Guild Wars 2

Tigaseye.2047:

You’re talking about loot while levelling, here?

For better, or worse, nothing matters much loot-wise, in WoW, anymore, while levelling.

You mentioned, previously, not being able to get a weapon, for your level, from the auction house?

I didn’t respond to that point, as I was a little confused and it just seemed somewhat off-topic, anyway.

Obviously, if no one happens to have listed a level 20 (for example) weapon, on the AH, you can’t buy one.

However, you can still get them from questing and/or dungeons, or from crafting.

Then, once you have one max level char (or maybe below max level, by now?), you can buy heirloom armour and weaps for your alts.

These are accountwide and can be used as many times as you like.

I have the full compliment of them, on my WoW account.

It really takes the pressure off, as you can relax a bit more, about loot, in dungeons and only have to be outraged about loot ninjas in terms of gold-loss and/or transmog-loss and/or the principle of the matter.

As opposed to a significant performance loss, as was the case previously.

It wasn’t hard to get the currency to, gradually, accumulate heirlooms, either.

Group loot in levelling dungeons in WoW, I agree, has always been a total nightmare, due to rampant “ninjaing” (AKA loot theft).

Fortunately, they introduced personal loot in MoP, for max level, for everything up until “Normal” (now renamed “HC”) raids.

But, they then decided to make it non-compulsory in Flex (now renamed “Normal”) level raids, in WoD, for some reason best known to themselves and these raids became virtually unpuggable, due to all the ninjas.

Personal loot is definitely the way to go, in all games, at all levels.

I would never dispute that, it is something I specifically asked for and I would, seriously, question the hidden motives of anyone disputing it as the best way.

In fact, it no longer being compulsory in Flex/Normal was one of the main reasons I left WoW, in WoD and haven’t gone back.

No, I really wasn’t able to and since WoW is the worst game possible in my opinion from a to z, I brought it up as an example to show you how a TP “controlled by the rich” really looks like.
I was level 80 then and was thinking about getting the expansion or leaving the game – I left as I had no chance to get a level appropriate weapon. That much to discouraging players.
I guess the rest of what you wrote is because of your confusion as to why I brought WoW up – I hope I explained why I did.

I ran CS, DD and.. SA the past few weeks – I like the new skills (6-0) but went back to CS, SA, T yesterday. I can’t go without SA as much I’d love to, but the options to remove condis otherwise are just too weak.
Staff itself is pretty boring – I don’t get why our only CC relies on being stealthed but we have no smoke field on that weapon. So I’m supposed to run offhand pistol as a second set and wait 9 seconds until my possible next CC? And then again 9 seconds before I can use staff again – really good design
So yeah, I’m curious if and how anet will save thief – oh and when.

Tigaseye.2047:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

With peak performance only being about 10% difference between exotic and ascended, most players are already mechanically “best off”.

It is probably worth noting, here, that “real” raiders, in WoW, most of whom min/max obsessively, would laugh at the idea of 10% being considered very little difference.

I’m not really sure why people have decided 10% doesn’t matter, here?

In one way it’s good, I suppose, as it should be about talent, not gear…

…but, quite frankly, it also reeks heavily of people being falsely and continuously reassured, in an attempt to keep the maximum number of players happy.

Or not so unhappy.

Then please also note that one’s progression in wow depends/depended (?) on what other players allow you to have as the weapon drops are usually a lower level than your own, so you can’t get a weapon for your level but have to hope that someone sells it/or allows you to loot it. If no one does you’re undergeared and not allowed to take part in raids/dungeons.
If you want to have the best weapon statwise in GW2 you have to farm – and no one (but Anet to an extend) has control over whether or not you’re allowed to have it.

My internet is fine for the most part; 26 ping, no latency (sometimes during prime time).
It feels a bit as if my casting is off = I’m drawing earlier/later than I see it.

He really ran through my CnD it looked as if I missed because of his height (My thief is the tallest human male, his asura probably the smallest asura)- so he definitively was in range and most people I miss are as well.

Swagger.1459:

Unfortunately you posts you made no such reference to your server being “ktrain”.

Yeah, alright being bad and #1 usually means that the server is PvDing hard – and they do.

Swagger.1459:

I understand there are things broken, but population disparities in segregated servers are the core roots of all evil…

No – I’ve told this a lot of times and I’m telling it again:
I have been on a server that was rank 16 or 17 when I started wvw – we were constantly outnumbered – no joke, bandwagoners who came to us linked that buff to warn us and we just shrugged. We ranked up to 9 within 2 or 3 months.
It was possible because balance and wvw wasn’t broken back then.

