Guild Wars 2

Krosslite.1950:

killcannon.2576:

Krosslite.1950:

George Steel.1804:

I would love DE’s to be super engaging, fun, and challenging.

But the truth is, 99% of them are not. Most are easy and somewhat non-eventful. Even the ones that ARE entertaining (there are definitely some) simply don’t reward you with anything. No, I don’t want 2 silver, experience, and 300 karma on my level 80 toon.

I fully support making a DE based endgame, but the problem is – there isn’t one. Orr temples are an attempt at doing this but fails due to the dirty, dingy, repetitive feel of the zone.

TLDR; More DE’s, harder DE’s, rewarding DE’s. oh and maybe more often in frequency too.

I seriously doubt 1485 DE are as you described. I know without a doubt that people have only seen 40% of the DEs this game has.

Now 594 of them I will agree with you about.

Until guilds make DE raid groups that go through all 26 zones doing all the DEs in that zone then neither of us will really know

You know without a doubt? That is a mighty strong statement. What facts are you using as reference exactly?

personal experience of going through most of the zones in this game and seeing ghost towns, especially in the higher end zones where I am surrounded by active DE that take more then one person to do them.

many of these are the beginning of a chain or a web but no ones does them

You know without a doubt, i.e. 100% confident, that the sum of every single person has experienced exactly 40% of all the dynamic events, based off your own personal experience?

What the… That argument is beyond flawed.

It would be interesting to see the stats from ANet.

I won’t pretend to assume that I know the actual numbers, but my guess is that most events have been played at some point or another.

Krosslite.1950:

So? How do you know they have been done? I have found no documentation on the internet saying if you do DE A in zone 20 that it will start chain/web 4.

You may want to check the wiki. Many pages show how the chains work.

For example, this shows all known events in Bloodtide Coast and the events that chain off each: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bloodtide_Coast

Rosen Myst.7641:

I’d like to redirect people to the original topic which is “Why I think you’re (Anet) losing active players.” Presently, the discussion has devolved into a few people arguing about opinions and statements by others. We need constructive comments about what aspects of the game may be causing people to leave. Whether or not the game is failing (or not) isn’t the topic.

Agreed. However, I do not think the game is losing active players at a concerning rate. I think that every game loses active players, and obviously this game is no different. Primary reasons why I see this happening:

1. Burnout: over-played too much to the point that you need a break / are bored

2. Unexpected: The game wasn’t what someone expected, and they did not enjoy it
2.a) This can be a great many things, but I would say that the biggest is they expected more end game content (i.e. Raids), less grinding, less gear progression, more gear progression

3. Other games caught their eye: A lot of great games have been coming out and are coming out soon

4. Other real life concerns: It’s April, for many that means exam time. The summer is coming up soon and that could mean vacations, summer jobs etc which may bring people away from the game (at least temporarily)

Anyway, I do not think there is anything ‘game-breaking’ that is driving away people in the loads. There may be certain aspects of the game that a bunch of people hate, but another bunch of people love.

Personally, I think each class should have access to every weapon.

This reminds me of when Steve Jobbs told users that they were holding their phone the wrong way (with the iPhone 4 antennagate situation).

Players do not need to change, they need to play. If they play and enjoy it, great. If they play and hate it, leave. If the majority of players stay, then ANet has done a good job and can pat themselves on the back. If the majority of players leave, then ANet needs to rethink some things. It’s pretty much as simple as that.

I believe that ANet has done a great job with this game, and I appreciate that they do a great job of listening to the community and applying recommendations/changes based on feedback.

Portal in JP’s is great! Disagree 100%. The skill is obviously there to transfer your team from one spot to another, working as intended? Saying that this is cheating is like saying if you are doing a dungeon and get downed and your teammates help you, that you shouldn’t get credit. After all, your teammates did the work, not you.

I do not have a preference about WvWvW

My understanding of exclusive means that they can only be purchased from the one outlet.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Ryan and me….=P

Absolutely right, I’ve edited it. Thanks

IndigoSundown.5419:

Well, if my intent were to create a thread with positive feedback for the devs, I would not have made the majority of my post an insulting criticism of other posters. Those kinds of comments are more likely to foster a flame war than they will anything positive. That said, forgive me for intruding. I see that your intent is really to complain about complaining, so carry on.

