Guild Wars 2

aspirine.6852:

Not even an anouncer, more like the Gw version of a messageboard. Right now people are relaying on third party websites :/

Nah, you’d need an announcer. To get the people doing nothing to know there is something starting.

Kind of like Queens Jubilee. People hang around until something is announced for them.

I don’t imagine them doing anything too drastic.
They said it becomes an account stat so maybe like how you accumulate skill points you accumulate magic find. Any MF that you had on any of your gear would simply be awarded as bonus to that pool.

Maybe, all speculation eh

I would suggest getting a green set of MF though just in case.

Shouldn’t the button for ‘town clothes’ be for a completely different armor set instead?

Even the Queens Gauntlet game encourages playing around with your build in order to complete it.
There are so many different game types in this game that one build simply doesn’t cut it.
You’ve got pve-fast levelling, pve-elites, pve-dungeons, wvw, roaming, seiging, fractals (with entirely new debuff effects).

And yet, we have ‘town clothes’.

It just …. makes no sense.

Hi guys

So this is my first character and I’ve just hit level 80. I’ve not really invested much whilst levelling up into gear so I have a teeny bit of gold to be able to upgrade all my level 50 items to level 80 haha.

But, I have no idea where to start.

a) I have a level 400 jeweller and tailor. Do I craft my own ‘tier-1 exotic’ set of armor/trinkets? Or is it cheaper to simply buy it? Will I even be able to buy it with buy orders? :/

b) I don’t really have much time so farming gear tokens or something will take me a while. I’m seeing how ascended items are literally out of the picture for me.

c) I enjoy staff, and scepter/dagger as my go-to items. I genuinely do not like dagger dagger, as a playstyle on a mage caster it doesn’t make sense imo.

And finally,

d) What’s a good type of gear that will be good all around. In WvW, dungeons, 100%ing, future fractals (havent done any yet). I’ve been using carrion with s/d but not sure if its that good.

Or – should I just bite the bullet and buy multiple sets of armor for different purposes? How do you manage your builds?

You can turn this off in your chat options. Just create a chat tab for lions arch which removes NPC dialogue and emotes. Problem solved.

So many people hang around LA and jump up and down, or check bank and trading post.

They may not feel like pvp, or wvw, or dungeon or even personal story, they don’t feel like specifically helping someone. But, It is really easy to be able to go join a zerg event for some loot.

How about introduce an NPC in Lions Arch which announces a random event chain to go participate in?

The announcement will show you the location so you can head there.

He wouldn’t do it often, but he would announce a random event from all over the world. Be it a dragon, or a giant champion, or an event chain that simply hasn’t moved far in a long time.

Onshidesigns.1069:

The in game chat is most likely “Internet Relay Chat”. One of the oldest parts of the internet. Your idea isn’t possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat

Really? I don’t think it should have any effect. You’re not upvoting the comment. You’re upvoting the player. That itself is more client based which is much easier to perform via a button.

Function_ upvote button >
>Check username of clicked comment
>Add 1 upvote to username’s achievment
>Send username upvoted_bell_sound
EndFunction.

You can ‘upvote’ anyone’s comment in chat.

All you do is hover your mouse over the comment and you can see the upvote button.

When you click it, the user gets a little sound that his comment got upvoted.

It could also be an achievement to get x- amount of upvotes in chat.

~

So often, people ask a question and no one answers. I think this would be a really positive addition to the community aspect and encourage more people helping out.

It sounds kinda silly on paper, but I feel it would work in game quite well.

With a completely different set of skills, levelling dynamic and progression design. sPVP to me feels more like it’s a “MOBA” like Dota or League of Legends or something.

To be honest though, I really kinda like how it’s so separate. It feels like a game-within a game. And a fun one at that.

One of the best draws about the MOBA is that the games are timed, you join at the start, and leave at the finish. It makes it feel really impactful.

I was thinking that the whole sPvP experience would really benefit by capitalizing on that ‘MOBA-esque’ timed game effect, rather than the call-of-duty-esque hot join games.