I started to monitor my internet connection because of this issue- I usually have the problem that my CnD will miss if my target moves – not out of range, just a plain move. We have a video where my buddie’s Asura warrior just runs through my CnD. And it gets worse if the internet connection is bad but the problem is there no matter what.

Tigaseye.2047:

That people have a tendency to become demotivated and/or disinterested and/or depressed, if the disparity between the rich and the poor is too great, or if one person receives a windfall that makes them disproportionately more wealthy than the average person in their community.

I doubt that actually as you don’t really know how much gold players have. And since you don’t need tons of gold to get anything in this game, you just need to play it.
Also, that doesn’t sound as if you weren’t envious.

Tigaseye.2047:

As opposed to the, largely mistaken, common belief (especially in very capitalistic countries, like the US) that witnessing other people’s success/wealth/fortune motivates people to work harder.

~3 of the 5 people who knew how much gold I had started to make gold on their own – in different ways. 5 others who saw my legendary started to work on their own. So I might have encouraged people although I don’t care – you don’t need gold, you don’t need skins.

Tigaseye.2047:

The problem here, is that people might decide to just give up and leave the game, if they feel their only viable option to make a reasonable amount of gold, is to play the TP.

No (see above)

Swagger.1459:

Most of you always equate megaserver with eotm.

Megaserver is a map mechanic that pools players.

Wvw has more meaningful objectives and gameplay, 4 maps that need to be coordinated and tournaments…

Wvw mega and eotm will be two different things just like they are now…

More people = more coverage over 4 maps…

Unicycle racing is different than car racing right? Just because it has wheels doesn’t make it the same…

I just explained you that my “full” server is only karma train.
If you think a bit more about it: 1) Most mechanics of wvw are broken, leaving nothing but karma train, 2) people are leaving wvw big time, why? 3) those who stay will do what? right karma train.

This is in no way “playing the TP”, you farm stuff and sell it- it really is that simple.

Swagger.1459:

So having more like minded players in one space will not help wvw?

Good luck finding them.
If you like karma trains though you might be satisfied with more people – but then again you could just play EotM for that.

Swagger.1459:

Jana.6831:

Swagger.1459:

Oh, you peeps will love it because it will be populated for everybody… My gosh, I’ve never seen people opposed to having a consistently higher population at all times of the day and night.

It’s not quantity, it’s quality.
I’m just literally screaming because the server I’m on is that bad (it’s #1 EU).

Well so far we have neither quantity or quality unfortunately…

Server merges/a higher population won’t save wvw – the population diminishes because wvw is broken.

Tigaseye.2047:

No, I didn’t miss his point and I am certainly not envious.

That was the point I was making and keep trying to make.

This isn’t about envy.

As a non-envious/jealous type of person (I’m probably the least envious/jealous person you could ever meet, in fact), I find it offensive that people keep accusing anyone, who can see there is a problem here, of being envious.

Not only that, but in terms of rewards, in this game, I have very little to be envious about anyway.

As I have almost everything I need and/or want.

I don’t have legendaries, as I feel they are overly expensive and so, made a conscious decision to not buy them with real money, as I feel it would be unfair on others to do so.

Not to mention, it would amount to overpaying for the game; especially, considering it’s not the best game it could be, frankly.

I have bought lots of skins, however, as they are “just” skins and I do have a couple of ascended weaps and some armour, from drops.

I can’t guarantee no one else is envious, obviously, but the point is that not everyone is and there is far more to this situation than just (potential) envy.

All I can assume is that all of you saying this are very envious personality types yourselves – which is, probably what motivates you to play the TP so much, to get stuff – and you are just projecting that onto others.

Really, there is no other explanation, other than possible trolling, or repeating what you hear from other (envious personablity type) people, parrot fashion.

This made me really laugh out loud – what problem is there?
I can tell you what a problem was for me: Not being able to get a bow for my level in wow as the TP was controlled by 2 persons max. I had enough gold but no bow had been offered. You can get anything in this game without the TP, so I don’t really understand what “the problem” is.

Alright, not saying that I’m feeling better now as I have no clue what is causing this..
But thanks for your input, guys =)

Lettuce.2945:

I’ve actually never lost to your build. It’s weak. You actually raged at me. Perhaps you should check my ign before talking.