Just to clarify, he is complaining about ignorance, and not complaining in general. At least that is my take on what he said.

Sounds to me like he is all for constructive, well thought-out and articulated criticism. He is against the flood of ignorant posts which drown out the well-thought out ones.

This is a classic case of Quality vs Quantity!

For the most part, I have to agree. There are multiple threads that become many many pages long, posted and replied to by the same select few arguing about the same select issues that they have a problem with. They state that their opinion is fact and that it is also representative of the community as a whole (with having 0 basis for this assumption).

One key difference between Ryan and me is, Ryan finds it frustrating to read, I find it entertaining.

I believe there are 24 Light Armor skins (I counted 23 on gw2armor.com and noticed one was absent, I believe it is the feathered skin)

Assuming there are equal number of skins per race/type and a different skin per gender that means there are 2×24×5x3 or 690 skins. You can cut that down a bit, because I know the skins do look the same across races sometimes (especially Norn/Human/Sylvari). Assuming all 3 of those have the same skins except cultural, that means you have 2x (21×3×3 + 3×5×3) = 468 unique skin sets.

There are definitely quite a few out there.

That said, I’d definitely enjoy variety and welcome the idea of a user designed system!

Did you look to see if you were reading the same 10-20 people’s opinions?

DaShi.1368:

With the way GW2 currently handles armor, I’m glad that there are not a lot of armor choices available that I like.

I am confused.

What do you mean by the way GW2 currently handles armor?

Why are you happy that you do not like most of the armor?

peter.9024:

I’m biased in opinion.

LOL who isn’t? Redundant

I’d go with Sunrise too!

I would really like to see more skirts (that are cut above the knee). I feel this game is severely lacking these. I can name only one (between Medium and Light) and that is the Light starter set.

You could perform several random samples and do some stats

i.e. pop into 6 random zones/cities and go around and note which race + class is there.
Maybe do this across a few different random servers
Do this for PvP and PvE areas

Then run some stats on it to see if you can extrapolate with any confidence to the population as a whole

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Jemmi.6058:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Jemmi.6058:

The lack of trinity isn’t a problem, it is just one possible solution to the ‘problem’ of mindless DPS play. Your suggestion of improved mechanics and combo systems would also work. Some of us also do like the trinity system, personally healing is my favourite.

The trinity has its place, but it shouldn’t have a place in every MMORPG. Guild Wars 2 should keep the non-trinity system that it promised. The system that makes it unique and will hopefully come to define a few other quality MMOs in the future.

I agree, sadly, that GW2 should keep it’s place as a non-trinity system. That is what it was advertised as, so it would definitely be a bad idea to go back on that.

That said, healer has always been my favourite class, and in any other RPG game, it’s the class I choose. For now, I am having loads of fun with my Mesmer

“Healers” still exist. They are just no longer dedicated to just healing. Off the top of my head, I can think of:

Elementalist – heals his party significantly and removes conditions when swapping to water attunement. Has multiple area heals.

Guardian – heals allies on dodge. Heals with Staff. Heals with Mace. Can full heal everyone with one of the skills on his Tome of Courage. And more.

Ranger – Healing Spring is incredible – heals on cast, applies regen, and removes conditions, as well as constituting a water field for allies to blast finish for more heals. Moa pets pack some significant party healing. Rangers arguably benefit more from Healing Power than any other profession.

Engineer – Bomb engineers can spam ~300 health AoE heals while dealing pretty good damage to nearby foes.

Basically, your healer still exists. You just need to utilize more creativity and fill other roles in addition to that party healing. Just because you no longer have groups waiting for half an hour to find you doesn’t mean that you’re no longer of any use.

I know about healing skills, but it is a far cry from the same thing as a healer class.