Do you think sPvP would benefit, from:
a) removing hotjoin servers
b) forcing everyone to join a queue (so the queue timer would be extremely small if not instant)
c) starting games together with full teams
d) having a smaller 30 second pre-game timer for ‘unranked’ faster games.
e) having the usual 1min30sec pre-game timer for ‘ranked’ team games.
f) using your hidden score to matchmake you based on win/losses like a moba.
g) Apply debuffs/timers to those who leave the queue or leave the game.

In other words, do you think sPvP is enough like a MOBA to try and encourage that style of gameplay? Or do you feel it’s still too fast-paced/zergy and the team-dynamic and skill levels aren’t quite enough to make encouraging that game style worthwhile?

I remember I used to play the game Aion (fail game btw), but it used to have extremely large battles with lots of players and effects.

They used to have a very efficient method for scaling during big fights. Might want to look into the specifics.

But they used to load things in this order if I could tell correctly.

1. name plates
2. a naked/default lvl 1 armor character model (everyone looked the same)
3. skill effects but simplified

then they started filtering in more details as your computer could handle them
4. dyes
5. character height
6. weapon
7. armor
8. body details (obesity level etc)
9. facial details only loaded on characters within 4m of your camera location.
10. more skill effects

I don’t know if the GW2 game engine is capable of loading things like this, but it worked way better than GW2 currently does. I think some more tweaking is still needed.

Fortus.6175:

Sad me, eles and guardians cant be part of this conditions meta due to guardian only having burning and eles only having burning and bleeding (both bad at it btw since while we do have the ways to put them, we lack the means to survive like say a necro, who has an insane pool of HP, DS, fears, lifesteal, minions to clutter and block projectiles and also do most of the damage for them sometimes, all that while remaining at max range, fully mobile and insta cast skills)

Instead of making contions the meta, how about giving conditions some rework. Some classses (namely guardians and eles) have the smallest hp pools in the game, and unless you go fully into condition cleanses (totally forsaking damage) you will melt since neither toughness, protections, retaliation or damage soakers can save you from conditions.

I would prefer if we rather had more versatility. I want to play damage dealers, with spikes, right now only “viable” options for this are thieves and mesmers and thats because stealth also needs balancing.

No, I dont want Anet to balance around the “current meta” , because while you definitely love it, many other people dont. Riot tried to do the same and failed. They have more than 100 champions yet the game is overall balanced, took years to accomplish that but it was done. I sure Anet can redirect more of its resources to balancing, considering they only have 2 devs working in balance, I would say it is not fair for them to have so much work to be done.

Im down for having options, options are good, say no to being stuck with only one gameplay or meta.

League of Legends also has a Meta. Based on what champions are picked in tournaments/most frequently. But also based on how it’s ‘normal’ to go ap mid, ad bot with support, and a bruiser top. That’s meta. A while ago it used to be ad in mid to get more cs.
Yes, their champs are balanced. But the game finds it’s niche of what works and ends up there.

If you don’t do anything about it, it gets stale.

When you’re in a particular map or zone, you sometimes have a ‘World Event’ nearby. It pops up on the right hand side notification area and encourages you to go participate.

Unfortunately, a single map worth of players often doesn’t have enough to deal with the event and it just falls flat, never getting completed.

Why aren’t some of these announced globally? To all players in the server? Or some percentage of the playerbase?

Would that even help? Or like, how else can they solve this? I think out of all the maps I went to that had a ‘world event’, I was able to participate and completed maybe 4.

In every game I’ve played, there is always a ‘meta’ that develops. People do the maths and come to a certain combination which ‘works’ and that statistically gives the best results.

No matter how much balancing, nerfing, or counter balancing occurs. The meta always ends up somewhere.

I’ve been wondering, what do you think would happen if Arena net were to be the first company to actually capitalize on this in a positive manner?

Instead of balancing, nerfing and counter balancing to try and encourage build diversity that can never be reached, why not ‘set the meta’ to be explored in more depth.

~~

So what do you think, do you think the ‘Meta’ is a good thing? And that to keep the game fresh and balanced ANet are going about it the right way with continual balancing? What do you think would happen if ANet started to support the meta? Good or bad?