Try to be a bit nicer, ok?
Most of my friends are former main thieves and all of them say that thief isn’t viable anymore. It’s great if you’re that skilled that you can pull it off, but 99,9999999999999% of players can’t anymore.

Swagger.1459:

Oh, you peeps will love it because it will be populated for everybody… My gosh, I’ve never seen people opposed to having a consistently higher population at all times of the day and night.

It’s not quantity, it’s quality.
I’m just literally screaming because the server I’m on is that bad (it’s #1 EU).

Alright, ever since an update early February I’m hardly able to land a CnD.
I know it was the update because I was fighting a S/D thief just before that and have had troubles with especially thieves since. They just need to move a millimetre and my CnD would miss without notification (no “evaded”). That’s not only for thieves but any class and lately even npcs. It gets worse when my internet connection is bad, so I put it down to lags mostly, but I don’t think that’s really the reason.
So, I’m wondering if I’m the only one experiencing this – anyone else?

By the looks of it wvw is dead anyway, so factions won’t help – or only help for a short time.
As long as the fights are a mess and all strategical parts are being deleted, bugged or made super expensive (guild upgrades), there’s no hope for wvw.

ETA: IMO it’s the small things that matters in wvw – you can make events/alliances and whatever all you like; as long as the base is broken nothing is going to work.
The base for me is: class balance, blob balance (stability/boon stripping), a way to defend without being shot through walls and so on. A lot of the problems we have now have been for at least 9 months and they will likely stay for longer. Some day we might be able to port to green keep again if the npcs don’t shoot mobs from the walls.

I guess rolling back wvw to how it was 1,5 years ago with all the balance and whatnot would be really fun. Although condis were OP even then.

My thief died 9 months ago, tell me about it.
It’s his second birthday tomorrow.

ETA: Actually I knew he was about to die 9 months ago, he died on June 23, so half a year ago.

Well, our Garri WP is open, no matter what “Ohh, the enemies killed me in our keep – I think I’m just gonna port and backstab them” (needless to say that I won).

Tigaseye.2047:

No, Wanze, that is not the problem here and you know it.

You’re just feigning admiration for that post, because it happens to suit your cause to do so.

Obviously, if no one wants any of the rewards (or to accumulate gold) in a game, none of this matters; but the truth is that most people do want some, or all, of them.

Assuming that is, inevitably, going to be the case (and just as well, for Anet’s bank balance, that it is), the problem is that one, niche, way of playing the game is FAR better than others at achieving them.

The “choice” in a game should, pretty obviously, not be “Play the TP, be rich IRL, or become a Buddhist.”.

Much as I admire Buddhists…

I told a few pages back that I have got several k of gold and don’t “play the TP” – in fact I’m pretty much playing the game as I like. And I love it when my buddy starts one of his trading episodes again as that means that he will pay me back what I lent him.

ETA: If you’re poor in this game you want too much for your time spent and in that case you can go with less and still be fine. That may sound cryptic but think about it: everything you do in this game earns you gold; farming, dungeons/fractals, champ trains, the TP. Before HoT the TP was the most lucrative (if done right), then dungeons, then champ trains, then farming. Now it’s the TP, farming/champ trains, then dungeons.

Nocta.5274:

Sylvari has the most athletic look without being a cliche human, and it has some really nice customization options. ( really hard to make two identical sylvari if you try not to )

True that, but to me their running (male) is as if I’m running behind a pencil pusher

AsurasRCute.4136:

I’d imagine that the males have mostly the same animations as the females? Otherwise, aesthetics are so subjective that it’s almost impossible to give advice worth much of anything. There are also lots of variables that you won’t know whether they work unless you check for yourself, for each specific item.

Male humans and sylvari have more fluid CnD animations than their female counterparts. Don’t know about Asura, Norn and Charr though.

Serious Thought.5394:

No reason to pick Skelk Venom or Signet of Malice. Ever. Not unless for gimmick builds.

Signet of Malice is really good in PvE – I would like to keep it like it is.

Nike.2631:

Jana.6831:

Archon already explained one part of it: The Rally mechanism – the moment you die everyone you hit and is downed rallies – that can be really bad and I as a thief with my daggerstorm am a really good potential rallybot.

Hahahaa. Ok, I’ll keep that one in mind when my Condi-tank thief is eyeing her daggorstorm .

But the situation was different: Bay, catas, we were ~15, I was killed by AoE on the wall and the other guys tried to rez me and died one by one.