I also did not say the only reason I like healing class is because people want me in their group (in fact i mostly did all content with henchmen on My monk in GW1). I just prefer the rapid response and calculated tasks of healing. In GW2 the cooldowns are waay to long in order for you to specialize in this task. I do heal my parties and I know how to use heals.

To say that these are anything similar to a healing class is like saying you are pretty much a formula 1 racecar driver, because you drive to work everyday.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Jemmi.6058:

The lack of trinity isn’t a problem, it is just one possible solution to the ‘problem’ of mindless DPS play. Your suggestion of improved mechanics and combo systems would also work. Some of us also do like the trinity system, personally healing is my favourite.

The trinity has its place, but it shouldn’t have a place in every MMORPG. Guild Wars 2 should keep the non-trinity system that it promised. The system that makes it unique and will hopefully come to define a few other quality MMOs in the future.

I agree, sadly, that GW2 should keep it’s place as a non-trinity system. That is what it was advertised as, so it would definitely be a bad idea to go back on that.

That said, healer has always been my favourite class, and in any other RPG game, it’s the class I choose. For now, I am having loads of fun with my Mesmer

I made an Asuran Ele to 47
Then made a human Thief to 80
Then made a human mesmer to 49 and decided i liked the playstyle of ele and look of mesmer
Deleted Asura ele and made human ele to 80
Now my main is my mesmer

Edit: I forgot to answer the question why. I like that the Mesmer has great melee and range. I like light armour. I like the survivability and support options of the mesmer. I found Guardian, Ranger, Eng and Necro to be very boring in the first 20 levels. I just found that they killed stuff to slowly and did not have a lot of variability in skills. Warrior will be my next 80.

The lack of trinity isn’t a problem, it is just one possible solution to the ‘problem’ of mindless DPS play. Your suggestion of improved mechanics and combo systems would also work. Some of us also do like the trinity system, personally healing is my favourite.

TooBz.3065:

For kitten sake, he means – I have observed that guild wars 2 seems to be losing active players and here’s why I think this is happening, if in fact it is.

I hate semantic arguments when you know perfectly well what he means.

I understand your frustration of semantics, and I hate when people create sensationalist arguments with no evidence and state it as fact.

As for semantics, it may be frustrating, but it’s also very important. Using correct language is the only way to properly convey your message. If you mis-use words, your recipient is bound to misunderstand you.

nachtnebel.9168:

Assume you want to player a power build. What do you currently do? You go for the best traits in the power trait line and then spend the rest of your points otherwise. If they add a new tier of traits this won’t change, you will still follow the same formula. This is what e.g. happened in WoW and this is what will happen if GW2 ever increases the trait lines.
More variety will only come if you include more traits for the existing tiers, add 1-2 balanced traits for every tier and you might end up having a second power build equally powerful to the first one with the additional benefit that players can probably switch between those two builds without reskilling.

There is no game out there where making the skill tree/line higher/longer really added variety in builds. The only way to achieve that goal is to make the tree wider, to give the player additional routes to reach the top or a certain point within the tree.

Ok that makes more sense.

I disagree though, I think maybe it is class dependent. There are lots of custom builds out there (for at least Mesmer which is what I am currently playing). If they added 10 more traits I would likely not put it into my current line of 30, though that depends on what is available. I also might switch up my traits completely and work down other lines.

One of my main characters is an Ele (the others a Mesmer and Thief).

I would recommend you trait down the Arcane line. This will allow you to swap between attunements more quickly, and you can also double the size of your AoE’s. This is really useful if you use staff primarily (which IMO is the best weapon, but lots of people like D/D as well).

You may want to familiarize yourself with combo fields too. If you throw down the number 2 skill on Earth with staff, then swap to fire and throw down number 2 you will grant Area Might, which makes your do more damage. Eruption (earth #2) also stacks area blood and does a lot of damage and Fire#2 does a decent amount of damage. This will rock most things in the open world for you.

Other combo fields with staff
Eruption + Water#3 = Area healing
Eruption + Water#5 = Area regen
Eruption + Air#5 = Area swiftness

You can replace Eruption with a utility skill Arcane Blast. Some people say it is easier, but I found eruption is pretty easy.