~

An Example Suggestion
Right now Condi is the ‘meta’ of the month. ANet are discussing buffing other skills here and there to help people move away from it.
But lets say instead, they actually give each class a very attractive ‘condition’ based trait or skill. Thus, lots of people change their builds to deal with the ‘meta’ and how people are building. It’s not just about capitalizing on the conditions, it could be about reducing them or making them work in different ways. It makes for some interesting builds to think about how the meta can be dealt with.
Then, the next balance period, Arena net buffs Crit skills to be the ‘flavour’. Everyone can start to explore an entirely new area of skills and buffs and trait trees.

When you participate in a world event, you are awarded either ‘bronze’, ‘silver’, or ‘gold’, based on your participation. If you choose to tag a few mobs, and go on your merry way, you’re still rewarded.

I would love to see this applied to Living World, Dailies, Monthlys etc.

So, if I can get 9 out of 15 achievements for the Living World, I might get a medium reward chest when it finishes.

Or, if I get 4/5 dailies before the end of the day, I might get a small reward regardless for being close.

I think this would really encourage people to do more achievements. It acts like a really good incentive to be rewarded for most of your things, rather than do-or-die complete them all.

What do you think?

Choosing skills in this game is as simple as clicking on the skill slot & choosing from the options available.

Choosing Traits is as simple as investing enough points to unlock a new Trait and selecting it from the options available.

I think PvP in GW2 is really suited to something similar but for gear selection.

~

You could have a ‘PvP Gear Selection’ tab on your hero page that kind of works like the above.

~

You would have a character model of your hero, with all the item slots around him (like the current hero’s equipment page).

The item slots where you normally put something, are simply ‘click & choose’ from the available options that pop up. (Unwearable armor or weapons is greyed out – like how skills work if you haven’t purchased them)

Once an item slot is equipped a little ‘rune slot’ or ‘sigil slot’ unlocks next to it, and you can click & select your rune for that item in the same way.

If a skin item is in your inventory, it becomes one of the available things to choose from when you choose that gear slot.

~

I think this suits the style of GW2 playstyle heaps and would help new players figure it all out. Everything is in one place, it’s easy to customize if you want to try something else.

What do you think?

The bank and collectables deposit is a huge space for our items and it would be really nice to be able to have a look at what we have stored.

We wouldn’t be able to remove anything unless we’re standing next to an NPC (Like the Trading Post).

I used to play an MMO which also provided weekly/monthly content.

It also had lots of specialized even-specific consumables and tickets etc.

However, after the patch came that removed all of the event, they also removed all the items from your inventory – never to be seen again.

The item was dubbed ‘Temporary’ on the tooltip so you knew to use it before the end of the event.

GW2 should do this so that people who participate in events aren’t punished and there’s no confusion about when it’s okay to sell items. (Some people don’t read patch notes!)

If you look at MOBAs for a second. Everyone is essentially ‘maxed out’ in progression. They’ve all reached end game. Majority don’t even play on ladder so that form of progression isn’t there either. Yet, it remains so popular. I think the reason why, is because at the end of the day it comes down to skill of gameplay. And how your skill makes you win. It’s not about the rewards, or the achievements, or the progression. It’s about playing well, and winning because of it.

Long standing MMO content doesn’t need progression, or realistic story. It needs gameplay options that are fun, and challenging in and of themselves.

GW2 is in a fantastic position with very comprehensive gameplay mechanics and a game world with many directions to be taken. All they need to do is introduce content now that is unique and interesting regardless of the rewards.

Why would you run a dungeon over and over with no rewards, unless it was fun?

Combine all the things that make gw2 great into repeatable content that remains fun long after the rewards have dried up.
Combine moving jumping puzzles within dungeons and introduce pvp elements within dungeons. Create challenging and powerful bosses with mechanics that keep you on your toes.

Then, once all your characters have 80’d, you’ve got a full achievement’s book, you’re still playing because it’s fun and there are so many things to do that are fun.

I’m kinda new to playing GW2 but I’ve noticed there is a lot of ‘temporary’ content that comes in every couple of weeks. While I really love how there is really active development scene, it’s kind of really sad to see so much of it go to waste and get removed. Never to be seen again.

Does anyone like this temporary content? What’s the reasoning behind it?

Do you think maybe they could add like a ‘time portal’. Which would let you select from a list the past content and experience some of the stuff that was removed.