And that would be exactly what I meant about single point of error. I realize your body laying there all supine might be nearly irresistible, but they’re the ones that made a poor judgment call.

I miss out on this. I have 5 thieves but am only playing my main

Well, maybe I’ll have to formally draw up my proposal for Unlocking Especs on alts that share a class with a fully unlocked main .

I still feel bad about me having killed all those poor guys 2 years later. They were just too nice – and that’s the reason why I port every time I’m dead now – no matter how exciting the fight is I’m in. I have no idea how good or bad any class is right now, but there’s a reason why people rather play their main or a certain class. In my case it’s that I know thief best and can get out of impossible situations and in any tower with no matter how many enemies in front of it = I can do what I want to do and be useful. When I’m in blobfights and the enemies are just too strong I go back roaming because I can’t be useful at that point in that situation.
I have no problem to unlock the elites with my other thieves, but they don’t need it anyway as I already have a thief with full elites – but it is a problem for other classes.

The character bound wvw ranks were a huge problem actually – because we felt stuck on our characters. “I’d hop on my other class, but there I don’t have masteries”.

Nike.2631:

Walk me through that would you? Because I’m hard pressed to believe there’s a single point of failure in the process…

Archon already explained one part of it: The Rally mechanism – the moment you die everyone you hit and is downed rallies – that can be really bad and I as a thief with my daggerstorm am a really good potential rallybot.
But the situation was different: Bay, catas, we were ~15, I was killed by AoE on the wall and the other guys tried to rez me and died one by one.

Nike.2631:

If you’re that good (and I’m not disputing it) then what’s the problem running a low performing class temporarily to access a high performing Espec? Because what’s being put forward repeatedly is we need to go back to the old unbound system to make it easier for people to be tunnel-visioning jerks.

But I’d miss out on what I love to do (usually wvw and my main).

I miss out on this. I have 5 thieves but am only playing my main

Substance E.4852:

Jana.6831:

That means it is really rare

kittenting on rangers is like a national pastime for WvW. It is by no means “rare”.

Did I say it was rangers?

Substance E.4852:

You grossly underestimate the cancerous bias toward rangers in WvW.

Please guys, read what I wrote right:

“I only once witnessed a class being booted out of a zerg”

That means it is really rare and that was a stupid situation and I defended that class (which I hate) fiercely in chat.
In most cases wvw players want to help their team though, so they usually are on characters that are the most helpful, so I have only once witnessed that a class was unwanted – come on, my words aren’t that hard to understand

ETA: This is for public, btw – guilds say what classes they want/need – you don’t really have a say in that – and that is okay.

Nike.2631:

Jana.6831:

This is not really how it works. In wvw, especially in a zerg, you want group support – a ranger (and other classes) bring few. I have only once witnessed that a class (actually two) was booted out of the public zerg -but that usually isn’t neccessary as most wvw players understand that they need to bring as much support as possible.

How the hell do you kick someone out of a zerg? And worse, what kind of shortsighted brain-lock is going on kicking a Ranger you know is working on the Druid you want?!? That’s textbook cutting off your nose to spite your face. You KNOW he’s gotta go through the process and you crap on him for doing it? Brilliant!!

Maybe if you try to see it from that point of view you understand why this change wasn’t really nice towards wvw players – and actually I’d rather have no proofs of heroics than now 3 stacks of them for which I have no use for.

My Reaper has a pile of them too. I still don’t get the justification that playing more of my Reaper should unlock a full Tempest for me. Any more than running around on my fully unlocked Dragonhunter in HoT picking up the remaining hero challenges should be building points towards my Scrapper.

A single player can kill a whole zerg. I did so once (no one was mad at me though)
I guess you don’t know too much about wvw, do you? Your chest probably come from EotM or capping camps for dailies. That’s not meant offensive, btw.
If you’d know me you’d know that I can hop onto any character and play it just fine in PvE – I dn’t need to do full map completion or jump around in Maguuma to be useful in PvE – for wvw that’s a different scenario. But I’d miss out on what I love to do (usually wvw and my main) to get the elites for my alts which I might only want to use once in a fractal, because the class is better suited for group play (like eles and sometimes even ranger).

Nike.2631:

I’m not really sure how good I’d consider a commander who doesn’t understand the need to invest in his troops. The base Ranger may not be a Druid, but they’re not incapable of healing if that’s what you’re desperate for in your squad and they’re certainly better than telling the player not to play at all while they’re working on their elite spec. It’s not like a raid where every person you bring is a slot that cannot be filled by anyone else.