Other tactics that you can use..

Water #2 will do decent damage and will grant vulnerability to your enemy, which makes your other attacks do more damage.
Water #4 will slow your target and allow you to kite easier

Air#2 will blind your target which makes it fail it’s next attack against you
Air#3 will push your target back
Air#4 will grant swiftness so you can move faster
Air#5 will stun your enemy

Earth#2 as I said will help with combo fields, stack blood and do lots of damage
Earth#3 will reflect projectiles
Earth#4 will cripple your enemy, great for kiting
Earth#5 will immobilize and bleed your foe.

Yes fire does the most damage, but if used in combination with other elements you can stun/immobilize/cripple or chill your foe to kite easier, you can make yourself move faster to kite easier, you can make your foe more vulnerable to your attacks and you can stack up bleeding for a lot of damage over time.

Quortza.1235:

Jemmi.6058:

Hey there,

I somewhat agree; however, I think you are judging to simplicity too soon. Yes, you only have those skills on your weapon slots, but you are missing other things.

1. Traits, these affect how you use those skills
2. F buttons, these can change depending on your class/trait/weapon set up
3. Utility Skills, you have quite a few to choose from and the 3 you choose are important
4. Elite skill, you have a cpl to choose from and generally it’s an easy decision

5. Dungeons, the combat mechanics in dungeons are much different than the open world, and it is much harder to keep alive. You really need to be on your toes and use the right skills at the right times (As you are penalized with long cool downs which sucks if your timing is off) I did a dungeon the other day and my roommate came home, he asked me to hit the button on the TV cuz I was beside it and I did, I lost half my health in the 1 second I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.

The utility skills are also annoying though in the fact that some just outclass others completely.

I have started to unlock traits, but it takes a good few levels before they really become anything useful, like, a really good few.

And annoyingly I am far from dungeon level, not to play hardcore fan, but the fact warcraft has low level dungeons to play through and level up with was pretty good, it gives you something else to do from constant questing or event grinding.

There are low level dungeons in GW2 as well, start at level 30.

Yes some utility skills outclass others, but as you come from WoW you can appreciate that many skills outclass others in WoW as well.

Also the effectiveness of utility skills varies depending on
1. Traits
2. Equipment
3. Playstyle
4. Group make up
5. What you are fighting

This adds a lot of depth and variety to what you can do.

nachtnebel.9168:

DeathPanel.8362:

Also, the trait tree can be expanded with a new tier of traits and create new variety of builds.

That’s simply not true. A new tier of traits won’t increase the variety of builds, but more traits in the existing tiers will. A new tier will only give you the option to go for it or not. This, of course, results in a tiny increase in build variety, but, if those new tier 4 traits are powerful, it will also force you to invest 40 points in a certain line if you want to go for a specific build. You won’t get e.g. additional power builds just by adding a new trait tier, you will just have to spend more trait points into the power line to complete the new power build.

It sounds you like you said that a new tier will not give more variety, and then you said a new tier will give you more variety. You then said the downside is the choice will be difficult of whether you want to put all traits in one tree or in multiple ones – therefore, increasing variety in what people choose.

???

FurySong.6348:

Elementalists cannot swap weapons but that doesn’t mean they have anything short of “class complexity” compared to others.

They have attunements, you’re supposed to memorize the four attunements and swap them in battle to make effective use of a good Elementalist class. (Giving you 16 skills per weapon.)

20 skills per weapon

Hey there,

I somewhat agree; however, I think you are judging to simplicity too soon. Yes, you only have those skills on your weapon slots, but you are missing other things.

1. Traits, these affect how you use those skills
2. F buttons, these can change depending on your class/trait/weapon set up
3. Utility Skills, you have quite a few to choose from and the 3 you choose are important
4. Elite skill, you have a cpl to choose from and generally it’s an easy decision

5. Dungeons, the combat mechanics in dungeons are much different than the open world, and it is much harder to keep alive. You really need to be on your toes and use the right skills at the right times (As you are penalized with long cool downs which sucks if your timing is off) I did a dungeon the other day and my roommate came home, he asked me to hit the button on the TV cuz I was beside it and I did, I lost half my health in the 1 second I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.