It just feels like with such an active development cycle, they could be building onto the game and giving more and more things for people to do, for years to come, once the money or development dries up.

What’s your thoughts?

The ‘PvP browser’ NPC:

• When you first chat to this NPC he should offer 3 things:

1. Hotjoin Matches
2. Unranked Team Matches
3. Ranked Team Matches

• Clicking the appropriate category then opens up the respective window (that we currently get to).
• Completely delete or turn the current ‘Tournament Master’ NPC into another ‘PvP browser’.

~

I think that ‘Tournaments’ by namesakes is very elitist and doesn’t accurately reflect what actually happens. They’re just team games. They’re not tournaments at all. Maybe they used to be but they’re not anymore.

By consolidating the options into one npc it becomes very clear which game modes are available.
You can also see a natural progression of game modes which correlates to skill and rewards.

While I don’t think cross region play is feasible yet. Cross region chat and auction houses are.

nottsgman.8206:

I prefer the manuals to be honest. it means I can buy it whenever and carry it around, so when I hit the level it needs I can use it then, without having to run back to an npc.

Yeah valid argument. But then again, if you’re going to retrait it sometimes feels nice to be forced to go back into town and have a ‘break’ period in the gaming session. You can read builds, decide what path you’re going to take.

If anything, ‘Refunds’ should be allowed out on the field, rather than the manuals which give you access to so much more.

OMG. Mind.Blown.
How the NOPE(* did I not see this?

Lucky I’m jewish and have only purchased 2 manuals so far lol!

Seriously though. If it’s upgrading something permanently – why is there even a manual to buy!

Why isn’t just an NPC payable function? (like how you go to swap your crafting discipline)

At least I don’t feel like a complete idiot. Coherency on forums is important yo haha, makes you look like less of an idiot when you are an idiot xD

Scenario:

• Trait points right now are kiiinda easy to retrait. 2 gold and you can still adjust a lot of your functionality.
• Provides a decent gold sink to the economy.
• Traits can be freely refunded in pvp.

Problem:

• Arbitrary cost of gold which provides nothing to the gameplay experience.
• 2 gold is significant bit of money – especially for newer players.
• PREVENTS CREATIVITY – You rely on other build guides with far less customization since 2g is too much to ‘try 5 points here instead’

Solution:

• Provide dropped trait-refunds as a rare drop in chests or from champions etc?
• Reduce the price of trait-resets ?
• Give freely-refundable traits (like in pvp)?

What this achieves:

• Easier respecs allows more experimentation. You can tweak and customize it to your play style.
• More build diversity, creativity, customization based on what items and skills you choose.
• Less rule-book following.

Summary:
I think GW2 has done a lot of things to move this game into ‘modern’ times by removing a lot of time sinks and restrictions. But this is a one more that I would really like to see change. It would potentially remove a significant gold sink from the economy, but the benefits of more playstyles and customization would outweigh that I think.

Would you like cheaper trait-respecs? Or do you feel that the 2 gold is a valuable wall?

I’ve owned GW2 for while and I’ve seen the progression of the game through various patches, but haven’t really played it much due to various reasons.

So this has given me a unique perspective on what a lot of players experience when they first get to the point of GW2 pvp.

While the PVE aspect to GW2 is good, I feel in order to have a complete and longer-term sustainable player experience, some pvp also needs to be participated in. And unfortunately, there are some problems (I feel) with how GW2 pvp is structured that make for a inhibiting experience, that means people don’t like/play pvp, and thus get bored with the game prematurely.

I think if I had to summarize the two biggest problems with pvp it would be the following:

1. There is a very steep learning curve to GW2Pvp. And the game does very little to help ease it.

- Short of jumping online and seeing a guide, a new person goes into the heart of the mists and sees random clothes, full skills and is given very little advice as to how to get ready to play.

1. Secondly, I think the main form of gameplay that people see, is simply the hot-join games. Which often have people leaving/joining, is chaotic and very little strategy involved. While it is subject to opinion – this doesn’t create the ‘importance’ required to make it feel like how you play determines your result. It feels more like luck and thus doesn’t reward the player which makes it even more of an addictive and fun experience

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• What do you think could be done to help PVP for newcomers? Do you think there is enough?

