to give my characters a makeover. Pretty much the only real goal I’ve ever had in this game. Fashion Wars 2 ftw. Also trying out the new stat combos, which is kind of neat (Viper Engi and Marauder Thief so far).

Fractals are pretty much the only thing I enjoy now, and they’re far from dead. However, if the upcoming patch doesn’t revert the frequency of Ascended chest drops to what they were pre-expansion, I suspect interest in those will die down as well.

PvP occasionally as well, but it I enjoy it a lot less now that the Transmutation charges earned per reward track have been halved.

It really is strange, considering how much needless, empty space there is in LA.

Completely deliberate though.

There was at least one meeting, where they tried to figure out what to do with dungeons in light of the upcoming expansion. Someone, somewhere at the table said out loud, “Dungeons? Kitten dungeons.”

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

There is nothing wrong with an MMO having a thriving economy, and making the game less based on the economy would not be an improvement.

Thriving economy is one thing, building the entire game around it’s economic systems is an entirely different matter.

Pointless to discuss that any further though, this is one aspect of this game’s design that is certainly not going to change.

For solo play, Ranger is the better choice. It’s possibly the easiest class to play in the open world, even with a full glass build.

Zero Day.2594:

I think it’s people thinking that the loot you get doing DS meta is better than the other metas.

And when there isn’t a (taxi’ed) meta going on, they’re just plain old maps.

Dragon’s Stand meta is also the most straightforward of the HoT maps. You just need to push three lanes in more or less a straight line, while other maps are harder to navigate or require too much hopping around to maximize your participation %.

I find the outrage on dev silence a little curious. I’ve been a gamer for years, but hardly gave a second thought to the ‘men behind the curtain’, and certainly never expected them to check in with the players in any meaningful way. I suppose interacting with the community is the new standard, now that technology permits it.

How is this a problem? If you’re bored of the popular fractals just make a listing for whatever level you want to play. There’s usually people still trying to complete the achievements who will join.

This is a welcomed change for most of us, as the dungeon nerf deprived players of semi-casual instanced content.

Some of those ideas are pretty good, others terrible. I like the idea of skins drops in particular.

I wouldn’t make too many drastic changes to the game, just make some quality of life updates to keep things more player friendly.

The levelling system is fine, gear and stats are in a good place. However, I’d keep the costs of the new stats a bit more in line with the older ones, and remove the account binding. I would also do away with soulbinding entirely, and unique ascended items.

I think the gem store model and gold → gems was a fine experiment in the vanilla game but things have spiralled out of control. There should be some reasonably priced, cash only options. Unlimited transmutation, permanent stylists, bank, TP, repair bots and so on. Nothing game breaking, but definitely welcomed additions. Would sell these as year long contracts for around $20 each, or get them all for $100. There would be a small gold sink for the use of these services – a few silver for each use of the basics, 1g or so for each makeover.

Dungeons would have around 3 tiers of difficulty, with the lowest awarding the reduced rewards and the higher tiers giving the old 1g+ in coin. Would also have created unique back items for each dungeon as well, requiring a bunch of tokens and a recipe that is rarely dropped by random mobs.

Ascended gear would still be top tier and pricey as hell, but have the option of stat swapping out of combat. And of course, chests would drop in the more challenging PvE content – fractals and raids. The old droprate was somewhat reasonable.

And last but not least, build templates. One extra page for gear and traits free, others can be unlocked for 800 gems each (account wide). Free and easy swapping when out of combat.

Electro.4173:

They’re not really my cup of tea, but they aren’t really bad skins for the most part.

I really don’t like the random spike patches on some of the weapons for no reason, though. Like the longbow, and the hilts of the swords.

Also, ’dat pistol. Just no.

Yeah, the pistol would have worked a lot better as a proper gunblade.

Rauderi.8706:

/flop
Another “let me mix and match” thread, when I was hoping for an actual critique of the outfit.

A critique? Fair enough. It looks like a bunch of ideas for at least three different outfits cobbled together, but none of the individual themes (bone armour, scrap metal and…blades?) are particularly interesting.

A sleek, fitted BDSM outfit to complement the Merciless weapon skins would have been pretty cool, imo. There’s not really anything like this in the game, apart from the female Profane set.

Most of the info in this thread is terribly dated.