I don’t disagree that WvW is under rewarded, but that doesn’t validate it being uniquely rewarded, allowing characters to jump directly to their elite spec without playing as that character. And unlike hero challenges, the tokens aren’t currently capped, which may put WvW players way, way, WAY out front when a new round of Especs drop. (And if it doesn’t due to some brand new switcheroo screw-over I’ll be right there with you screaming “FOUL!”)

This is not really how it works. In wvw, especially in a zerg, you want group support – a ranger (and other classes) bring few. I have only once witnessed that a class (actually two) was booted out of the public zerg -but that usually isn’t neccessary as most wvw players understand that they need to bring as much support as possible.
Maybe if you try to see it from that point of view you understand why this change wasn’t really nice towards wvw players – and actually I’d rather have no proofs of heroics than now 3 stacks of them for which I have no use for.

derokk.7154:

Thanks for the reply,

But i was hoping there was a forum somewhere, where people who do the actual game/class balancing and such would share their views and tips about the games.

like i’ve seen for other games in the past (not telling names)

cheers!

Not so sure if they still explain upcoming balance changes – they did in the past. You will then see it under “news” when a balance patch is announced. The next will be earliest January 25th though.

And thanks to Sir Vincent, Azure and Esper for helping me to get the celestial stuff done =)

Swagger.1459:

I would like to say this…
We can buy crafting mats on the bltc or get them in game.

We can buy the ore nodes off of the gem store when released or bltc.

We can buy the dye packs off the gem store when released or off the bltc.

We can buy minis off the gem store when released or bltc.

We can buy finishers off of the gem store when released or the bltc.

You get a bunch of these items only because they’re in BL chests. The finishers aren’t offered for gems anymore, the nodes have neven been offered for gems, some of the dyes aren’t obtainable throughout the year from the gemshop, same for minis.

If it’s only BL tickets you want, why don’t you buy the skins off the TP?

ETA: Arguing that items shouldn’t be given out because you can buy them from other players who got them from the same source you want it removed from doesn’t make any sense.

Riku.4821:

Also, please don’t address me by title, we are all on the same playing field here. I am not above any one else on the forums, we are all equal.

We aren’t, but I guess you know – and also that calling ~20k players lazy isn’t the best you can do.

I want the stuff of my rev’s and thief’s staff merged actually. The only crowd control we have on staff is #1 out of stealth – but we have no blinding powder on that weapon, so we just as well could’ve gotten no CC.

Mirtis.6847:

you can still see the enemy name plates since there is a different option for them.this one just disables friendly name plates.
Still, holding down alt or ctrl is not a tedious task before fight neither is tapping them in the middle of fight.

Here are the options one has got:

(I rather live with the yellow thingy clutter)

ETA: My usual shouts are something like this:
“~15+ RS, QL, heading Gol”
I need to estimate the 15 within a second-no time to click them through.

Mirtis.6847:

Options > General Options > Show all player names

you can even change it before getting into the game….to avoid your eyes get hurt again.
and then you can press “ALT” or hold it down whenever you felt masochistic and wanted to hurt your eyes again.

You shouldn’t do that in wvw though where it matters how many enemies you see and how early you see them – ths requires the name plates of all players and you can see the pvp badge of your allies. And like someone said somewhere: it is distracting. But alas, we’ll probably get used to it.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Being sore at thief nerfs is a buff.

B>Unhappy Camper Title

Just wanted to throw in that the ExP earned in WvW count for nothing – capped 4 towers and killed ~100 peeps and did some other stuff and had 0 progress for my PvE masteries.

In the last “christmas wishes” thread I wrote I wanted a black ascended shortbow- that is still partially true but the last BL weapons were dark enough for me for now.

Of course I have a lot of wishes but something I’d really like to have is an option which places the mousecursor in the center of the screen when one wants to place AoE – we’ve had that for a hot minute and then it was taken away again – I don’t know why but I’d really love an option to have that again – it was really good.

To be fair, at least for thief it was clear that the class would be destroyed (except D/P) when they released the upcoming 3 traitlines – that was 9 months ago. Nothing has changed since, only that now D/P isn’t viable anymore either.
I honestly don’t think that thief will ever be viable again as the changes were that bad that too much would have to be changed which will likely never happen.