While I don’t want to make this a suggestion thread, merely a discussion thread, i’ll post my suggestions to see what your opinions on how something like this would work.

~

• To address 1. The problem of steep learning curve.
  Honestly I think one of the reasons PVP is so daunting is actually because GW2 tries to make it easier by providing you a standard ‘kit’ of weapons, skills, and gear.
  It removes a valuable learning opportunity which the player could be directed to.

Instead of providing everything, give an NPC which ‘guides’ you through the Heart of the Mists in turn.

• He could take you to the weapon’s merchant and explain how in PVP items are separate and these are the ones that are available.
• He could tell you (like tutorial mode) to buy a weapon, and a sigil before allowing you to buy from the armor merchant and then buying your amulet.
• After gear, he could instruct you to choose your skills and traits and how traits are fully refundable.
• This step-by-step to the essentials of pvp mean everyone who starts, is given a full working knowledge of HOW to get ready for pvp, have a chance to see the build options available, and eases that learning curve dramatically.

~

• My second point was how hot-join game are the main featured game-type.

While I hate comparing to other games on gaming forums because it tends to incite resistance or rage, I would like to draw your attention to the MOBA.
The MOBA gametype is a locked-in session for 40 minutes on average that when you join, you realize you’re in for the full length of it. This creates a unique set of restrictions that make the gameplay that much more fun compared to being freely able to leave or join.

I think GW2 should really feature these type of ‘locked-in’ gaming sessions as the MAIN form of pvp, if not, then at least just as evenly featured.

Instead of having a separate ‘Tournaments’ NPC, The PVP broswer NPC should allow people to choose any ‘game-type’:

1. Hotjoin Matches
2. Unranked
3. Ranked

Selecting these would then take you to the appropriate screens to join & start.

By consolidating the NPC you’re making it easier to identify which games modes there are and increasing the chance that people queue up for ‘locked-in’ game modes.

With more people logging into this game mode the queue times become far less of an issue and people will make a natural progression from Hotjoins to unranked, to ranked as they get better at PVP.

~~

I realize this is a bit long but I hope I’ve kept the writing succinct enough.
Wondering what your thoughts are, do you think these changes could help? Do you think there is a problem in the first place?
Let us know below!

Hi, I’m fairly new to GW2 so forgive me if I’m wrong, but is there no ‘looking for group’ functionality in GW2?

I’ve always been a bit reserved when it comes to LFG interfaces in mmos. They’re usually unclear or disorganized or never get people to join.

How do you think GW2 could do this?

I think that pvp should be structured like this.

1. You have your normal hotjoins as they are. The rewards for these should be fairly small. Joining them should be a little more obscure – like speaking to a nondescript NPC standing in a corner somewhere.

2. Introduce something called like “Real PVP” (proper name TBA). This is the ‘main game mode’ that should be featured and that people should be urged to play. Both by the naming, how it’s featured, where the NPC stands and how big he is etc etc. When people say ‘go play pvp’ you immediately think of this.

Within ‘Real PVP’ (Proper name TBA), you have

- Unranked “Real PVP”
- Ranked “Real PVP”

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• Joining a “Real PVP” match of either type will place you in a queue.
• Once 9 other people are found it can ask you: ‘Do you want to join your team in the Preparation bay?’"
• If all 10 players accept, you all get dropped into a small ‘countdown lobby’. You can say hello, chat about strategies, assign roles for a small countdown.
• After the countdown the game starts. Like current rateds, you can’t leave early. You commit to a 15 minute gaming session when you join the queue.

~~

• Ranked introduced a ‘tiered’ system of progression.
  - I hate comparing to other games in gaming forums for obvious reasons, but it could be structured like “Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Elites”
  - Your individual rank could be hidden, you only know your general league.
  - You get promoted/demoted on your hidden rating based on your win ratio.
  - Further games will rank you with people of similar hidden rating.

~~~

This will mean that when playing ‘pvp’ in GW2. The entire focus is about committing to a 15 minute game time where there is a goal, a team that want to do well and rewards for winning.

You satiate the main playerbase that want a more ‘casual’ form of gamestyle (unranked) which means while people can play seriously, it’s not going to completely make someone rage when you play less optimal.

You satiate the large portion of the playerbase that want to play ‘ranked’ games. To compare themselves/improve themselves on a globally identifiable standing. Can earn better rewards. Play a bit more strategically together. Often join as teams.