Before I upgraded my computer, I used the following and it worked pretty well and keeping FPS decent (ish) and having great looking character models.

ALL settings low except
Render Sampling set to Native
Shaders set to medium/high

You can fiddle with a few others after that if you wish, but they made the biggest difference for me.

SirusDibley.3716:

3428 power
1900 toughness
46% crit chance
81% crit damage
310 condi damage.
15k HP

How did you get 1500 more power than me? :|

GW1: Heal Monk (never did Prot/Smite)
GW2: Mesmer

However, for a period I also had
GW1: Ele, Assassin, Necro, Dervish
GW2: Thief, Ele

Starbird.4029:

Now one thing I like about WoW, for all it’s failings, is that whatever class I want to level, the early experience is going to be pretty consistent. Difficult or easy, the classes are balanced in such a way that nothing is a horror to level early anymore and most dps specs require a similar amount of effort and time to level with.
.

Are you kidding?? There is an enormous difference in levelling different classes in WoW.

Paladin is sooo easy to level, whereas priest is much more difficult. Mage is in the middle. Shaman is pretty easy. Warrior is very easy. etc..

If you all hate levels so much, why are you playing an RPG with 80 levels???

I personally welcome a level cap increase (not for a little while though). I am sure at the time I will be on a break from the game, and it will be the bait that brings me back in.

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

You can’t really have an opinion…

Sorry Vayne, that’s where you lost me. I couldn’t get over that statement and gave up reading the rest. That might be the dumbest thing someone has ever said.

You can’t have opinions about a fact. That’s basic to any system of logic. If you didn’t read the rest, that’s on you. Other people understand it.

If the temperature is 80 degrees F and I think it feels colder, that doesn’t change the fact that the temperature is 80 degrees F. A fact is a fact.

Either the games population is declining or it’s not. You BELIEVE it is but there’s no evidence for it. It’s still not an opinion.

If we don’t know the facts, then it is definitely possible to have an opinion. Just like when someone says it looks cold outside. Until you are outside or know the temperature, you are allowed to have an opinion of the temperature because you don’t know what it is. Therefore, I can have an opinion about something which none of us knows the truth about.

Yes, but what you are saying is more like this:

You look outside and without feeling the temperature you state “Hey, it’s 65 degrees outside and is heading for 50!” When really all you see is a cloud in the sky.

You clearly stated your opinion as fact and had no basis for it. Anyone can do that, but it doesn’t mean they should.

This game has sold 15 million copies.

There, I just did it too.

darkace.8925:

Jemmi.6058:

Adding more levels in a new area will allow for you to progress through it

I see no reason whatsoever why progression through a new area has to be tied to level progression.

Jemmi.6058:

and enjoy new story content.

I don’t see any correlation between an increased level cap and my ability to enjoy new story content.

It is the same as levelling in any point in the game. The levelling slows down your pace through the content, which allows you to move at the intended rate.

Enjoyment is entirely subjective, but I will tell you the correlation for me.

One, when I gain a new level and get stronger, I feel a sense of satisfaction.

Two, if there is an area that is higher level and I go to it and die a bunch, leave and level up and come back, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

Three, if the levels are not in place, I will roll through the content in my decked out max stat’d character in no time at all and then be bored again. Alternatively, if I am forced to level and re-gear, it will take awhile and I will have something to do until they release more content.

RebelYell.7132:

Jemmi.6058:

Adine.2184:

Voodoo.1709:

RebelYell.7132:

If they raise the level cap they will have truly abandoned the idea of this game being a Guild Wars sequel.

I did not play gw1 so I can assume they only made expansions for it without cap increases?

Correct . GW 1 has never raised its cap past 20 ( yes 20 ) and it did pretty well for itself. I should hope they never raise the cap past 80 in GW2

There are fundamental differences in GW1 to GW2 that made that possible. For example, skill progression.