Ayrilana.1396:

snip

Ok, I admit I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Ayrilana.1396:

So how about this change: the chests are account bound again but proof of heroics are instantly awarded upon gaining a WXP level.

With this you want the things to be character bound which you claim everything was before and with what I disagree- I was referring to this.

Ayrilana.1396:

These are elite specializations. There’s no reason that they have to be acquired by the doing whatever you want.

Btw: You don’t do anything special to gain elite specialisations, you do the same stuff with each of your characters, only the name “Elite” makes them appear special.

Ayrilana.1396:

Notice in my quote that I stated that before the WvW abilities, there wasn’t another system in WvW that was account bound. It’s true because there wasn’t.
Now look at what you wrote. All of those items you mentioned came AFTER the WvW ability system was added to the game. So even if you took what I said, which was strictly about the WvW, and applied it to the entire game; I was still correct.

The ability system was there before I started wvw and it became accountwide in April 2014 – but even in August 2013 when I started to play there were scrolls of knowledge and tomes of knowledge which were account bound as far as I remember. And I don’t really get why you put those two things in context and tell me afterwards that I shouldn’t bring these things into context…
And actually you don’t need to quote the same posts 3 times – it’s a bit confusing and you know I’m easily confused.

Tl;Dr: It doesn’t make that much sense that we’re going backwards in all game modes and have to repeat stuff over and over again. I don’t mind tyria map completion but a lot of people do, now they have to get all HP there are and some on top of that. The former trait system already backfired big time and that will probably happen again.

ETA: All that’s needed is some tyria map completion and a lot HoT completion.

Ayrilana.1396:

Jana.6831:

Ayrilana.1396:

Jana.6831:

Ayrilana.1396:

Before Anet added those, there really wasn’t anything that was account wide.

Ayrilana.1396:

These are elite specializations. There’s no reason that they have to be acquired by the doing whatever you want.

Alright then….

How about next time you include the entire post rather than take it out of context.

How about you remember what you claimed before?

I do. The first post you quoted had absolutely nothing to do with elite specs.

You claimed that “nothing ws account bound” = wvw players weren’t able to level their characters with what other characters did – but they were, just like in any other game mode – everybody could buy traits, earn scrolls of knowledge or get tomes of knowledge, although they were rare until about a year ago for pve and wvw players. So there’s no real reason why we have to do the same stuff with each of our characters again. Since in wvw you don’t level your masteries (I will have a look if there’s some people during prime on my server today and I can get in a lot of kills if the exp (not wxp) goes towards the pve masteries but I’m pretty certain it doesnt and it’s not that plenty anyway). So wvw (and probably pvp) players already have to decide whether they want to play wvw or pve – meanwhile anet wonders why no one plays wvw anymore (several reasons actually) – it would’ve helped if these badges were account bound – but in fact all of us can complain, no matter the game mode.

Ayrilana.1396:

Jana.6831:

Ayrilana.1396:

Before Anet added those, there really wasn’t anything that was account wide.

Ayrilana.1396:

These are elite specializations. There’s no reason that they have to be acquired by the doing whatever you want.

Alright then….

How about next time you include the entire post rather than take it out of context.

How about you remember what you claimed before?

Ayrilana.1396:

Before Anet added those, there really wasn’t anything that was account wide.

Ayrilana.1396:

These are elite specializations. There’s no reason that they have to be acquired by the doing whatever you want.

Alright then….

Ayrilana.1396:

Progression in WvW are those abilities. Before Anet added those, there really wasn’t anything that was account wide. So how about this change: the chests are account bound again but proof of heroics are instantly awarded upon gaining a WXP level.

It was, the lvl 20 scrolls one gets with every birthday, tomes of knowledge, although rare for non pvp players, and the infamous trait system which let you chose whether you wanted to do a PvE event or buy the traits for your character.
Also scrolls of knowledge gave you a skill point.
So yeah ~0,5 year ago you were free to play the game however you wanted to.

Zero Day.2594:

Jana.6831:

I love my daggerstorm
I’ll come and find anyone who will touch it

DON’T TOUCH MY DAGGERSTORM

(you’ll live longer if you don’t)

<Touches DAGGERSTORM>

(They already have, remember the stability change?)

Yes – thank god an enemy thief with daggerstorm looks as if he’s dancing…
I got CC’ed once.

backstabs zero

I love my daggerstorm
I’ll come and find anyone who will touch it

DON’T TOUCH MY DAGGERSTORM

(you’ll live longer if you don’t)