~~~~

I think GW2 already kind of has this, but it might not be as clear cut or as consolidated. I think with a few naming changes and changing the way it’s presented will fix so many issues of how PvP is perceived in GW2.

;glhf

I play GW2 pretty casually. I love this game with a passion and the freedom without a subscription is really liberating.

One thing I think GW2 is doing great is having a new ‘event’ type thing going on with the living story every few months. It keeps the game fresh and it’s interesting and fun.

I kind of find it difficult to know what to actually ‘DO’ in some of them though. Often you get sent a mail in game which points to a random location on your map, throws a bunch of text at you with names you don’t remember, and expects you to travel there immediately. Often the world drops random drops or has things like sonic machines and baskets that you pick up and have no clue what they do without asking.

I would love it if instead of random mail, when you first log in during a new ‘event’, the game shows you a little cutscene-movie which explains everything. In typical GW2 style you could introduce the characters that are involved, what is going down. Where all the action takes place. You could explain what drops are in the world and what they do, and whether they’ll expire.

I think the website is already displaying this kind of information but again, it’s in text form. And I think a small 1 minute cut scene would be far better to explain everything.

What do you think?

When people are playing this game to get to ‘end game’, it is extremely difficult to solo your way through all the content.
As you quest hearts or whatever related to your personal story, you often come across those fantastic random events or quest chains that make the game fun.

Unfortunately, since the large majority of the playerbase is now 80, there are very few people playing on lower level maps.

Now Arenanet have done a fantastic job at level scaling, but there are so few incentives to come back to these lower level maps and help out lowbies do their quest chains or random events.

It’s a big problem because as soon as you get in the game, you feel like you’re the only one, no one can help and it’s very easy to give up.

~

An idea one of my mates had was to implement a type of ‘zerg’ event where everyone had to chase a special NPC through certain lowbie zones. This NPC would require everyone hit it, but simply by running through areas where lowbies are struggling to kill stuff they’ll get helped by collateral damage.
Furthermore, the mass of players rushing through lowbie zones would make any low level player excited and give them a bit of a speed levelling boost.

The NPC itself could be on a certain program to reward all players based on how much damage got dealt to it after the run. And by running through areas where there are likely questors then champions or elites could also be killed at the same time along the journey. So low level players can also get in on some of the rewards that they can’t solo normally.

~~

Anyways, that’s just one idea on how to get high level players helping lowbies. More of an indirect game event which helps lowbies by proximity rather than directly helping.

Do you have any ideas for getting the lowbie zones populated again?

Black Citadel is (for new players) one of the most confusing cities.

I realized today what it was that made it so confusing. And It’s that all the doors and ‘instances’ – have no visual indicator!

For example, in many other cities if there is an instance behind a big door – the door is just partially open and you can see the other side. So you walk up to the entrance & find out you can go through.

But in this city – all those doors are fully closed. They could just as easily be a part of the city design or the furniture -_-

Why not just open those doors a little bit. So it’s easy to see that it is a direction.

Also – the flame legion living story is stopping one of the POI’s from being found. That’s a bit unfair too

Moose.8512:

Sea of Sorrows was one of the “unofficial” Oceanic servers at launch, and seems to have maintained a reasonable population of players, although last time I checked, it was rated “Full”, so you may not be able to transfer.

Were there any others? or was this the main one?
Lol also kind of ironic it’s called Sea of Sorrows when I am so sad about my server choice haha

There are so rarely people around, and often they are bots, or simply don’t talk or help.
I am always trying to solo stuff and as an elementalist I feel really weak.
I can’t participate in world events as I am not strong enough to solo them (so much for scaling events).

I’m not sure what I should do. Maybe my server is empty? What is the best Oceanic populated server?

And why has everyone gone? I thought this game was supposed to be a success not ‘another’ failed new mmo?

I love the content. I love the world and the design and the game is fantastic. But without the people I can’t enjoy it

/sadface