Adding more levels in a new area will allow for you to progress through it and enjoy new story content. The levelling can help pace you through the area, so that the new content can be experienced a rate intended by the dev’s. It can also help with adding challenging personal story content.

There’s already a level scaling system though. If they add a level 1-15 area, I can take my 80 there and enjoy it.

Also, one thing the Manifesto promises is a “branching” personal story. When in truth, you always return to the same trunk. Maybe, instead of forming the Pact with Trahearne, you decide your talents would be better applied in the new lands. Or you’re from the new lands, and decide to join Trahearne, because you’re weird.

If they add a low level area that you can take with your 80 it wil be even easier than if they add a level 80 area, so that would work in the opposite direction of what I was saying.

We could debate about the personal story, but this isn’t the place. I will say this, however. Going back and changing the story would not be a good idea, they need to add new content for the new dragons (or maybe Zhaitan is alive?). Also, I did not hate Trehearne so much as everyone else. IMO he was a better character than many others in the personal story. His only problem is that he steals the spotlight from the hero.

Adine.2184:

Voodoo.1709:

RebelYell.7132:

If they raise the level cap they will have truly abandoned the idea of this game being a Guild Wars sequel.

I did not play gw1 so I can assume they only made expansions for it without cap increases?

Correct . GW 1 has never raised its cap past 20 ( yes 20 ) and it did pretty well for itself. I should hope they never raise the cap past 80 in GW2

There are fundamental differences in GW1 to GW2 that made that possible. For example, skill progression.

Adding more levels in a new area will allow for you to progress through it and enjoy new story content. The levelling can help pace you through the area, so that the new content can be experienced a rate intended by the dev’s. It can also help with adding challenging personal story content.

This was posted back in November, quoting Mike O’Brien from Reddit

“I hope we’ve been clear that GW2 is not a game with virtually no stat progression in it like GW1 was. That’s why GW2 shipped with a higher level cap, and with a hard separation between PVE and PVP.

“In GW1 we never advanced the level cap through four campaigns/expansions. The game design didn’t allow for it. But GW2 was designed without those restrictions, and we’ve always expected that we will someday raise the level cap in GW2.”

http://www.gamefront.com/guild-wars-2-level-cap-raise-confirmed-for-future/

I believe they will increase the cap, I seem to remember them saying as such some time ago. I don’t think it will be very soon though.

That said, levelling is fast and gaining your exotics are fast. This is especially true once you have done it once or twice. Also, once you are max level with some exotics, you can get gold pretty quick and buy a full set of exotic gear off the TP for 10-20 gold.

A) Legendaries will be improved with added ascended weapons, I assume this is true with added levels as well. Also, legendaries are mostly for the skin, transmutate it to a better weapon and voila problem solved.

B) Answered B in A I think?

foofad.5162:

Personally I think people are getting a little too hung up on the word “arrogant” as used in this context. As I said before (though maybe not so cut and dried) I actually think that the OP’s use of the word is a little misguided and may not actually reflect what those people were thinking accurately. I believe they were experiencing dissonance in the tone and the method of communication and mistaking that for arrogance. In other words, the use of the period wasn’t some sort of holier-than-thou jab at the unwashed, ignorant plebes – it was just too formal and didn’t jive with the casual situation the group found themselves communicating in.

Oh, well said! Yes I can see why keeping it casual is preferential. I personally like to promote the proper use of punctuation and grammar (even though I often mis-use it myself).

Maybe the Asura Gate in Lions Arch could be placed behind a wardrobe?

Someone judging another as arrogant for writing with periods is prejudice, and likely results from that person being arrogant. It is actually quite hypocritical.

That said, I am not sure if I use periods in chat very often. I think I mostly use exclamation points and question marks, but rarely periods. I definitely do not judge a person as arrogant for using a period.

Ugh, cannot convince my best friend to come here.

“Trying to not get addicted to any new games, I’ll enjoy guild wars vicariously through you” lol

Might not be for everyone. That said, I leveled mine to 37, quit it for months and went back to it. Now it is 80 and my most played character. Easily the most fun class for me.