Engineer is currently top tier dps, and kind of fun to play. Lots of little build tweaks that can be made, but Scrapper does not mesh well with the current meta at all. This spec is kind of underwhelming, but it’s a solid class overall. – Most Useful

Necro works well enough with both power (Reaper is slow but hits hard) and condi builds. It’s my favourite class, love the aesthetics and gameplay. You can take them just about anywhere. – Most Fun

Ranger has always been the best class for open world content. This class has also come a long way from its beleaguered past, and the Druid spec is actually quite welcomed in raids now. It’s reportedly fairly strong in PvP and WvW as well. – Most Versatile

Endless Soul.5178:

I’m already starting to think of character designs that can use these skins.

Heh, Profane armor might be making a comeback

Bleh. I have zero enthusiasm left for outfits. No matter how amazing they look at first, all of them pale in comparison to what we can create on our own with the wardrobe system.

This is a solid method that I’ve had to resort to since the expansion launched. It’s easy enough to do even without a notebook.

However, it is also excruciatingly boring. You kind of left out how utterly exhausting and dull it can be to run around drab, low level maps full of uninteresting enemies (comparatively, for all it’s flaws Maguuma is at least vibrant).

That’s why so many players struggle to make gold; we basically have to choose between fun and profit. An hour of logging and you start to question why you even play this kittening game in the first place.

Despicable? Most of the elite specs have cool new effects and skins as well.

There was always more than enough flash and visual clutter in the core game anyway. Personally, I’d prefer to have the facets turned off. The light, airy colours don’t fit my grim, battle-hardened Herald at all.

I earn my gold slowly and through the grace and favour of RNGesus.

Completing the lower tiers of fractal dailies is good for about 2 gold from trophies, and another 50s – 3g worth of loot.

SW is decent, and refreshingly streamlined and accessible compared to the clusterkitten that makes up the HoT maps.

The best farming is basically out in the open world now, as recent changes have made gathering a lot more rewarding now. Map rewards can be lucrative as well. Cursed Shore offered a solid package of Giant Eyes, Charged cores and lodestones this week.

After all of this farming and gathering Ascended crafting will likely be your bread and butter.

None of this is even remotely close to the former goodness of dungeons, but you can get by.

I’m guessing the OP was stockpiling Giant Eyes or something.

Fractals in the <50 range actually seem a lot more casual now that they are easier and less time consuming. The community is a lot more chilled and welcoming. I hardly see ‘exp’ or ‘meta’ in listings now. People are more likely to just leave a party when things don’t go the way they like, from what I’ve seen.

That said, there’s no real incentive to accommodate random strangers. It’s a nice gesture but in no way an obligation. You also have to consider that this is old content and has been significantly nerfed. PUGs have a reasonable expectation that anyone who joins knows what they’re doing. This might seem rude and elitist, but I find that players’ perception of time changes with experience. Run a dungeon a few dozen times smoothly and you’ll probably have far less tolerance for interruptions than you do now.

I don’t mind being stuck in the jungle so much as running out of mastery points. Quite a few of them are locked behind mini adventures and achievements, which sucks. I miss being able to level up by just doing the activities I enjoy most.

Tigaseye.2047:

Moopy.7908:

That’s YOUR problem.

What I genuinely wonder, is if people who say things like this, actually, think it is helpful, in any way?

Nope. They’re just enjoying a false sense of superiority and being smug about it. It’s a ‘geek’ thing. Something I’ve observed guys of various races, ages and backgrounds do in this culture for over twenty years. Comes with the territory.

JaddynnStarr.5201:

It just feels like “long haul or bust” if you know what I mean.

Man, I know exactly what you mean. There used to be more short and medium-term goals in this game. A lot more player autonomy. The nerfs, gating and busy-work are becoming tedious.

I’m still having a blast, as I am still somewhat willing to adapt, but the changes can be frustrating at times.

A 20 slot account wide bag would be a bit more reasonable, and practical.

Sometimes I lose track of who has the machetes, chak acid and crowbars.

Those are pretty good ideas, but I think we really just need proper build templates. The ability to equip multiple sets of armour, trinkets and weapons simultaneously, while having only one set active at a time, and instantly switching between them when out of combat.

People having been asking about a feature to address this issue since launch, but no luck so far.