Sword + Focus and Greatsword are good weapon sets. I tend to shatter more in groups or as finishing moves, but keep them up while soloing as tanks. Also, throw up illusion on dodge is super useful.

Personally, I’d love to see more skills added.

However, I’d like to attain them through content, similar to GW1. I don’t want to just open up my hero panel and buy them all right away.

clay.7849:

Jemmi.6058:

clay.7849:

Jemmi.6058:

clay.7849:

Chuo.4238:

Tachenon.5270:

.

Was Ascended Gear truly in the works before the game launched? Is there any mention of Ascended Gear prior to its unveiling in November? If Ascended Gear had been mentioned in the Manifesto, how would it have affected the launch of GW2?

It was never mentioned before the Lost Shores update was mentioned. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to a declining playerbase (normal after a couple months in any game) that backfired horribly, because they didn’t believe that all those people who didn’t want Ascended gear really meant it.

They were convinced, I believe, that the gear treadmill formula was something most players wanted.

Agreed. It seems to me that the declining player base may also be why the expansion was nixed to quickly. I doubt NCSoft wants to continue to fund an expansion for a game that failed to hold the attention of the majority of it’s original customer base.

There are so many assumptions here.

You do not know the gear treadmill is something most players do not want.
You do not know that adding it backfired.
You do not know that the attention of the majority of the original customer base has been lost.
You do not know that the player base is declining
You do not know that the expansion was nixed.

???? Please do not post speculation as fact.

When I said “It seems to me…” That was your cue that everything I said was my opinion.

Therefore, don’t try to challenge my opinion with your opinion. I did make assumptions that I believe to be true. It is my opinion they are true.

Based on that context, you saying that the reason for the fact the expansion is declining is because of the fact that the playerbase is declining. Your opinion was that they were linked.

It is my opinion that there was one an expansion planned. It is also my opinion that this game is losing players faster than they can retain players. It is also my opinion that because I think the game is losing players, that NCSoft nixed the expansion because it wasn’t worth making for a game that, IMO, is dying.

That is all.

appreciate it!

Personally, I think that they were planning on an expansion, and still are. However, I think they did not give any details and continuously say they are not working on it, so that they can delay it as long as they need/want without ‘looking bad’. I also think that the playerbase is increasing, I believe I read that somewhere.

I think that adding Ascended gear made a lot of people happier, and also upset a lot of people. Naturally you cannot make everyone happy. The forums are a poor place to look for the over-all opinion on it. If I were to wager, I’d guess that most people do not have great feelings either way (upwards of 80% of the players) while the people who love and people who hate it are probably pretty near split for the remaining 20%. Again that’s a huge guess, and the imprecise numbers are merely to show trends.

clay.7849:

Jemmi.6058:

clay.7849:

Chuo.4238:

Tachenon.5270:

.

Was Ascended Gear truly in the works before the game launched? Is there any mention of Ascended Gear prior to its unveiling in November? If Ascended Gear had been mentioned in the Manifesto, how would it have affected the launch of GW2?

It was never mentioned before the Lost Shores update was mentioned. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to a declining playerbase (normal after a couple months in any game) that backfired horribly, because they didn’t believe that all those people who didn’t want Ascended gear really meant it.

They were convinced, I believe, that the gear treadmill formula was something most players wanted.

Agreed. It seems to me that the declining player base may also be why the expansion was nixed to quickly. I doubt NCSoft wants to continue to fund an expansion for a game that failed to hold the attention of the majority of it’s original customer base.

There are so many assumptions here.

You do not know the gear treadmill is something most players do not want.
You do not know that adding it backfired.
You do not know that the attention of the majority of the original customer base has been lost.
You do not know that the player base is declining
You do not know that the expansion was nixed.

???? Please do not post speculation as fact.

When I said “It seems to me…” That was your cue that everything I said was my opinion.

Therefore, don’t try to challenge my opinion with your opinion. I did make assumptions that I believe to be true. It is my opinion they are true.

Based on that context, you saying that the reason for the fact the expansion is declining is because of the fact that the playerbase is declining. Your opinion was that they were linked.

clay.7849:

Chuo.4238:

Tachenon.5270:

.

Was Ascended Gear truly in the works before the game launched? Is there any mention of Ascended Gear prior to its unveiling in November? If Ascended Gear had been mentioned in the Manifesto, how would it have affected the launch of GW2?

It was never mentioned before the Lost Shores update was mentioned. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to a declining playerbase (normal after a couple months in any game) that backfired horribly, because they didn’t believe that all those people who didn’t want Ascended gear really meant it.

They were convinced, I believe, that the gear treadmill formula was something most players wanted.

Agreed. It seems to me that the declining player base may also be why the expansion was nixed to quickly. I doubt NCSoft wants to continue to fund an expansion for a game that failed to hold the attention of the majority of it’s original customer base.

There are so many assumptions here.

You do not know the gear treadmill is something most players do not want.
You do not know that adding it backfired.
You do not know that the attention of the majority of the original customer base has been lost.
You do not know that the player base is declining
You do not know that the expansion was nixed.

???? Please do not post speculation as fact.

Kunshu.5281:

Well, I like to be quick, nimble and moving all over the place.

I like a class that doesn’t stand in one spot and cast the same thing over and over

I like to be able to place effects all over the place, and controlling other people through pulls, pushes and other tricks.

Also, the ability to control projectiles would be nice, so reflections and blocks, that sort of thing.

I just want to be able to dish out a lot of damage, in a little amount of time.

I do love melee, but I suppose I could live without it. I like fast attacks, even if they’re not doing a lot of damage. So that it feels like I’m really fighting, rather than watching some carefully choreographed dance.

Mesmer.

Mesmer can be melee or range. I run GS and Sword/Focus (Sword Focus is melee, GS is range). Mesmer focus can pull, greatsword can push. Mesmers do not stand in one spot, always need to move. (I feel like this goes for all classes though). Mesmer sword/gs attacks can be fast (especially with timewarp). Mesmer feedback is great for reflecting projectiles back.

Can you share how you have experienced or witnessed cyber bullying? At least provide us with a definition of what you mean exactly?

Interesting post and read (I did not read the 3 pages fo replies yet though).

However, I definitely disagree. My concern of this game is that it is too heavily geared towards casual play.

Dungeons are either extremely easy or extremely hard. So I agree that there is no middle ground on that. Fractals is definitely a better middle ground, and it is good that you can choose your own skill level with them.

Money? I used to find it hard to get, but now I always have gold to spare. I’ve thrown 60 gold at guild influence, just because I had no other use for it. I’ll be throwing another 20 gold soon enough.

Exotics were super easy to get. I get to level 80 and am ‘fully geared’ within hours. Frankly, this is one of my least favourite parts of this game, and what makes end-game boring. Luckily, they added Fractals and now I have pink rings to search for, but I really wish there was cool looking + better stats armor that was only attainable by dungeon runs (for PvE). Not a huge fan of the current dungeon armor skins.

It is hard for me to agree/disagree with your guild mission post. Personally I like the guild missions and our medium sized guild can do them OK. The only thing I do not like is the inherent nature to find the bounties before starting. I end up following a guy around for an hour while my guild finds the others (and has other guilds killing them as we find them). I’d prefer if the bounties were not on the map until the mission started.

Why I think ANet may lose active players? Lack of an end-game goal. For PvE players, there is little to work towards. There is no dungeon out of reach that I have to gear up to be able to get to.. Everything in the game is accessible and that means I can do what I want and be de done with it. I know it sounds weird. Again, luckily fractals has added something for me, I am working my way up. Soon enough I will have 6 pinks (i have 4 now, and 9 pristine relics), and then I will be bored again.

Ruby orbs added to items

Yeah I just disagree, you can argue that down levelling should work faster I suppose. The tier 1 armour you can still by and then transmute it onto the higher level armour – therefore not rendering it useless.

Everything lower level than you can be experienced by you still, it is the stuff that is higher level that you cannot experience. For that reason, I do not understand why you would want to slow down your levelling. Anyway, I will not be upset if they implement this, I just do not see why they would/should.